Whether you are a food connoisseur or a cultural aficionado, Northern Ireland has plenty to offer those seeking an enriching holiday where you can embrace both the city and the countryside life. Your first port of call is likely to be capital city Belfast, and travellers will be pleased to know that the Belfast City Airport is extremely well connected with most cities in the United Kingdom, and is less than 10 minutes away by car from the city centre.
City break
Where to stay
Whilst Belfast isn’t quite as expansive as the likes of London, you’ll still want a centrally-located hotel which will make exploring the town that much more convenient. The AA award-winning five-star Merchant Hotel is at the heart of the historic Cathedral Quarter and it is also within walking distance of the Titanic Quarter. It is also an effortless stroll to the Market Quarter, where you can visit the institution that is St George’s Market and sample the street food delights from independent retailers.
The magnificent Victorian and Art Deco-style of the Merchant Hotel is strikingly impressive. In particular, The Great Room Restaurant, where you can savour an expertly-executed afternoon tea, is a joy to behold. The glass cupola and the dramatic chandelier add a sense of occasion whilst you sip on the finest Darjeeling Second Flush and the crumbliest of scones.
They offer very distinct rooms as decorated per the differing time periods and styles, and all are furnished to the highest of standards to ensure the most comfortable of stays. For example, in their Art Deco rooms, they feature furniture from iconic designers of the period including Eileen Grey and Le Corbusier.
There are plenty of hip restaurants nearby such as The Waterman, which has a strong focus on chargrilled dishes and local produce such as the popular, Co. Tyrone sirloin and chimichurri.
Titanic Belfast
Opened in 2012, Titanic Belfast is now the most visited tourist attraction in Northern Ireland, and with the continuing fascination with the infamous ocean liner in the news and on the silver screen, it is unsurprising that crowds continue to flock to this museum. The attraction is expertly curated from discussing the ship-building history of Belfast to the moving dedication wall with the names of every passenger who perished on board. It is a multi-sensory experience from digital walls that bring characters to life to a physical ride through the shipyards of Belfast.
You can walk through a piece of history on the SS Nomadic. It was Titanic’s tender ship and the last remaining White Star Line vessel in the world.
Titanic Distillers and Titanic Hotel Belfast
The Titanic story isn’t just restricted to the museum as you can go on a tour of Titanic Distillers at Thompson Dock where you’ll see the historic pumphouse. You can go on a dock tour and see where Titanic last rested on dry land and you’ll hear how they are the city’s first working distillery in almost 90 years with intentions to bring Irish whiskey back to its former glory.
Nearby is the Titanic Hotel Belfast, which was the former headquarters of Harland and Wolff, builders of Titanic. You can see many historic photos and documents while walking through the hotel and there’s a hotel and history experience tour, where their concierge will guide you through the fascinating past of the building. This includes the room where they infamously received the call that the Titanic had hit an iceberg. Drawing Office Two is a great lunch option in between the various tours and is the iconic space where famous liners like Titanic were meticulously designed.
Country Escape
Castlewellan Forest Park
In under an hour’s drive from Belfast city centre, you can reach the scenic Castlewellan Forest Park, which lies north of the Mourne Mountains. It has one of the most outstanding collections of trees and shrubs in Europe and the walled garden contains rare conifers and maples from Japan, Chilean eucryphias and Chinese rhododendrons. The Castlewellan Peace Maze is one of the largest permanent hedge mazes in the world, it is 3,147 metres long and the average completion time is 40 minutes.
With the likes of Life Adventures, you can hire mountain bikes and kayaks on site and they have professional tour guides that can show you the picturesque Irish countryside.
Killowen Distillery tour
Proudly located in the Mourne Mountains, Killowen Distillery takes the honour of being the smallest distillery in Northern Ireland. The adage ‘small is beautiful’ is very much in evidence here and for distiller Brendan Carty, it is all about quality not quantity. Their two handmade artisan stills are flame-fired and they are the only distillery in Ireland to focus solely on worm tub condensers. These time-consuming processes produce a whiskey with a smoother and longer finish with dominant bready, cinnamon notes. Apart from whiskey, gin, rum and liqueurs, they also produce poitin – Ireland’s answer to mezcal, and more commonly referred to as moonshine.
Neary Nogs
Situated only a short six-minute drive from Killowen Distillery, the chocolatiers at Neary Nogs are equally passionate about high-quality produce and visitors can enjoy a joint distillery and chocolate factory tour. When you speak to owner Shane during a chocolate factory tour, the passion he has for craft chocolate comes through almost as intensely as the aromas from the production line.
They are Northern Ireland’s first bean-to-bar craft chocolate makers, having established themselves in 2011. Surprisingly, according to Shane, only one per cent of the global market is craft chocolates. It should be a growing market once people learn more about the healthy benefits of non-mass-produced chocolates. Their hot chocolates are not to be missed along with the tasting experience where you can sample the breadth of their range.
Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen
Tracey, along with her husband Joe, runs a cookery school that is very much about Irish specialities and embracing the great outdoors. Her Irish breadmaking classes are highly engaging and very easy to follow and you can learn how to make soda bread, wheaten bread and potato farls, with plenty available to take home to your friends and family. If weather permits, the class to enrol in is Joe’s Paddle and Pizza Experience. You can paddleboard around picturesque Ballymorran Bay and then return to the farmhouse to enjoy homemade pizza from their alfresco pizza oven.
In a nutshell
No matter what your interests are, Northern Ireland will astonish you with majestic scenery and incomparable hospitality.
Factbox
For more information visit: Ireland.com
