Hotels

Budget

Belfast International Youth Hostel, 22-32 Donegal Road, off Sandy Row, Tel: 9031 5435. A good HI hostel near Shaftesbury Square. Rates range from £9.50 - £14. This hostel has internet access and a great breakfast restaurant with vast range of meals between 7 and 11am including an innovative school-kid type take away lunch pack for those who are on the road.

Arnies Backpackers, 63 Fitzwilliam Street, Tel: 9024 2867. A small independent hostel, with a good atmosphere and good location. Rates from £8.

The Ark Hostel, 18 University Street, Tel: 9032 9626. Another small independent hostel, between University Road and Botanic Avenue. Rooms in near-by apartments also available to rent by the week and month.

Travelodge, 15 Brunswick St, Tel: 0870 1911687. Part of the national chain of high value low frills motel-cum-hotels. Unusually brilliant central location for a Travelodge, and a popular base for the Easyjet weekenders who want to fall off the Airport bus at Europa and make the most of their time in the city’s bars. Book ahead and online for ‘Saver’ rooms from £26. Just behind the Crown Liquor Saloon, and less than five minutes walk from the Europa Buscentre and Great Victoria Street station.

Mid-range

Day’s Hotel, 40 Hope St, Tel: 9024 2494. One advantage of staying in this place is that you don’t have to look at it. The building seems to have taken the design of a suburban house and stretched it upwards by twelve storeys. However, there are usually great deals to be had online (rooms from £65) and the location is good: right next to the side entrance of Great Victoria Street Station and the Europa Buscentre, and just around the corner from the Europa. The colourful kerbstones of the loyalist Sandy Row are just a few feet away in the other direction, however tourists need not be intimidated. A good value hotel, one step up from a Travelodge.

Malone Lodge Belfast, 60 Eglantine Avenue, Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 6DY, Tel: +44 (0) 28 9038 8060.

Splurge

Hilton Belfast 4 Lanyon Place, Belfast ,BT1 3LP Tel: 02890277000. A Luxurious Belfast Hotel Located Next To The Waterfront Hall, Or Take A Five Minute Walk Into Belfast’s New Victoria Square Shopping Center, Stay In A Recently Refurbished Guest Room , A Executive Room Or Stay In One Of The Suites. Have A Drink In The Recently Refurbished Bar, Cables Or Have Something To Eat In The Restaurant , Sonoma . Rooms From £100.00 Per Room Per Night, 5 Minutes From Oddyssey Arena And Pavilion. Popular With Conferences And Many Famous Singers Stay.

Europa Hotel, Great Victoria Street, Tel: 9027 1066. A Belfast landmark in itself, the Europa is famous for having been bombed more times than any other hotel in any other city. Raucous events in the popular ballroom are more likely to disturb you than car bombs now, but it’s comforting to know that the hotel (Northern Ireland’s largest) has been built to withstand both. It’s location could not be better: beside Great Victoria Street train station and the Europa Buscentre, across from the Crown Liquor Saloon and next door to the Belfast Grand Opera House. The rooms are comfortable, but increasingly outclassed by more modern arrivals in the city. Doubles from around £100, but why not treat yourself to one of the few Presidential Suites in Northern Ireland that can rightly claim the name: Bill Clinton has stayed in it twice. Popular with business folk, politicians and package tourists.

Radisson SAS Hotel, 3 Cromac Place (The Gasworks), off the Ormeau Road, Tel: 9043 4065. One of Belfast’s most modern hotels, the Radisson doesn’t quite feel comfortable in it’s over landscaped and over designed site. Despite the rather non-commital exterior, the hotel is very plush and very modern inside, with a competent restaurant and attractive bar. Its location is very typical of Belfast: a ten minute walk from City Hall, but a ten minute walk through the windswept commercial streets that host Belfast’s red light district. But if you’re staying here, you’re probably on business, so taking taxis won’t be a big problem. Check online for the confusing types of rooms on offer; suite 7 is dubbed as the largest (60 square metres) anywhere in Belfast.

Malmaison Belfast, 34-38 Victoria St, Tel: 9022 0200. Condé Nast Traveller called it a ‘Hot New Hotel’ when it opened in 2005, and Belfast’s upwardly mobile trend setters went crazy for the opulent bar and restaurant. Fashionably bold and different, and occupying a beautifully restored building that makes the Radisson look business-class dull and the Europa look like a monolith. No word on the rooms, but it’s got a great location close to the increasingly popular night time hub of the Cathedral Quarter, and is a short walk from the Waterfront Hall. A serious contender for turning Belfast into a honeymoon location. Perfect for a romantic and/or dirty weekend away.

Merchant Hotel, 35-39 Waring St (Cathedral Quarter), Tel: 90234888. The Merchant is an intimate, sumptuous, five star standard hotel. It was opened in April 2006 following an extensive conversion of the old Ulster Bank Headquarters in Waring Street. The architectural grandeur of the exterior and the opulence of the interior with its custom made furniture and carefully chosen antiques, demand an excellence of service and warmth of welcome, that immediately sets guests at ease with an ambience that embodies luxury and comfort around the clock. Definitely worth the expense.

Malone Lodge Hotel Belfast, 60 Eglantine Avenue, Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 6DY, ☎ (800) 618-5843. A chic, townhouse hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Malone Lodge Hotel & Apartments delivers world-class hospitality, modern amenities and luxury accommodations for business or holiday.

Boutique

Madison’s Hotel, 59-63 Botanic Avenue, Tel: 9050 9800. Set amidst the bustling Botanic Avenue this rather sexy boutique hotel is just a stones throw away from Belfast City Centre, Queens University & Botanic Gardens. The hotel boasts an excellent restaurant serving early morning breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. The main bar in Madison’s is popular with locals & tourists alike with live music being played in the bar most nights. Offering all modern features a guest expects today, Madison’s has an established reputation for great food, fine wines, amazing cocktails and fabulous entertainment all under the one roof.

Get out

Translink operate all public transport (Northern Ireland has been spared the process of privitisation that has made Britain’s public transport system so confusing to visitors). Most bus and train services operate out of Belfast, so the city is a perfect base to explore the province.
On Sundays, Northern Ireland Railways offer the Day Tracker, a £5 ticket (£12 for a family of two adults and two children) which offers unlimited travel all day across the NIR network.
The Giant’s Causeway and the scenic north coast is easily accessible by public train and bus from Belfast. See Translink’s website for fare and schedule information. If you have a car take the M2 to Newtownabbey, then the A8 to Larne. From Larne follow the astonishingly beautiful A2 road right along the coast. Leave yourself enough time for a day to meander up to the Giant’s Causeway, stopping en route in Cushendall, Cushendun and Ballycastle. A speedier return to Belfast can be made inland from the coast along the A26.
For those who prefer the package option, Mini Coach runs a Giant’s Causeway day tour, departing from the Belfast International Youth Hostel (Tel: 028 9032 4733). The standard tour (£16) includes the Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and a very brief photo stop at Dunluce Castle. For an extra £3.50, a tour of Bushmills Distillery is included.
Bangor is an attractive seaside town with more than its fair share of good fish and chip shops, and makes for a good day out from the city on a sunny day. Trains from Belfast Great Victoria Street, Botanic and Belfast Central take about twenty minutes.
The picturesque village of Hillsborough in County Down is easily accessible by car or frequent Ulsterbus services from the Europa Buscentre.