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The North’s largest city by some distance, with a population of some 270,000 within the inner city rising to 600,000 across its wider metropolitan space, Belfast has a tempo and bustle you’ll find nowhere else in Northern Ireland. For a lot of, nevertheless, the city will always be remembered as the main target of the Troublesthat dominated Northern Ireland’s politics for almost three decades from the late Sixties and scarred so many lives. Indeed, as the North continues to come to terms with the aftermath of the peace process, instigated by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the city stays in some ways on a knife’s edge, always expecting some new predicament to emerge.

In appearance Belfast closely resembles Liverpool, Glasgow or every other industrial port across the water, and, equally, its largely defunct docklands– in which, famously, the Titanic was constructed – are undergoing large redevelopment. Though the city centre is still characterized by numerous elegant Victorian buildings, there’s been an unlimited transformation right here, too, not least in the greater prosperity of the shopping streets leading northwards from the hub of Belfast life, Donegall Square. Yet financial improvement isn’t mirrored in each aspect of Belfast life. Some areas of the city display apparent financial decline, most notably North Belfast and the as soon as-thriving so-called Golden Mile (now little more than a silver hundred yards at each end). On week-nights the city centre can resemble a ghost town, though there’s little doubt that Belfast continues to thrive culturally. Theatre and the visual arts are flourishing, and there are plenty of places to catch the city’s booming traditional-music scene.

A couple of days are sufficient to get a feel for the city, although it is an effective base from which to visit virtually anywhere else within the North. Within the city centre, concentrate on the glories resulting from the Industrial Revolution – grandiose architecture and magnificent Victorian pubs – and the rejuvenated area from Ann Street to Donegall Street now known as the Cathedral quarter. To the south lies Queen’s University and the intensive collections of the Ulster Museum, set in the grounds of the Botanic Gardens. A climb up Cave Hill, a couple of miles to the north, rewards you with marvellous views of the city spread out across the curve of its natural harbour, Belfast Lough. The River Lagan flows towards Belfast Lough along the eastern side of the city centre and presents riverside walks, and can be the focus for essentially the most radical development in the last few years, the Laganside, centered on the Waterfront Corridor and the Odyssey Advanced across the water. In East Belfast, throughout the river past the nice cranes of the Harland & Wolff shipyard, lies suburbia and really little of curiosity apart from Stormont, the former Northern Irish parliament and residential to the modern Assembly. The city’s once-formidable security presence and fortifications are actually virtually invisible, but the iron blockade known as the Peace Line still bisects the Catholic and Protestant communities of West Belfast, a grim physical reminder of the city’s and country’s sectarian divisions – and there are specific flashpoints such because the Brief Strand in East Belfast and North Belfast’s Ardoyne area that it is still inadvisable to visit.

Belfast has a broad range of lodging, particularly at the top end of the market. However, there’s still a relative dearth of budget places. A lot of the city’s accommodation is concentrated round Nice Victoria Street and south of the centre in the university quarter, particularly on and round Botanic Avenue and in the network of streets running between the Malone and Lisburn roads. Many hotels and guesthouses are geared towards business travellers and so often supply significant reductions for weekfinish breaks; most hotels offer free wi-fi.

Consuming out in Belfast may be very a lot a movable feast with new places popping up and others vanishing or relocating. There are plenty of options for meals through the day within the centre and at the southern end of the Golden Mile, ranging from new cafés (lots of which within the city centre stay open till 8.30pm on Thurs nights) to traditional pubs (which generally only serve lunch but in some cases continue providing meals until 9pm).

A lot of the city’s well-established restaurants are round Donegall Square or within the university area. Bear in mind that they are usually absolutely booked on Friday and Saturday evenings, so reserving a table’s essential unless you’re prepared to eat early. There is a truthful selection of delicacies, from fashionable Irish and European, with French and Italian particularly in style, to a smattering of Indian and East Asian restaurants. Standards are generally high and sometimes exceptionally good value for money. The choice is limited for vegetarians however many places include veggie options on their menus.

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