Just back from a week up North. We had a great time, though in fairness we were haunted with the weather.
We based ourselves in a self catering place on the Ormeau Road. About a 30 min walk to the city centre. Near a nice park and some nice restaurants. Found Belfast nice to wander around, but jaysis there are some amount of union jacks and orange lodge flags around. Seemed to me there were far more than the last time I was there (2006 or so), but maybe that is because of the jubilee.
Here are a list of things we did that we enjoyed, in case anyone is thinking of heading up there with kids.
Colin Glen - we did the alpine ride, which was great craic. The Gruffalo walk is really cute, though probably too twee for any kid over 6 or 7
All aboard the Black Bull Run. Zoom through the forest at 25mph on Ireland’s first and only Alpine Coaster! Black Bull Run is located at our Mountain Entrance, find out more here!
www.colinglen.org
Giant's Causeway- well worth getting the audio guides imo. The visitor centre has a lot of interesting interactive things, something for all ages. You can go and explore it yourself without the audio guides/visitor centre bit, but you still have to pay for parking.
Discover the amazing stones at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland with the National Trust
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Wild Ireland - animal sanctuary. They have bears and wolves, which were cool to see. I really liked the ethos of the place, very animal centred rather than commercially centred.
www.wildireland.org
Botanic Gardens in Belfast are lovely, quite like Fitzgerald park. The Ulster Museum is based there. It is really impressive as a museum, and it's free! Highlights for us were dinosaur bones, Game of Thrones tapestry and the "differences between catholics and protestants" blackboard from Derry girls!
www.nmni.com
W5 science museum in Titanic quarter in Belfast - brilliant kid's museum. Mixture of some very scientific stuff and some play based stuff. Like a mixture between a kid's science lab and imaginosity in Dublin.
W5 is an award-winning Science & Discovery Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Part of the Odyssey Complex, W5 is a perfect day out for the whole family.
w5online.co.uk
Dunluce Castle - aka Pyke Castle from GOT. Nothing at all is made of the GOT connection there. It is well worth a look in its own right though. Amazing location and a lot of it is still intact.
Dunluce Castle is located dramatically close to a headland that plunges straight into the sea, along the North County Antrim coast.
discovernorthernireland.com
We went to the Dark Hedges too - pleasant walk, but not sure I would go out of my way to see it.
This beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century and have become one of the most photographed natural…
discovernorthernireland.com
There is a stunning beach just over from Dunluce Castle. Well worth a visit if you are going to the castle or to the giants causeway. White Rocks beach, Portrush.
Awarded the prestigious Blue Flag Award again in 2020, Whiterocks Beach has become a favourite with locals and a must see destination for…
discovernorthernireland.com
We spent a day in Derry. I much preferred the atmosphere there to Belfast tbh. The city centre/ city walls bit reminded me a lot of Edinburgh. We walked around the murals in the Bogside, and the bloody Sunday memorial, and walked the peace bridge. There are a lot of tours you can do there (esp walking tours) that seemed really interesting but it is all a bit much for small kids so we avoided them.
We did a quick tour of the Belfast murals too, and the peace walls. Again, i'd loved to have done a proper tour of them but it wasn't suitable for smallies. I looked into the open top bus tours, but they were really expensive. Definitely more expensive than other cities I have been to.
So there you go. What Matlock did on her summer holidays...
TL/DR- NI is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
