What to do and see in Belfast…

The capital of Northern Ireland may be small but it has a lot to offer!  It was full of history as well as being a lovely place to take a weekend trip.  Read on to hear about a couple of my favourite spots to visit in Belfast…

Now I should start this off with expressing the obsession that 11 year old Ellie used to have with the Titanic.  Obsession isn’t really the right word, it was more of a fascination but it lead me to having ‘Titanic Museum’ at the top of my bucket list, therefore when I found out that my Laser eye surgery would be taking place in Belfast, Titanic was the first thing to come to mind!  To give you a bit of History, the Titanic was constructed and launched in Belfast docks by the ship building company ‘Harland & Wolff’, who’s yellow cranes across the Belfast docks you may recognise.

The Titanic Museum is located right on the very spot ‘Titanic’ and it’s sister ship ‘Olympia’ were built and looks out onto the slipway that Titanic launched from on 31^st May 1911.  Whether you’re a Titanic ‘fan’ or not, the Titanic museum is definitely one to visit to get an insight on how the biggest ship in the world at the time was designed, built and sailed before the tragic event.  They don’t dwell too much about the sinking in the museum, as the main focus is putting Belfast on the map for creating the ship and showing how it was achieved.  Inside the museum there’s remakes of the cabins, a glass floor looking down onto real footage of the wreck and even a mini ride taking you through the challenges they faced when building the ship.

To top off our trip we stayed in the Titanic hotel right opposite the museum, which is inside the real Harland & Wolff offices and full of even more history!  Not only that, it’s the most beautifully design hotel, keeping the original architecture with some added modern extras.  I’ve done a whole post on the Titanic Hotel for anyone’s who’s thinking of making a visit, so keep an eye out for that!

Sailing swiftly on from the Titanic, simply walking around the docks and centre of Belfast was enough to keep you busy with lots of shops, restaurants and history to take in it makes for a really fun weekend.  We spent a lot of our time in and around the Victoria Square shopping centre as it very central to some great tourist spots such as the leaning Albert Memorial Clock and Belfast’s city hall.

Finally… If you’re more into your history, I would definitely recommend taking a Black Cab Tour around the political murals.  You’ll be driven around the city by a tour guide who talks you through the troubles in the 1960’s.  As someone with zero knowledge of these ‘troubles’, this was a real eye opener and super interesting. The Black Cab Tours also offer a Derry tour for any of my ‘Derry Girls’ fans out there! I’ve linked below one example of a tour company but there are plenty around, most hotels will have contacts for near-by ones to help you out.