Belfast spent thirty years as a place people avoided and the last twenty becoming a city break. Most Ireland itineraries still skip it, which is a mistake with a ninety-minute drive attached.
Getting there
Dublin to Belfast is about two hours on the M1, or two hours ten by Enterprise train from Connolly. There is no border check and often no sign you have crossed. Currency changes to sterling; speed limits change to miles per hour.
The Titanic Quarter
Titanic Belfast sits on the slipway where the ship was built and is the best museum in either jurisdiction. Allow three hours, book ahead in summer. The shipyard gantries — Samson and Goliath — are still there and still working.
The nearby SS Nomadic, Titanic’s tender, is included and usually empty.
The political tour
The black taxi tours of the Falls and Shankill are the reason many people come, and they are worth doing with a driver from the area. You will get one perspective strongly held; taking two tours from two operators is the honest way to do it if you have the time.
The peace walls are still up. The gates still close at night in places. It is not a museum exhibit and it is worth arriving with that in mind.
The city itself
The Cathedral Quarter has the bars and the music. The Duke of York, The Sunflower and Kelly’s Cellars — the last of which dates to 1720 — are the ones locals name. St George’s Market on a Friday or Saturday morning is the best food market on the island.
Crumlin Road Gaol is a good ninety minutes. The Ulster Museum is free and has the Armada gold.
Using it as a base
Two nights in Belfast gets you the city and a full day on the Causeway Coast, which puts Dunluce, Carrick-a-Rede, Bushmills and the Giant’s Causeway in reach without backtracking to Dublin.
It also gets you a genuinely different Ireland — different accent, different currency, different history, ninety minutes up the road — which is most of the argument for going.
Cost
Belfast is noticeably cheaper than Dublin for beds, food and drink. A hotel that costs 250 euro in Dublin in July is frequently 120 pounds in Belfast. For a fortnight’s trip that difference is real money.