United Kingdom · City break

Belfast City Guide

Belfast built the Titanic and tells her story right up to the sinking. Add a city hall of Portland stone, a Victorian pub with wooden snugs and a leaning clock by the old harbour. A ready-made day route leads from Grand Central station across the Lagan to the very slipways of the shipyard.

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Our walking tours of Belfast

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Belfast, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

City Hall, Lagan & Titanic

From the new Grand Central station to the Grand Opera House of 1895 and across the road into the Crown Liquor Saloon with its snugs. City Hall shows how rich the city was around 1900. Past St George's Market, open only Friday to Sunday, and the leaning Albert Memorial Clock you reach the Cathedral Quarter. At the Big Fish you cross the Lagan and follow the bank into the Titanic Quarter. First the SS Nomadic, the last White Star Line ship, then Titanic Belfast on the shipyard's slipways.

Grand Opera House. Right behind the station stands the theatre Belfast very nearly lost. The London theatre architect Frank Matcham designed it in 1894, and it opened in December 1895. He had the auditorium decorated in an oriental style, and the Theatres Trust calls it probably the best surviving example of that style in a British theatre. In 1972 it closed and was sold to developers, and an office block was to replace it. In 1974 it became one of the first buildings in Northern Ireland to be listed, and in 1976 the Arts Council bought it. Then the conflict hit it directly. Bombs badly damaged the theatre in 1991 and 1993, although their target was mostly the Europa Hotel next door. To get inside, book a performance or one of the guided tours.
Crown Liquor Saloon. Across the road stands a textbook Victorian gin palace. In 1885 Patrick Flanagan had the old Railway Tavern remodelled. The tiles, coloured glass and carving are said to be the work of Italian craftsmen who had come to Belfast for its many new churches and carried on here after hours. Inside, the long bar with its red granite top catches the eye. Along the wall run ten wooden booths, the snugs, with metal plates for striking matches and an old bell for calling the staff. Gas lamps burn beneath the ceiling. In 1978 the National Trust bought the building, urged on by people including the poet John Betjeman. At lunchtime and at weekends it is packed, and you are most likely to get a snug soon after opening.
Belfast City Hall. City Hall shows the self-confidence of a town that Queen Victoria had raised to city status in 1888. It was built from 1898 to 1906 to designs by Alfred Brumwell Thomas, in Portland stone and with a copper dome 53 m high. The council paid for it out of the profits of its gasworks. For the interiors, William Pirrie, a former Lord Mayor and head of the Harland & Wolff shipyard, brought in craftsmen from his yard. That is why the halls are said to give a good idea of how the Titanic's lounges were fitted out. On the east side stands the Titanic Memorial of 1920, surrounded by a memorial garden that commemorates all the victims, passengers and crew alike. The entrance hall is open during opening hours, and tickets for tours and the exhibition are sold at reception.
St George's Market. A little further east stands the last surviving Victorian market hall in Belfast. The city surveyor J. C. Bretland designed the red-brick building with arches modelled on Roman triumphal arches, and it opened in 1890. Look above the entrances. There you will find the city's Latin motto and the Irish words "Lámh Dearg na hÉireann", the Red Hand of Ireland. In April 1941, after the German air raids, the hall served as an emergency mortuary. The bodies of 255 people were laid out here so that relatives could identify them. Today the market opens on just three days. Friday brings fish, bric-a-brac and books, Saturday mostly food and crafts, Sunday a mix of both. On other days you only get the facade.
Albert Memorial Clock. Queen's Square has Belfast's leaning tower. The Albert Memorial Clock remembers Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband who died in 1861, and was built from 1865 to 1869 to a design by William J. Barre. Barre did not live to see it finished, as he died in 1867. The 34 m tall sandstone tower stands on wooden piles in reclaimed marshland beside the former River Farset. The ground gave way, and the top now leans a good 1 m off the vertical. Hence the local saying that the clock has "the time and the inclination". A restoration completed in 2002 strengthened the foundations. Prince Albert himself stands as a statue on the west side.
Cathedral Quarter & St Anne's. A few streets north the Cathedral Quarter begins. Warehouses and offices of the linen and shipbuilding trade once stood here. Today it is pubs, galleries and festivals. The quarter takes its name from St Anne's Cathedral. From 1899 it was built around the old parish church, which held services until the end of 1903. The cathedral was only finished in 1981 with the transepts. It stands on sleech, soft estuary mud, and wooden piles 15 m long carry the nave. At the back of the nave you can see the marble floor rise and dip. The ground was too soft for a heavy tower, so since 2007 the lightweight stainless steel Spire of Hope has topped the roof. Inside lies the unionist politician Edward Carson, and a pall with more than 1,500 stitched crosses commemorates the Titanic's dead.
The Big Fish. On Donegall Quay lies a 10 m long salmon made of printed ceramic tiles. John Kindness created it in 1999 to mark the regeneration of the riverside. Every scale shows a piece of the city's history, from Tudor images to newspaper headlines and children's drawings. It is also called the Salmon of Knowledge, after the fish of Irish legend. The spot was chosen with care. This is where the Farset, a stream that now runs beneath High Street, met the Lagan. Belfast takes its name from it, as Béal Feirste means mouth of the Farset. Right beside it you cross the Lagan Weir of 1994. It keeps the river at a steady level, whereas before, with a tidal range of up to 3 m, low tide exposed foul-smelling mudflats. The controls for the weir and its five gates are housed in the Lagan Lookout on the quay. The fish is a photo stop and needs no more time than that.
SS Nomadic. Hamilton Dock holds the last surviving White Star Line ship. The Nomadic was launched in Belfast in April 1911, right beside Olympic and Titanic, and worked as a tender in Cherbourg, where the big liners anchored offshore. On 10 April 1912 she carried 172 passengers out to the Titanic, among them the millionaire John Jacob Astor and Margaret Brown. She was designed by Thomas Andrews, one of the Titanic's designers, who died in the sinking. Later she became a restaurant boat on the Seine in Paris. In 2006 Northern Ireland bought her at auction for one euro above the reserve and brought her home. Look at the draught marks on the hull. One side shows feet, the other metres.
Titanic Belfast. The finale stands exactly where the Titanic was built. The 2012 building is 38 m tall, the height of the ship's hull, and its angular points recall ships' prows. Some 3,000 aluminium panels make up the facade. Nine galleries lead from the booming industrial city around 1900 through the shipyard and the launch on 31 May 1911, watched by about 100,000 people, to the sinking and the wreck on the floor of the Atlantic. Allow two and a half hours and book a time slot. Afterwards go out onto the slipways. Full-size outlines of the Titanic and the Olympic are set into the ground there and lit in blue. The wooden benches around the building are spaced so that, read as Morse code, they spell out the Titanic's distress call. Right next door stands the former headquarters of Harland & Wolff, in whose drawing offices the Olympic and the Titanic were designed. It has been a hotel since 2017.

