48 Hours in Belfast
Do you want to spend 48 hours in Belfast? You came to the right place. The capital of Northern Ireland is packed with things to do and places to eat and drink - a good combination for an amazing 48 hours.
Let's start with how to arrive in Belfast, we arrive at the Belfast International Airport (There is also George Best Belfast City Airport, this one is much closer to the city centre) and from here you pretty much have two options a Taxi/Uber or you can get the Airport Express 300 a journey that takes around 40 minutes to the city centre and costs £8.50 (or £12 return).
WHERE TO STAY
We stayed at the Quarter by the Warren Collection right on the right in the middle of the Cathedral Quarter, the reason being that this is the most popular area in Belfast for bars and restaurants and it is very central for everything we wanted to do, this hotel might be not a five-star hotel, but was clean, comfortable, the staff was friendly and the breakfast was what we needed.
WHAT TO DO
Belfast City Hall
Belfast City Hall is a must-see when visiting Belfast. If you’re looking to go inside, you can go between the hours of 8:30 and 5, 7 days a week for free, you need to go on a tour to have access to certain rooms, but those tours are also free, make sure you book anyway just to avoid disappointment.
Titanic Belfast & Titanic Quarter
As you probably know Titanic was built in Belfast in 1911 and for that reason there are loads of references to this historic boat in Belfast, one of those is the Titanic Museum, definitely worth a visit, I would take around 2 hours of your time for this, after that I would add an extra hour just to walk around the Titanic Quarter and also the Titanic museum ticket allows you to enter the SS Nomadic.
St George’s Market
St George’s Market is one of the most popular markers in the United Kingdom due to being one of the oldest ones, it has been open since 1604 - First, as an open-air market and later around 1890 inside the building we know today. Be aware that the market is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Here you can find not only amazing food but also some great art, Souvenirs, fresh fruit, fish, meat, etc. - not sure if it happens every day but we went twice and both days had live music.
Free Walking Tour
As we like to do in any new city we always take a free walking tour, these tours are free but you should always tip your tour guide.
We chose the Essential Free Walking Tour of Belfast which lasted around 2 hours. Our tour guide was Brian and he was great, Brian has an incredible knowledge about the history of Belfast and Northern Ireland in general.
Peace Walls
Originally built during “The Troubles” to separate Irish republican or nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from predominantly British loyalist and unionist Protestant neighbourhoods.
Today there is still over 50 Peace Walls in Belfast with one of the most famous ones being located on Cupar Way, where most of the tours stop by, especially for people who want to leave their message on these walls.
The peace lines or peace walls are a series of separation barriers in Northern Ireland that separate predominantly Irish Republican or nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from predominantly British loyalist and unionist Protestant neighbourhoods.
WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK
For lunch we went to St George’s Market twice, there are so many options to choose from with a big variety of different cuisines, I saw one of the stands making pasta inside a massive cheese, which looked amazing, but unfortunately, the queue was always massive.
For dinner in Belfast, I recommend The Cloth Ear the food is incredible, the staff is very friendly and helpful, great atmosphere and a good location in general - please have the Belfast Bread Starter and try the Irish Soda bread as this is really tasty - don’t forget to book a table as this Pub gets very busy.
For a great pint of Guinness, you cannot miss the Duke of York, the first history of this pub started over 200 years ago, unfortunately, it got bombed during The Troubles in 1972, but later got restored as a tribute to the city and today is one of the most popular pubs in Belfast.
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