Belfast - what to do

[Newyear2023]

Going on a business trip to Belfast next week and have added on the weekend to look around. Will be alone. Titanic museum closed for refurbishment - ideas of what I can do please? Not really interested in history but appreciate there is a wealth of history there I'm not ignorant just not my thing for leisure time.

Crumlin Road Gaol house is an excellent museum. Very entertaining.
The black taxi mural tours are good, although the focus is definitely on the history of the troubles

Game Of Thrones tour if you like that sort of thing. There's good shopping and eating in the city centre. What do you enjoy doing generally?

You could hire a car for the day and go to the giant's causeway

The Belfast Giants (ice hockey team) are playing on Friday night, it's always a fab evening out.

Definitely a taxi tour. It’s a good history lesson on The Troubles and takes you along the Falls Road area and also to Shankill area. So interesting, so much history, I found it fascinating. The Cathedral Quarter is great for pubs, bars, eating out. I found the people there some of the friendliest I’ve ever met on a city break.

St George’s market. We went on a Saturday - great food and craft stalls.

The open top bus tour is good too.

Titanic museum.

I always do a bus tour when I visit a new place and Belfast is my top rated, there is a lot to see, a lot of history, and very interesting.

So, if history is not your thing, what is?
Rakes of things to do in and around Belfast of a weekend.
Shopping? Scenery? Culture? Art? Music?

Sorry I just realised you said no history!

Ignore the bus tour suggestion

Shopping - area around Victoria Square is good or Lisburn Road (get the bus from city centre go up to the end where Space No is and wander back towards town)

QFT for independent films and a wander round the university / botanic gardens / museum.

The bus tour is ok for general sightseeing.

St George's Market on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Avoid the Black Taxi tours as those are Republican. You'd be better off going on a red City Sightseeing Bus tour as those are not biased one way or the other - I've done this one. The bus tour will take you to Loyalist and Republican areas, but in a neutral fashion.

Ulster Museum is free entry and well worth a visit.

Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra near Holywood is worth a visit. Just 15 mins from Belfast.

Ulster Folk And American Park further out is worth a visit. Covers the history of Protestant and Catholic emigration to the New World. This is not in Belfast.

Belfast Zoo - not sure if that's open.

Carrickfergus Castle is not far outside Belfast, but worth a visit.

Avoid the Black Taxi tours as those are Republican.

They definitely are not. They are very measured, in fact I was extremely impressed by how they portrayed both sides of the community. There are some tours that are conducted by three individuals. A "republican first shows you their territory and shared stories. Then an ex British soldier takes over and shares their part of the tour based on their experiences. Finally they hand over to a unionist who tells their tale.

The tours are excellent. Look on trip advisor for recommendations

We just got back from Belfast this morning we did the Titanic exhibition although appreciate that closes shortly for refurb. We did an open top bus tour and also drove up to the Giants Causeway although there are plenty of coach trips there you can book. St George's Market is only open Friday and Saturday so we didn't visit. Loved the shops, could have easily spent two days wandering round those

There are several companies running Black Taxi tours. The one we did was completely neutral, to the point that neither DH or I (who live near the border and have lots of knowledge about the North) could tell if the tour guide was a Catholic or Protestant (he asked us to guess at the end).

Sorry, but Belfast Black Taxis have a very long Republican, pro-IRA history. This is the newspaper of Provisional Sinn Féin and Provisional IRA giving a politically slanted view of the black taxis: www.anphoblacht.com/contents/24799

It is a distortion of history to a degree in the link though.

In 2021, an American tourist raised the issue of anti-Protestant bigotry on these tours.

Finally, it's not ethical to have those who were in terrorist organisations telling a slanted "history" of Belfast.

The red City sightseeing bus tours is much more balanced without none of the controversial history associated with red buses. You will find Belfast locals on TripAdvisor saying the same thing. Those not local to Northern Ireland will likely miss all the cues locals would pick up on as to political bias.

My family always avoided these black taxis although we're Catholics precisely because they were Provo front businesses.

Stick to the official City Sightseeing Buses. Much more ethical.

Another to avoid is Coiste, a tour company based in West Belfast which advertise themselves as providing an ‘authentic’ account of ‘the troubles’ through a broad republican lens.

In other words, pro-Republican.

You're much better off seeking out material from professional historians on the whole gamut of the history of the island of Ireland. Liam Kennedy comes to mind as does Cormac Ó Gráda. Rogelio Alonso, Spanish, is the most outstanding foreign intellectual who truly gets the complex layers of our Troubles.

Republican and Loyalist terrorists should be avoided at all costs on matters of history.

I'd do a coach tour to Giants Causeway. It's really spectacular and you'll stop off at other interesting places along the way.

The Ulster museum is really good, even if you say you are not that interested in history - quite a lot of it is current affairs really, and it is also in the Botanical Gardens which are lovely to walk around if the weather is decent.

You could get a train to Carrickfergus and look at the castle if the weather is decent too. Or walk along the Laggan river.

The shopping is good too - shops seem to be open in Belfast that have closed across much of the UK and there were very few empty units when we were there in March. Enjoy, it's a great city.

Also have a look here: visitbelfast.com/see-do/