Planning your visit

One day is enough. The route runs 4.8 km, has nine stops and starts at Belfast Grand Central station. Titanic Belfast and the SS Nomadic alone take a good three hours. Short on time? Skip the Cathedral Quarter or ride the Glider G2 from the Big Fish. Come between Friday and Sunday, when St George's Market is open. The peace walls and murals in the west of the city lie away from the route. The Giant's Causeway needs a day of its own, and there are five tips for the evening.

Going out & nightlife

Rooftop bars

The Observatory. The bar on the 23rd floor of the Grand Central Hotel is not an open roof terrace but a glass room high above the city. What you get instead is a view right round Belfast, out to the yellow shipyard cranes Samson and Goliath and to Cave Hill. A dedicated lift goes straight up. Seats are limited, booking helps, and children are only admitted at certain times.

Nightlife quarters

Cathedral Quarter. In the evening Belfast moves to the Cathedral Quarter. On Hill Street and the narrow lane of Commercial Court, pubs such as The Duke of York and The Dirty Onion sit close together, many with live music at night. For a long time this was a district of warehouses and newspapers, and the old brick facades still stand. Weekends are crowded, on weeknights a seat is easier to find.

Food & restaurants

Mourne Seafood Bar. Right next to Kelly's Cellars it is seafood time. Mourne Seafood Bar serves mussels, oysters and the catch of the day, indoors in several dining rooms or outside in the covered yard. It has been popular for years, so book for the evening.

Bars & clubs

Kelly's Cellars. Kelly's Cellars on Bank Street was built in 1720 and is one of the oldest pubs in the city. Low vaults, a well-worn bar and plenty of bric-a-brac on the walls. A blue plaque records that the Society of United Irishmen met here from 1791 to 1798. On several evenings a week musicians gather for a traditional Irish session.

