Belfast holiday. Should I avoid city centre

[Lolski28]

I have a non refundable trip to Belfast this weekend with my little girl
I had planned to take her to the build a bear workshop should I keep out of the city
we are staying at junction 1 so well
outside and visiting titanic museum and w5

so sorry this is even a question what’s the world coming to.

Belfast native here, living around 15 mins outside the city centre. Honestly you will be absolutely fine - the areas that you need to avoid (Sandy Row + the Holylands) are areas that I wouldn’t go near on a ‘normal’ day either so not much has changed. A repeat of what happened last weekend is highly unlikely, the violence is now secluded to small and traditionally rough neighbourhoods that you wouldn’t wander around as a tourist anyway.

The immediate city centre (especially Victoria Square where build a bear is located) is perfectly safe and full of people going to work, shopping etc and just generally going about their average days. I’m sitting here having coffee now.

Enjoy your trip OP - Titanic is great, your DD will love W5, mine adored it when she was younger

@Malahide sorry to hijack this thread. We are an Asian family visiting the Titanic museum and staying nearby overnight at the weekend. Would this also be ok? I had been hoping to go into the city centre in the early evening but I'm really worried and wonder if we should book another hotel outside Belfast. We aren't country folk, so are used to cities but also don't want to run into trouble!

Ah, you'll be grand as the areas where the trouble was isn't close enough to Titanic Quarter to bother you during your visit. You'll be fine.

Besides, the peelers (police) have got a handle on it.

As my name suggests, I'm from County Down, Northern Ireland. 👍

@DownNative thanks very much! We are really looking forward to visiting NI! We've never been before and the kids are really looking forward to surfing and I'm looking forward to traybakes😍

What @DownNative said! The Titanic area is always very calm and around this time of year will be full of fellow families + tourists. Early evening will be fine - after dark I’d use the same level of caution that you would in any other city and stick to busier routes etc

Thank you @Malahide . I can't wait 🤓

Enjoy your visit (and the traybakes 😉)!!

I’m going to be visiting as well. Not too worried. Heading to W5 with the kids too! And can’t wait to get my hands on a 15 (tray bake) ☺️.

I recommend the fifteens - tray bake with 15 cherries, 15 marshmallows, etc, hence the name! 👌

Enjoy your visit!

There is a demo planned on Saturday near the cathedral - but it's a peaceful one. I'd keep an eye on things. Avoid Sandy Row. I think there were some issues in the lower Newtownards Road last Saturday.

We're staying on Alfred St on Thurs & Fri night. Will be going come what may.

I would avoid going right into the city centre as in round city hall but not even because of protests just because it's shit lol. W5, Titanic, junction 1 are all as safe and trouble free as you'll get anywhere. Stick to the cathedral quarter for bars and things, it's the nicest bit of Belfast anyway.

No need to be derogatory.

@Malahide am I wrong? We live in a beautiful country and Belfast is great but the city centre is a shell of what it used to be.

Thanks a million for the replies much appreciated

@MeinKraft I agree, the city centre isn’t great in comparison to what it used to be sadly.

It’s a shell of what it used to be but I would not describe the entire place as ‘shit’. In terms of UK cities post pandemic Belfast is far from the worst. Personally I hate cathedral quarter but that doesn’t mean that I feel the need to go and tar the centre as a whole with the same brush. We need to be encouraging more people into town, not trying to push them away.