Belfast with pre-teen top tips

[Invisimamma]

I've booked a day trip to Belfast as a treat for my son's birthday. We're flying in on a Sunday morning and back home late the same evening.

Any top tips for visiting with a 10yr old boy?

Particularly interested in hearing about cool, quirky places to eat. We'll reach the city centre about 8:30am. Will there be anywhere we can get pancakes/waffles (and lots of coffee for me!) that will be open early on a Sunday?

I've got the titanic museum and hop on hop off tour bus booked.

Is travel from Belfast Intl airport to the city centre pretty easy by bus?

Yes easy to get to the city centre. There's a shuttle bus just outside. You can buy the ticket inside the airport at a kiosk and get a return ticket.

Takes you into europa bus station which is fairly central possibly other stops I'm not sure. Around. 30-40 min journey.

Perfect, thank you for replying!

Pancakes/waffles:
Harlem cafe
Output espresso cafe
Neighbourhood cafe
Avoca

Food markets:
St George's market (live music, local produce and some street food)
Common market (street food)
Orto pizza (fabulous)

Things to do:
Titanic museum
Red bus tour
City hall
Botanic gardens & Ulster museum (beside each other)

Possible itinerary:

Head to output espresso for pancakes on arrival - it's a 10min walk to Ulster museum and botanic gardens from there. After the museum you can walk towards city centre and pass queens university (beautiful building)
In city centre if you are hungry you could grab an amazing pizza at Orto (Bedford st) or head to common market (may close during week so check) or many other good eateries. Titanic museum/experience not far (think you can walk but check) or W5 (again I think this is good for kids but I haven't been) to wrap up the day before home time.
Belfast hasn't got a huge amount to do in my opinion but what's there is nice 😊 enjoy it!

Thank you so much! This is super helpful.

I have titanic booked in the morning, and tickets for the red bus tour. I'm sure my ds would love W5 as he is into science, but I'm not sure if we could squeeze it all into one day. If the weather is particularly bad we might end up there to stay indoors.

W5 and Titanic museum are next door to each other and 15min or so walk from the city centre. It's a nice stroll over the bridge and along the river from there to St Georges market if you catch a dry day. Titanic/St georges are at the opposite side of the city centre from the university and museum. I wouldn't try to do both uni and Titanic areas in one day as public transport runs a less frequent Sunday timetable.

Note the main shops don't open until 1pm on a Sunday so St George's can be pretty busy as there's not much else going on in town on a Sunday morning.