Stage & concerts

Ulster Hall. The concert hall of 1862 is the work of William J. Barre, the same architect as the Albert Memorial Clock. Its centrepiece is the Mulholland organ by William Hill & Son, named after the former mayor Andrew Mulholland, who paid towards it. Today it is home to the Ulster Orchestra. The hall has its place in rock history too. On 5 March 1971 Led Zeppelin played "Stairway to Heaven" live here for the first time.

See all stops for Belfast in the app →

Practical information for Belfast

Public transport

Operator. Translink is the public transport operator for all of Northern Ireland and runs every mode of transport in Belfast. Metro is the city bus network, with pink buses on twelve corridors. Lines 1 to 12 are named after the main roads out of the centre, such as Antrim Road, Malone Road or Lisburn Road. Glider buses are purple rapid buses on their own corridors. Line G1 runs from McKinstry Road in the west through the centre to Park & Ride Dundonald in the east, and the G2 from the centre to the Titanic Quarter as far as Queens Road. All Metro and Glider buses are low-floor buses with space for one wheelchair. NI Railways operates the suburban trains to Bangor, Larne, Portadown and Derry~Londonderry, while Ulsterbus and Goldliner run the regional buses and coaches. The Enterprise train to Dublin is run jointly by Translink and Iarnród Éireann.

Network. Pink Metro buses on twelve corridors, two purple Glider lines and four suburban rail lines from Grand Central. The Glider G2 goes to the Titanic Quarter, and the G1 to east and west Belfast.

Modes of transport. Bus · Rapid bus (Glider) · Suburban train

Operating hours. Translink gives no single operating time for the Metro network, as each line has its own timetable. On Metro lines 7a, 8a, 9a and 10a the first departures from the centre on weekdays are between 5.45am and 7.15am and the last at 11pm, also on Saturdays. On Sundays they start between 7.35am and 9.05am and finish at 10pm, with the 10a already finishing at 9.15pm. The Glider G1 runs from Monday to Friday from about 5.15am to 11pm, every 8 to 9 minutes during the day, on Saturdays every 10 minutes around midday, and on Sundays from about 7am to 10pm, every 15 minutes during the day. The Glider G2 runs on weekdays from May Street (City Hall) from 6.56am to 10.56pm, every 10 to 20 minutes during the day, and on Sundays from 9.26am to 9.26pm every 30 minutes.

Night service. In 2026 Translink runs a late service every Friday and Saturday all year round. Eleven Metro night lines numbered between N1 and N12 depart from Donegall Square North, Donegall Square West, Custom House Square and Chichester Street, leaving at midnight and 2am or only at 1am, depending on the line. The N7, N8 and N9 run via Great Victoria Street and Dublin Road and on towards Ormeau Road, Malone Road and Lisburn Road. Normal fares apply, and with mLink or a bank card the whole day costs £4 at most. The Glider also runs on these nights, but only to its normal timetable. The last trains from Grand Central on Fridays and Saturdays leave for Coleraine at 11.10pm, for Larne at 11.45pm, for Bangor at 11.55pm and for Portadown at 11.59pm. Airport bus 300 to Belfast International Airport runs all night, with departures from Grand Central at midnight, 1am, 2am and 3am, for example.

Buying tickets. On a Metro bus you buy your ticket from the driver, in cash or with a contactless bank or credit card. By card you can buy paper tickets for several people there, up to £45 per transaction. At every Glider stop there is a ticket machine that takes cash and cards. You buy before boarding, and inspectors patrol the Glider lines. Train tickets are sold at the station machines and ticket offices or by the conductor. Grand Central has 12 machines. The rechargeable Smartlink and dayLink cards are available at the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre at 9 Donegall Square North. You can top them up there, at the Glider machines and in PayPoint shops. On a Metro bus you can only top up the dayLink card, one day at a time and cash only. The Belfast Visitor Pass is sold by the Welcome Centre and at Grand Central, Lanyon Place and Botanic stations. Passes ordered online arrive by post and take up to five working days.

