Experience an authentic black cab tour of Belfast and discover the murals and unique characters of both the nationalist and unionist communities. Any easy way to learn more about a place is to take a tour and luckily Belfast has quite a few tours on offer. We often find that a city bus tour is the best thing to do on arrival at any destination so that you can quickly get oriented and Belfast is no exception to the rule. Over the years we’ve visited Titanic Belfast a number of times and while we’ve been impressed, our recent visit to the upgraded experience left us both awed and even a little bit emotional. The iconic Titanic Belfast visitor experience stands tall on the same spot that the world’s most famous sinking ship was built. You can learn more about the complicated history on one of the many tours or at Ulster Museum, or the Belfast City Hall Visitor Exhibition.

Experience life on the inside at Crumlin Road Gaol

But the presence of 18 selective grammar schools in Belfast is a further feature of post-primary education in Belfast that distinguishes it from that of comparable cities in Great Britain where academic selection was abandoned in the 1960s and 70s. Primary and secondary education is divided between (Catholic) Maintained Schools and (non-Catholic/ "Protestant") Controlled Schools. Despite the DUP’s derailment of devolved government in protest, local business leaders largely welcomed the new trade regime, hailing the promise of dual EU-GB access as a critical opportunity.

Crumlin Road Gaol

The Greater Shankill area, including Crumlin and Woodvale, is over the line from the Belfast North parliamentary/assembly constituency, but is physically separated from the rest of Belfast West by an extensive series of separation barriers—peace walls—owned (together with five daytime gates into the Falls area) by the Department of Justice. Together with areas of more substantial housing in the Oldpark district, these are wedged between Protestant working-class housing stretching from Tiger’s Bay out the Shore Road on one side, and up the Shankill (the original Antrim Road) on the other. To the north, it stretched out along roads which drew into the town migrants from Scots-settled hinterland of County Antrim. In 1997, unionists lost overall control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history. Beginning in 1970 with the Falls curfew, and followed in 1971 by internment, this included counterinsurgency measures directed chiefly at the Provisional Irish Republican Army. At the end of the Second World War, the Unionist government undertook programmes of "slum clearance" (the Blitz had exposed the "uninhabitable" condition of much of the city’s housing) which involved decanting populations out of mill and factory built red-brick terraces and into new peripheral housing estates.

Board settings

Significant projects included Victoria Square, the Cathedral Quarter, Laganside with the Odyssey complex and the landmark Waterfront Hall, the new Titanic Quarter with its Titanic Belfast visitor attraction, and the development of the original Short’s harbour airfield as Belfast City Airport. Northern Ireland’s peace dividend since the 1990s, which includes a marked increase in inward investment, has contributed to a large-scale redevelopment of the city centre. These include a new deepwater quay to accommodate, in addition to larger cruise liners, an expansion the port’s capacity for offshore wind turbine assembly and installation.

Belfast Metropolitan College ("Belfast Met") is belfast cab a further education college with three main campuses around the city, including several smaller buildings. The Linen Quarter’, an area south of City Hall once dominated by linen warehouses, now includes, in addition to cafés, bars and restaurants, a dozen hotels (including the 23-storey Grand Central Hotel), and the city’s two principal Victorian-era cultural venues, the Grand Opera House and the Ulster Hall. The completion in 2023 of Ulster University’s enhanced Belfast campus (in "one of the largest higher education capital builds in Europe") and the determination of Queen’s University to compete with the private sector in the provision of student housing, has fostered the construction downtown of multiple new student residences. On the east side, a branch of the Ulster Bank is built behind the classical portico of a former Methodist church dating from 1846. These include Cupar Way where tourists are informed that, at 45 feet, the barrier is "three times higher than the Berlin Wall and has been in place for twice as long". At the same time, a British-funded welfare state "revolutionised access" to education and health care.

Early settlements

Guinness is served on tap in the beer tents, while The Errigle Inn and The Pavillion (sometimes called the Big House) bars on nearby Ormeau Rd are popular haunts for prematch tipples and postmatch celebratory toasts. Northern Ireland has a rich sporting heritage, and watching one of the local professional teams in action is an exhilarating way to kick off a night on the town. At the same complex, Banana Block is an innovative commercial and community events space in a former linen mill.

• Other sportspeople celebrated in the city include double world snooker champion Alex "Hurricane" Higgins and world champion boxers Wayne McCullough, Rinty Monaghan and Carl Frampton.
• While some local feeder and return marches have a history of sectarian disturbance, in recent years, events have generally passed off without serious incident.
• In practice, "Inst" provided a grammar education to the town’s Presbyterian families while Anglicans favoured the older Royal Belfast Academy (1785); Catholics, St Malachy’s diocesan college (1833) and Wesleyans, Methodist College Belfast (1865).
• Northern Ireland has a rich sporting heritage, and watching one of the local professional teams in action is an exhilarating way to kick off a night on the town.
• What is sometimes referred to as the Catholic equivalent of the Orangemen, the much smaller Ancient Order of Hibernians, confines its parades to nationalist areas in west and north Belfast, as do republicans commemorating the Easter Rising.
• After such a busy day of sights, sounds and the finest food, you’ll need the finest place to stay.

As with many cities, Belfast’s inner city is currently characterised by the elderly, students and single young people, while families tend to live on the periphery. What is sometimes referred to as the Catholic equivalent of the Orangemen, the much smaller Ancient Order of Hibernians, confines its parades to nationalist areas in west and north Belfast, as do republicans commemorating the Easter Rising. While some local feeder and return marches have a history of sectarian disturbance, in recent years, events have generally passed off without serious incident. It has grown from its original August Féile on the Falls Road, to a year-round programme with a broad range of arts events, talks and discussions. The city has a number of community arts, and arts education, centres, among them the Crescent Arts Centre in south Belfast, the Irish-language Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in west Belfast, The Duncairn in north Belfast and, in the east of the city, EastSide Arts.

From arrests to ambushes, this walking tour reveals the locations where the hit TV series was filmed. Glide around Belfast on a Belfast city bike tour for an exciting and eco-friendly way to see the city’s sights – don’t forget to stop off for some ice-cream at the docks. Spot the Belfast street art that brings the city’s art scene to life, on a creative walk around the city.

Harland and Wolff, the chief shipbuilding firm in the city, built the luxury liner. Guided through the museum via a booklet or app, you’ll follow the Cúl-Trá-il trail and learn about the traditions of Hiberno-English, Irish and Ulster Scots and their respective fights for survival. Self-guided tours with audio guides and holograms are the best way to explore its cavernous tunnel, shoebox cells and macabre graveyard.