Holiday in Belfast

[catsandchaos]

Hope it's ok to post this here. Would love to visit Belfast in October. Which is the best area to stay in? any recommendations what to see and what to avoid? Thankyou

Dione that is absolute nonsense- the Springfield road is one street away from Clonard. And there is multiple pieces of footage of them gathering at the top of Albert street.
Maybe if people stopped minimising what is actually happening there wouldn’t be this mess.

"Best wee bookshop in NI". I'd say that honour goes to Keats and Chapman in North Street, Belfast City Centre, (though it's a second hand book shop).

Lots of pp's have said hop up, but you'll need waterproofs/sturdy umbrellas too, as the rain here can be miserable at times (hail is worse, but not as frequent thankfully).

Derry is the best global venue for Halloween celebrations in October according to USA today. www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/derry-best-halloween-destination-world-europe-carnival-northern-ireland-a9156566.html A stay at the city hotel www.cityhotelderry.com/ would see you right in the middle of the action and you could sit and view the fireworks from your window if you didn't like crowds. There are lovely places to eat all over and the prices are always good.

Yes, the Springfield Road is one street from Clonard. But it is a very long road. Lanark Way is a good way up it.

Seriously, I dont know why I'm arguing with you @MissMarks, rest assured that there's nothing happening round here.🤷‍♀️

Maybe if people stopped minimising what is actually happening there wouldn’t be this mess.

Who is minimising what @MissMarks?

It is all Lower Falls. It might not be right outside your front window but I certainly wouldn’t be driving along there at this moment in time.
You are painting a picture that it is a figment of my imagination that tourists, should they pop up to see the monastery or political wall tomorrow aren’t at risk of having their car hijacked! The police have specifically said to stay away from the entire area.
Loyalists have also released a statement to say they plan to March on west Belfast enmasse on Friday evening.
The bus hijacking, at the Shankill- another tourist hotspot on the popular misery tours, it at this moment being shown on Sky news.
Let’s get real here- six months ago everyone would have been saying ‘oh yes- Belfast is perfectly safe in April!’. Well tonight it clearly isn’t unless you are in a residential area in south belfast- which you are unlikely to be in if you are a tourist.
The OP specifically asked if Belfast is safe. This week it isn’t. We couldn’t have predicted this six months ago and we can’t predict what it will be like six months from now. It is our country’s shame but being in denial of this fact is helping no one. It is easy if you live in a nice area, or a rural area to turn a blind eye to what is going on in the bits we all know to avoid- a tourist doesn’t.

Placemarking as hoping to go in Nov

@MissMarks

I see you have deleted your posts but your comments on the unrest are irrelevant as there will be no tourists until covid restrictions are lifted. By which time we would hope it would have well died down when the kids go back to school or a new TikTok craze comes out.

Your background of working in tourism is a curious one. All this talk of hijacking buses but you have hijacked this thread and turned it into something else altogether! People are looking for advice and info on places to go in the summer or October or November!!
We are not expecting tourists to land on sandy row or the falls or shankill or newtownabbey tonight in a flipping pink glider bus now are we?

Tourists shouldn't come during marching season, to see us at our best, come September-March.

The infamous flag riots, started around November that year, which was unusual, but hopefully this trouble will have ended by then, with covid restrictions easing. Though I'm aware there's a small chance things could go the other way.

to see us at our best, come September-March.

To see us at our best through the drizzle, fog, sleet and gale force winds.

I don't think you thought that through.

blubbery

You're on your own in assuming NI will soon return to a peaceful state. Politicians and commentators fear the opposite. Reassurance to tourists that it will all be over by x date is premature.

Ever since the GFA I’ve wondered what tourists mean when they ask if it’s ‘safe’ here. Like..who knows. As safe as any other neglected city post civil war. Don’t go to the shitty areas that aren’t tourist destinations
, but presumably you’d be going to the city because you have a passing interest in its recent experience of civil war and oppression, and there’s loads of things to do and see regarding that, as well as generic chugging booze and eating. Don’t petrol bomb anything and you’ll probably be grand.

There's something a bit mad, that seems to happen to a lot of people in N.I. when the sun comes out. We get a bit tribal..? The taps come off, the tunes go on, the drink flows, until "ats us nai" and chaos ensues, yeeoooo, (keep her lit!). [Add a lot of drums, pipes and big fires into the mix, and it goes to a new level].

Botanic Park, Helens bay etc are lovely in the sun, but can be full of mad drunk students too.

I did say "to see us at our best". If you don't mind a small chance of chaos, come in the summer, it is lovely, though not as warm as the way us residents are dressed, would indicate. We can get a bit carried away, by the tiniest bit of sun.

I agree what's going on atm is really troubling, but I'm hoping it dies down. I've seen some people saying the protest on Friday is fake, and from some mysterious online account, trying to stir the pot?

"Don’t petrol bomb anything, and you’ll probably be grand."

If you see more than 5 PSNI land rovers, or a water canon, going in one direction, you go in the other if possible. If you hear dogs barking like crazy, strange sirens, or loudspeaker calls for a crowd to disperse, run like fuck in the opposite direction.

Don't buy alcohol from the boot of a taxi, at a house party, no matter how much everyone says it'll be fine. Don't drink home brewed poitin. Google the closing times of the last pub/club, you plan to visit, on a night out, and pre book a taxi, as they can be hard to get at kicking out times, and their are some dodgy illegal ones, that pick up around the city centre.

Everything else I could say, would just be standard visiting a city common sense stuff. Those last few things I last probably are too.

Actually, I've just thought, the buses back to Portrush etc, from the giants causeway, don't run after about 6.30pm, so worth making sure you know return times, and don't get stranded in the middle of nowhere.

There's something a bit mad, that seems to happen to a lot of people in N.I. when the sun comes out.

It’s really, really not just N.I.

October is a great time to come, particularly around Halloween... Halloween’s big in NI. As a kid I loved the fireworks etc and my kids love it to now.

‘Don’t buy alcohol
From the boot of a taxi’ - that’s hilarious! Unfortunately I have never been offered alcohol from the boot of a taxi! I doubt tourists need to worry about that one.

I don’t work in tourism. Never said anything to that effect.

Unfortunately we do seem to be overly fond of a riot overhere, but every city has spots no tourist should go to due to knife crime, gangs, drugs etc.

Yes- but ours just happen to be on the tourist misery bus hotspots!

Unfortunately we do seem to be overly fond of a riot

Folk had to drive home past a blazing double decker bus yesterday. The road wasn't even closed to all traffic. Earlier, people threw some kind of device in the door at the driver, despite the escort of police armoured cars around the vehicle.

Someone was in that bus.

There is no respect for human life.

As a local, you know where to avoid. A tourist doesn't. I would prefer not to plan a break here until this violence is over. It's not like the 12th, there's no finishing date to this.

I certainly wouldn't be encouraging a family to come over. Everywhere in Belfast is close to everywhere else. Two wrong turns and you're somewhere that you're safe as houses in Belfast as long as you don't go there.

Exactly. The naivety of some is astounding.