App and payment. Metro buses use Tap On Only. You hold your contactless card or phone against the driver's reader once when boarding, and you do not need to tap off when you get out. The first journey of the day costs £2.30, the second £1.70, and every further one is free, so the day costs £4 at most. Visa, Mastercard and Maestro are accepted, as are Apple Pay and Google Pay, but not American Express. There is no Tap On on the Glider, where you buy a paper ticket with your card at the machine at the stop. On NI Railways you pay contactless at the ticket office, at the machine or to the conductor. The mLink app sells tickets for Metro, Glider, NI Railways, Goldliner, selected Ulsterbus routes and the Airport Express 300, paid for by card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay. The Translink Journey Planner app plans journeys, shows Metro and Glider buses live on the map and sells train tickets.

Which ticket. A single fare on Metro or Glider costs £2.30, or £1.15 for children. The day ticket in the mLink app costs £4, or £2 for children, and is valid across the whole Metro and Glider network. That is the price of 1.7 single fares. With a bank card on a Metro bus you reach the same daily maximum automatically after two journeys. The Belfast Visitor Pass costs £6, £12 or £16 for 1, 2 or 3 consecutive days, and £3, £6 or £8 for children aged 5 to 16, plus £1 for the card. It is valid on all Metro and Glider buses, on NI Railways trains in Zone 1 as far as Cultra, Jordanstown, Mossley West and Derriaghy, on Ulsterbus routes within the zone and on Airport Express 600 to the City Airport, but not on Airport Express 300. Three days of the Visitor Pass cost £16, three Metro day tickets £12. If you are staying longer, you can load a Smartlink card with 7 days for £17 or 10 journeys for £20, each plus £1 for the card.

Fare zones. Translink has abolished the zones on the Metro and Glider network, so a journey costs the same regardless of distance, £2.30 with a contactless card and £2 with Smartlink. On trains you pay according to your departure and destination stations, and the ticket is valid for the route chosen. The Belfast Visitor Pass has its own zone. On trains it extends as far as Cultra on the Bangor line, Jordanstown on the Larne line, Mossley West on the Derry line and Derriaghy on the Portadown line, and on buses it covers the Metro and Glider area and Ulsterbus city routes, for example to Holywood and Newtownabbey.

Tip. Just hold your bank card against the reader on a Metro bus. After the second journey you have paid £4, and every further journey that day costs nothing.

Getting there

Main station

Location. Grand Central is on the south-western edge of the city centre in the Linen Quarter, and the new Saltwater Square lies in front of the station. Pedestrians enter from Glengall Street and from Grosvenor Road, and the entrances are less than 200 m from the former Europa Buscentre on Great Victoria Street. Taxis and pick-ups stop at Boyne Bridge Place. Airport Express 600 departs from stand 20 and reaches Wellington Place after 2 to 4 minutes and Queens Square after 5 to 8 minutes.

Long-distance trains. Belfast Grand Central Station has been in operation since autumn 2024. It replaced the former Europa Buscentre and is the terminus for all trains in Belfast. It has 8 platforms and 26 bus stands. The Enterprise to Dublin Connolly runs 15 times from Monday to Saturday between 6am and 9pm, and 8 times on Sundays from 8.05am to 8.05pm, via Portadown, Newry, Dundalk and Drogheda. The journey takes between 2 hours 10 minutes and 2 hours 23 minutes. Online, a single costs £14.99 (Low), £15.99 (Semi Flexible) or £16.99 (Flexible), with a return twice that, and tickets booked online are collected from a machine before the journey. NI Railways trains run from here to Bangor, Larne, Portadown and, via Coleraine, to Derry~Londonderry, a journey of just over two hours. Goldliner coaches go to Dublin Airport and Dublin, to Derry~Londonderry and to other towns in Northern Ireland, as do airport buses 300 and 600. The platforms have automatic barriers, and there is a cash machine, Wi-Fi, a drinking water point and Changing Places toilets.

Opening hours. The station is open to everyone daily from 4.30am until midnight. Between midnight and 4.30am you can enter through the night gate to the left of the main entrance if you have a valid ticket, or buy one at a machine for a departure within the next hour. At night only people with a ticket for a night service may stay. Customer service is staffed Monday to Saturday from 6.30am to 7pm and on Sundays from 7.30am to 6pm. It sells tickets that are not available online or from the machines. There are no loudspeaker announcements in the station, and departures are shown on the displays at every bus stand and platform.

