Highlights of Belfast

Description

Be sure to read the Special Notes further down this page for important requirements and restriction.

Your tour begins as you board your motorcoach for a scenic drive into Belfast City Centre, the central business district. Your tour of the city will introduce you to the many varied features of Northern Ireland's largest city - its industry and elegance, a rich and varied past, and 19th-century buildings that are a reminder of its prosperous past.

Upon arriving in the City Centre, you will witness the Grand Opera House and Victorian and Edwardian buildings with elaborate sculptures over doors and windows, featuring stone-carved heads of gods and poets, scientists, kings and queens peering down from the high ledges of banks and old linen warehouses.

You will pass Queen's University before stopping to enjoy an independent brief walk through the Botanic Gardens. Located in these gardens is the Palm House, a superb structure of cast iron and curved glass panels built even before Kew Gardens opened in London in 1839.

Re-boarding your motorcoach you will continue to the Shankill Road, an authentic working-class community, and the Falls Roads area where murals on almost every gable wall tell the story of its violent past and its belief in the future. Belfast came to world attention with the outbreak of the 'Troubles' in the 1960s. Conflict lasted until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Popular art played a prominent role during the 'Troubles.' The gable ends of houses were painted with vivid murals to proclaim a neighborhood's political affiliations, and remain a much-photographed part of Belfast's past.

At Cave Hill you will view Belfast Castle, one of the most celebrated landmarks of the city whose presence is ingrained into Belfast's social history and culture. Belfast Castle, on the lower slopes boasts beautiful gardens and an adjoining country park. Don't miss the splendid views of Belfast Lough and the city below you. Mac Art's Fort, a rock where United Irishmen planned the rebellion of 1795, overlooks the castle.

Your narrated tour also leads you to a photo stop past the Harland & Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built and launched. Your last destination is Stormont, a building designed to hold Northern Ireland's parliament, boasting Portland stone and Mourne granite. There will be time for photos here.

Special Notes:

it is not always possible to stop on Shankill and Falls Roads, due to them being one way streets and a Business district nearby. Alternatively, a different political mural stop will be made.

Child Price:

12 & under reduced