Stuff to do in Belfast

Soldato
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Anyone from/been to Belfast recently?

As a birthday pressie off there tommorow for 2 and half days and 3 nights with the lass. Wondering what there is to do during the day as I have never really ever thought about going though before.

Any advice is welcome!
 
I'm reasonably old and boring but you could maybe try a bus tour which takes you round a few places. You may also wish to go for a drink in the Crown Bar which is pretty famous. Plenty of shops similar to any other city for your lass to spend your money in etc..

Hopefully sombebody else could give you better pointers, I've never done either of those by the way but I understand they're popular with the tourists. Hope that helps a bit, enjoy your stay.
 
Giants Causeway is only a busride away, also there's a race track close by Royal Down or something, no idea if there's a meeting on though. Bus tour of Belfast was reasonably interesting but there was no hopping on and off (Falls Rd and Shankhill Rd aren't good places to get off apparently even though there is a tourist gift shop at Sein Fein headquarters).

Other than that I found wasn't too much going on in Belfast esp compared with other UK cities

The pubs were good though
 
Giants Causeway is about 50 miles away from Belfast. Take well over an hour to get there and the same again back. All to stand in the ******* rain and look at rock. You'll be surprised at how quickly that gets boring. Belfast, for the most part, is a hole. Just like any other major city in the UK without anything of architectural or historical significance. You could visit the shipyards to see where they built the biggest boat to ever get ****** by an ice cube, but that's mostly empty buildings and empty docks. There's the terrorist tours that'll take you down the falls and shankill, but they're **** holes and you wouldn't want to stop on them anyway except to take pictures of the murals. The Crown Bar is probably the only redeeming thing about Belfast. The people are horrid unless they're trying to sell you something, the food is mostly asian, the clubs are like any other in western civilisation. Down royal is a racecourse. That's it. **** all else there. Lisburn is near it, but the only thing there that's of an interest is the linen mill and unless you have an interest in collecting dish cloths and bed sheets, is ridiculously boring.

You could go to Derry, the city of culture. But it's even more of a stinking hole than Belfast and with the dissident threat at it's highest in years you'd probably be safer playing with dodgy chinese fireworks over the holiday period you got from Nutts Corner market.
 
Oddysey in Belfast is an option if you want to go see the Giants play in the ice hockey. Bus tour is also an option but they tend to get stoned by chavs. Victoria Square is a decent new shopping centre with Cinema/restaurants etc. Failing that you could go to IKEA. Not much else I'm afraid!

Derry is the hole of holes and is best avoided - terrible place.

Causeway is one of those places you see once and never again. So dull and full of German tourists. The north coast is lovely to see though but not much to do other than driving around.
 
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Belfast giants are playing tomorrow night. You can walk to the oddesey arena from the city centre, or a taxi is only a few quid.

Theres the ulster museum which is quite nice.

Also take a trip up cavehill, its pretty class views of the city.
 
Theres the ulster museum which is quite nice.

And to add to that, the Ulster Folk & Transport museum. One part is old and folky, the other has things which are petrol powered and smokey. If it's a birthday present for yourself, you can spend all day walking about the transport section looking at trains, trams, bikes, cars (if you're into that kind of metal) and there should be a titanic section (at least there was when I was there a few years back). The motorcycle section was of particular interest to me. And the upside is it's not in Belfast. The folk section is also good, but I didn't find it as interesting.
 
don't do the bus ride thing, take the taxi tour instead (tho you will have to take 2 tours one for the prod areas one for the nat areas)
ulster museum is good as is the ulster folk and transport museum, also belfast zoo is bad

shopping wise, it like any other big uk town
giants causeway is boring as hell unless you into scenery
crown bar is nice to go into and look at but ive yet to get a good pint in it
 
I feel I should probably stand up for Derry, I can't really think of anything positive to say though other than we're right on the border with Donegal so it's only a short trip to get somewhere far more pleasant.
 
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