Airports

BHD

Into the city. Airport Express 600 departs from in front of the terminal and ends at stand 20 in Grand Central, stopping at Queens Square and Donegall Square South on the way. According to the timetable the journey to Grand Central takes 16 to 25 minutes. From Monday to Friday the first bus leaves the airport at 5.30am and the last at 10pm, every 20 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes in the evening. On Saturdays it runs from 6.05am to 9.45pm, every 30 minutes during the day, and on Sundays from 7.30am to 9.45pm, also every 30 minutes during the day. Tickets are available from the machine in the shelter, in cash or by card, from the driver or by tapping a bank card. The Belfast Visitor Pass is valid on the 600. Alternatively, NI Railways runs from Sydenham halt on the Bangor line via Lanyon Place to Grand Central in 18 minutes. To reach the halt you walk along the Sydenham Bypass and over a footbridge with steps. Tickets are available from the conductor or in mLink.

BFS

Into the city. The airport is 18 miles (29 km) north-west of Belfast. Ulsterbus Airport Express 300 departs from in front of the terminal and ends at Grand Central, and towards the airport it also stops at Queen Street. It runs every day and also at night, and from the airport on weekdays after 11pm there are still departures at 11.30pm, 12.50am, 1.50am, 2.40am and 3.40am. At peak times from Monday to Friday it runs every 15 minutes, otherwise mostly every 20 minutes. According to the timetable the journey takes 35 to 50 minutes. In mLink a single costs £8, or £4 for children, and a return ticket valid for one month £11, or £5.50 for children. Ticket machines are at the airport bus stop and in Grand Central. The Belfast Visitor Pass is not valid on the 300. At the taxi rank to the right of the arrivals hall exit, cars from Belfast Airport Taxis, the airport's official taxi company, are available round the clock. Other taxis may not use the rank, and sample fares are displayed in the arrivals hall.

DUB

Into the city. The Translink Goldliner buses X1 and X2 link Dublin Airport with Grand Central. They depart from Terminal 1 at the airport, stop 11, and towards Dublin they call at Terminal 2. The X1 runs hourly via Newry, Banbridge and Sprucefield and, according to the timetable, takes around 2 hours 15 minutes, while the faster X2 runs about every two hours without any stops in Northern Ireland and takes around 1 hour 45 minutes. The X1 also runs at night, from Dublin Airport for example at 12.20am, 1.20am and 3.20am. Online, a single from Belfast to Dublin Airport costs £9 (Low), £11 (Semi Flexible) or £13 (Flexible), and a return £14.50, £17.50 or £21. Online booking is possible up to 60 minutes before departure. You can also pay in euros, in which case Translink converts at £1 to €1.15.

Local quirks

Buy your Glider ticket before boarding. Nobody sells tickets on the Glider, and there is no Tap On with a bank card there. You buy your ticket beforehand at the machine at the stop, in cash or by card, or in the mLink app. Smartlink cards are held against the validator at the stop. Inspectors patrol the Glider network.
Northern Ireland's own pound notes. Three banks issue their own pound notes in Northern Ireland, Bank of Ireland (UK), Danske Bank and Ulster Bank. In Northern Ireland the only legal tender is Royal Mint coins, not banknotes. Each shop decides for itself which notes it accepts.
Grand Central is the terminus. All trains start and end at Grand Central. If you arrive on the Portadown line and want to go to Botanic, City Hospital, Lanyon Place or York Street, you change at Grand Central, and likewise for the lines to Bangor, Larne and Derry~Londonderry. Translink advises allowing more time for changing.

Good to know

Currency: GBP £
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: G
Time zone: Europe/London
Driving: left

Speed limits. built-up areas 30 mph (48 km/h), outside towns 60 mph (96 km/h), motorway 70 mph (112 km/h)

Limits are given in mph, not km/h, and rethinking the speedometer takes some concentration at first. In Wales, the default within built-up areas has been 20 mph instead of 30 mph since September 2023, a separate value just for that part of the country. On single-carriageway rural roads without an additional sign, the speed drops from 70 to 60 mph, indicated only by a small circular sign with a diagonal line through it, easy to miss.

Tipping. Ten percent in restaurants, and a service charge is often already on the bill. In pubs you order at the bar and do not tip.

Tolls. Motorways are free. Charges apply at individual bridges and tunnels such as the Dartford Crossing and Mersey Gateway, usually paid online afterwards.

Access restrictions. London charges a congestion fee plus the ULEZ for older vehicles, both camera-enforced. Other cities have Clean Air Zones. Not paying gets expensive.