B&Bs in Belfast

Table of Contents

• At a glance: What should you know about staying in Belfast?
• Places to stay in Belfast: find your perfect retreat
• Exploring Belfast: our top recommendations
• Activities: What are the top things to do and see in Belfast?

• Self-catering city stays: The current Belfast selection is made up of apartments and small houses with their own kitchen, WiFi and, in many cases, parking.
• Quarters that suit weekenders: The Cathedral Quarter for evenings out, Queen's Quarter for museums and cafés, Ballyhackamore for brunch.
• Very high guest scores: The best-reviewed Belfast stays sit at 9.9+, with praise for central streets, easy parking and quick, helpful hosts.
• Best time to visit: May to September brings long evenings and festivals; spring and late autumn are quieter and cheaper.
• Easy to explore on foot: The Botanic Gardens, Ulster Museum, City Hall and Crumlin Road Gaol are all within a short walk or bus ride.

Belfast's current selection blends city-centre apartments with a handful of guesthouse-style stays: red-brick terraced houses off the Ormeau Road, converted flats near Queen's and modern apartments close to the river. Compact one-bedroom places suit couples and solo weekenders, while three-bedroom houses take a group. Most listings share the same practical extras.

• Fitted kitchens for breakfast before an early start
• WiFi fast enough for a working weekend
• Off-street parking, handy for a drive up the Antrim coast
• Small yards, balconies or shared courtyards

Book early for festival weekends, when central places go quickly.

What are the best areas to stay in Belfast?

The Queen's Quarter is the easiest base for a first weekend: museums, gardens and cafés on the doorstep, with the centre fifteen minutes' walk away. The table below details regions for specific interests:

What do our guests say?

Guests staying in Belfast are consistently generous, with the best-reviewed places sitting at 9.9+. The praise is practical rather than showy: a quiet bedroom after a late night in the Cathedral Quarter, a parking space that saves a city-centre car park, a kitchen worth using and hosts who reply within minutes. Walkability comes up again and again, as does surprise at how compact the city turns out to be.

Here are our top-rated places to stay in Belfast from the past year:

1. Lovely house with a mature garden and is fully serviced and a home from home - 9.9+: A five-guest house in County Antrim with parking and a mature garden, described by guests as a genuine home from home.
2. Fully refurbished house Belfast - 9.9+: Sleeps five in County Down, with a full kitchen and its own parking, praised for how fresh the refurbishment feels.
3. Beautiful 2-bed Next to City Centre and Queens Uni - Pass the Keys - 9.9+: A two-bedroom flat for four in County Antrim, with parking and a walkable position beside the university.

Belfast sits at the head of Belfast Lough, hemmed in by basalt hills, with the Antrim coast to the north and the Mourne Mountains to the south.

🥗Where to eat in Belfast?

According to Google Maps data and reviews, Holohan's Pantry is the best rated restaurant in Belfast. Below is a table showing the top 5 highly-rated restaurants hand-picked by our travel experts.

⭐Our guests' recommendation: Our guest traveller Charlotte recommends the Café Conor in Belfast: it sits in a former artist's studio on Stranmillis Road, opens early for breakfast and is a two-minute walk from the Botanic Gardens.

1. Spend a morning in the Botanic Gardens
2. Work through the Ulster Museum
3. Tour Crumlin Road Gaol
4. Catch a show at the Grand Opera House
5. Circle City Hall and the Linen Quarter
6. Brunch your way around Ballyhackamore
7. Head north for the coast

1. Spend a morning in the Botanic Gardens

   The Botanic Gardens have been open to the public since 1895 and remain the calmest corner of the Queen's Quarter. The Palm House, a curvilinear cast-iron glasshouse begun in 1839, holds tropical species and seasonal displays, while the neighbouring Tropical Ravine looks down on ferns and cinnamon from a raised walkway. The rose garden peaks in July. It is free to walk in, opens early and makes an easy first stop from any nearby stay.

2. Work through the Ulster Museum

   Northern Ireland's largest museum sits inside the Botanic Gardens and covers far more than one visit allows: Irish archaeology, natural history, an Egyptian mummy, fine art and a well-regarded gallery on the region's recent history. Admission is free. Allow two hours for the highlights, or a full wet afternoon if you take the art floors slowly. The café is a reasonable lunch stop, and the shop is good for prints.

3. Tour Crumlin Road Gaol

   Crumlin Road Gaol is the only surviving Victorian prison in Northern Ireland, in use from 1846 until 1996. Guided tours take you through the wings, the condemned man's cell and the tunnel that runs beneath the road to the former courthouse. Guides handle the building's long and complicated history carefully and factually. Tours last about an hour and a quarter and book up at weekends, so reserve a slot before you travel.

4. Catch a show at the Grand Opera House

   Frank Matcham's 1895 auditorium is one of the most ornate theatres in the British Isles, all gilded elephants and painted ceilings, and it reopened after a major restoration in 2021. Programming runs from touring musicals and opera to pantomime and stand-up. Round the corner, the Lyric Theatre on the Lagan stages new Irish writing in a modern brick building. Both are a short walk or taxi ride from central lettings.

5. Circle City Hall and the Linen Quarter

   Belfast City Hall, finished in 1906 in Portland stone, anchors Donegall Square and runs free guided tours of its marble hall, stained glass and council chamber. The surrounding Linen Quarter keeps the warehouses of the trade that made the city rich, now filled with coffee shops and offices. Add St George's Market nearby at the weekend, then walk down to the Lagan for the riverside path.

6. Brunch your way around Ballyhackamore

   East Belfast's Ballyhackamore has quietly become the city's brunch strip, a bus ride from the centre along the Upper Newtownards Road. Independent cafés, delis and bakeries line a few hundred metres, with tables outside whenever the weather allows. Combine it with the C. S. Lewis Square sculptures ten minutes away, which mark the author's east Belfast childhood, and the Comber Greenway path for a flat walk or cycle back towards town.

7. Head north for the coast

   The Antrim coast is the best reason to keep a car. An hour and a half north brings you to the Giant's Causeway, its basalt columns a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with Bushmills and the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge close by. Seaside Portrush adds beaches and a working harbour, and Derry with its complete seventeenth-century walls makes a longer day out to the west.