Lady’s Belfast Titanic Tour

Today I want to bring you my guide to a Belfast Titanic tour. The capital of Northern Ireland has a lot going for it, including loads of Titanic connections. If you’re curious about the famous ocean liner’s history, read on.

Belfast Titanic Tour

My last trip to Belfast was years ago. I arrived on a train from Dublin, ran through the rain to a cafe, met a friend who was living in the city, then returned to the Republic of Ireland.

An hour in total, it wasn’t much of a visit. When I had the opportunity to travel to Belfast again last weekend, I looked forward to getting a proper introduction to the city and a special Titanic tour of Belfast.

How to Get to Belfast, Northern Ireland

I flew from London to Belfast on Friday afternoon on a short 50-minute flight from Stansted Airport. I arrived at Belfast City Airport in the early evening, and a 10-minute bus ride later I found myself in the heart of town.

The airport bus dropped me off right in front of Belfast City Hall, a beautiful historic building in Donegall Square. It was a great introduction to Northern Ireland.

Where to Stay in Belfast

From there it was a short walk to my hotel, the Malmaison Belfast. The hotel had invited me to spend two complimentary nights in a room in its elegant 1850s building.

My room was large and had a color scheme that mixed dark woods and purple pillows with bright white linens and striped walls.

The bed was big and comfortable and I also had a desk, wardrobe, chair, and spacious bathroom. Later I saw the hotel’s two suites, one of which had a huge pool table in the middle of the room. Not bad.

On my first night in Belfast I had dinner at the brasserie in the Malmaison Belfast. The dining room was reminiscent of a New England beach town, complete with metal pails and nautical designs.

At the beginning of the meal, I enjoyed a special amuse bouche of sea bass on a bed of noodles with teriyaki sauce and pickled cucumber and ginger. It was excellent.

After that I ordered a starter of winter vegetable and barley soup and a main course of Donald Russell aged entrecote, which was naturally reared and grass fed, then dry aged on the bone.

For dessert I had a slice of white chocolate cheesecake. Needless to say, I left the restaurant pleasantly full.

Belfast Tours, Sightseeing, and Restaurants

The following morning I left on a Northern Ireland tour on the Causeway Coastal Route. That evening I returned to the city and took a walk to see some of the sights.

I passed by the stately Grand Opera House, which dates back to 1895, and a historic watering hole called The Crown that had one of the most beautiful pub interiors I had ever seen.

After my stroll I settled in for dinner at the Mourne Seafood Bar, a famous Belfast establishment. I found myself in a cozy space with a small bar and tables lining the walls.

I ordered a bowl of the seafood chowder and learned why Mourne was so famous for its shellfish. It was delicious.

Titanic Tour of Belfast

The next morning I was up early for a Belfast Titanic tour. The city is famous for being the location where the ill-fated ship was built, and the tourism board had set me up with a guide to show me Titanic Belfast sites.

She wasn’t just any guide, though. Susie Millar was the great-granddaughter of one of the passengers on the Titanic.

Taking a Belfast Titanic tour with Susie was a unique experience. Her knowledge of the ship, its history, and its building site was both deep and passionate, and her personal connection to the ocean liner’s tragic maiden voyage made the tour special.

The Belfast Barge

We started our Titanic tour of Belfast at The Belfast Barge, a museum housed in a boat on the River Lagan.

There I was given a personal tour by the historian, Lee, who showed me everything from models of the SS Canberra to footage of personal interviews with people that had worked in the shipbuilding industry in Belfast.

Titanic Offices

After the museum tour, Susie took me to the place where the Titanic was designed. Now abandoned, the building once housed the offices of Harland & Wolff, the firm that built the ship.

We walked through its eerily empty halls, passing by rooms that looked like their occupants had vacated them on a moment’s notice.

The highlight of the building was the drawing room where the Titanic was designed. Susie showed me a photo of the room back in the early 20th century, when drafting tables filled its floors.

Today the room is badly in need of repair and several coats of paint, but the eerie emptiness and dilapidation add a romantic, mysterious quality that fits with the tale of the Titanic.

There are plans to renovate the room, which sits next to the Titanic Belfast museum, but I almost thought it would be better to leave it as is. Either way, it stood in stark contrast to the museum’s contemporary design.

Titanic Belfast Museum

And speaking of the Titanic Belfast museum, it opened in 2012 in time for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage and tragic sinking on April 15, 1912.

The museum showcases the ship’s story from its birth in Belfast to its discovery on the ocean floor.

Visitors on a Belfast Titanic tour can ride to the top of the museum, where they can look out over the location where the Titanic was built.

They can also take part in an immersive theater experience during which Robert Ballard, who found the ship in the Atlantic Ocean in 1985, talks about his experience.

SS Nomadic

From the Titanic Belfast museum we walked next door to see the SS Nomadic, one of the Titanic’s tenders. The ship ferried passengers from the land in Cherbourg, France to the larger ship off the coast, and was a replica of the Titanic itself.

In the years since the sinking, the SS Nomadic has been everything from a Japanese restaurant in Paris to a wedding venue.

Thankfully it was returned to Belfast as part of the Titanic’s heritage, and is now in a dry dock next to the Titanic Belfast museum.

Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

After a quick visit to the Titanic’s own dry dock, which was a massive chasm by the water, we continued our Belfast Titanic tour with a visit to the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum in nearby Holywood.

There I saw a permanent exhibition called Titanica, which showcased 500 artifacts related to the ship, some of them originals that were recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

From first, second, and third class tableware to colorful posters and postcards, it was all there.

The most memorable part of the exhibition was a model of the ship with tiny figures showing the number of passengers saved and the number lost at sea from each cabin class.

With around 1,500 deaths out of 2,200 people on board, it was a sad reminder of the tragedy of the Titanic.

Belfast Titanic Tour: The Verdict

But despite the tragedy, the Belfast Titanic tour was a positive experience. It was amazing to see all the history in the city, and to have a guide with such a unique connection to the ship.

As I left Belfast that afternoon to travel back to London, I couldn’t help but want to return to Northern Ireland to continue learning about the ship in the city where it was built. If you get a chance, I hope you can too.

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