Titanic Belfast Exhibition – Planning Your Visit

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I’ve been borderline obsessed with all things Titanic since I was at school. Leonardo DiCaprio absolutely had a hand in that. But a good portion of it I can also attribute to a fascination with history. Therefore I knew I just had to visit the Titanic Belfast exhibition on a recent stay in the city that built the notorious ship.

What is the Titanic Belfast exhibition?

The Titanic Belfast exhibition is a huge museum dedicated to the building of the infamous vessel which sank on its maiden voyage. The world’s largest ship launched from its slipway in 1911 which can still be seen right outside the museum.

In the museum you’ll find stories about the construction of Titanic, what it meant for a ship that size to be built in Belfast, and first hand accounts of its fateful sinking on April 15, 1912. The Titanic Belfast exhibition museum is located in what is now dubbed the Titanic Quarter.

The museum opened in 2012. While not in the heart of Belfast, it is easy enough to walk there from the city center. From Belfast City Hall the walk will take about 30 minutes, or the G2 BRT bus will get you there in about half the time.

One of the first things that will strike you about the Titanic Belfast museum is how the exterior appears to be modeled on the bow of the ship. The building stands the same height as the hull of the Titanic, which will give you a sense of just how massive this ship was.

Getting Titanic Belfast exhibition tickets

If this museum is firmly on your “must see” list for Belfast, then you need to buy tickets in advance. While you might luck out and get tickets on the day, especially in the off-season, it’s a popular place and it really is worth booking in advance.

You can buy the tickets direct through Titanic Belfast online, or you can also get them through various reputable tour company sites like Viator. At time of writing this, the Titanic Belfast exhibition is still using timed entry tickets. When you arrive it will be obvious why – it can get pretty busy and crowds can bottleneck in some areas.

If you’re not staying in Belfast but are visiting from Dublin, there are tours that include the Giant’s Causeway with a stop at Titanic Belfast on the way back. It’s a long day trip, but the perfect way to see two of Northern Ireland’s most popular spots in one tour.

Where to stay in Belfast

Belfast is a very walkable city, so you can’t go wrong with most areas you’ll find hotels. Most people stick close to the center of Belfast, which is probably your best bet. That way you’ll have access to most of what the city has to offer, including the best restaurants and attractions.

Staying in Belfast on a weekend? It can get noisy around areas that have a lot of pubs, so bear that in mind. I ended up staying at the Ibis Belfast City Centre hotel. It’s a budget hotel, but with clean and spacious enough rooms. It’s a few minutes walk from the main center of Belfast so I found it a little quieter.

A couple of other good options are the Ramada by Wyndham Belfast City Centre hotel, and the Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre hotel. Both were very comfortable for a few days.

Looking for something unique? Try the Titanic Hotel Belfast. It’s right across from the Titanic Belfast exhibition museum, and is converted from the former offices of the shipbuilding company Harland & Wolff, who built the Titanic.

The Titanic Belfast exhibition experience

This has to be the number one visitor experience in Belfast. Whether you’re a history buff, interested in transport or engineering, or just as captivated by the story of Titanic as the rest of the world, this is the place for you too.

A Titanic entrance

From the entrance and ticket areas to the start of the Titanic Belfast exhibition you’ll travel up an escalator. From here you’ll be able to look down on the vast atrium, the central hub of the museum.

It’s an impressive sight to begin your visit, peppered with nautical designs and subtle references to shipbuilding and Titanic. Don’t forget to look down when you get even further up.

History of Belfast industries

Want to understand Titanic a bit more? Start with a deeper look into the people who built her. The museum starts by dipping a toe into the water of Belfast’s industrial past.

Learn about the workers, the shipyard that commissioned the construction of a headline-worthy ship (even before it sank), and how Belfast grew around the industries it served.

Storyboards will guide you through what felt like the busiest part of this museum. There’s a lot of information, and a lot of people trying to read it.

TOP VISITOR TIP: Hang back and let the crowds shuffle through at the beginning. Especially if there’s a group tour that enters around the time that you do. Often group tours have about 90-minutes or so, therefore they hustle a little quicker than you’ll want to.

Emigration in the 19th and 20th Century

Back in the early 20th Century emigration was huge. Everyone was looking for a better life in the United States, which is one of the reasons why shipbuilding was so huge at the time.

The museum touches on the appeal of moving overseas as well as the advertising that went into it. You’ll also discover stories of those who were successful and unsuccessful in their journey for a better life. The exhibit ties together how Belfast thrived as a result of people taking ships across the Atlantic to emigrate.

As someone who emigrated myself, I always find the stories of others around emigration fascinating. If you haven’t already been, I urge you to visit Ellis Island in New York City to understand more.

Interactive tours

The museum isn’t just storyboards and pictures. The Titanic Belfast exhibition does a great job of incorporating interactive elements too.

Virtual exhibits of Harland & Wolff staff members talking about the building of Titanic break the monotony of reading your way through a museum. There’s an interactive model where you can test your skills at constructing a ship. And there’s a virtual tour of the Titanic.

The most fun interactive experience is the shipyard ride. You’ll spot the line before you know what you’re lining up to see, but don’t worry it moves fast and is worth waiting for.

Get in a theme-park type car and take a journey through the building of Titanic, hearing from “shipbuilders” and learning facts about the construction.

If this isn’t your kind of thing you can skip the tour and not miss anything else. But I thought it was a really cool feature.

The building of Titanic

See the plans, the historic photos, and absorb plenty of Titanic facts you never knew you needed. The building of Titanic took over two years, all of which is summed up in this part of the museum.

At this section of the Titanic Belfast exhibition you will look out over the slipways and docks where the Titanic and Olympic were built side by side just meters away from where you are standing.

TOP TRAVEL TIP: Don’t forget to take a closer look after your visit to the museum, by wandering out back to the spot you can see from this window.

Finally see how the cabins and interior of the ship were kitted out. There’s a mock up of each class of cabin on the ship with period furniture. Some of them include more virtual conversations between ship passengers and staff. It’s incredible to see the differences between First Class and Third Class.

Artifacts and personal stories

It wouldn’t be a Titanic museum if there weren’t at least a few artifacts from the ship, or the people who traveled on it. This is maybe the most sobering area of the museum as it brings home the tragedy.

Read letters from passengers and crew onboard, sent at one of the stops before the journey across the Atlantic began. Hear personal stories from survivors told in their own voices and words.

There’s a menu from the Titanic, a life jacket and accounts of all the things that went wrong with the ship’s voyage. Next you can read about the maritime laws that have been put in place since as a result of Titanic’s sinking. A wall of names of every passenger or crew member who perished brings it all home as you’re led down a staircase to the last part of the Titanic Belfast exhibition.

Here there is a scale model, continuously rotating so you can see the ship from every angle. Beneath it is a glass walkway with images of the Titanic now, at the bottom of the ocean.

When I visited there were some addition artifacts here too. Most are on loan from private collections so they may change periodically. I was able to see items such as a manifest ticket and a pocket watch stopped at the exact time the Titanic sank.

For me though, the most impressive item was the violin played by the lead violinist of the Titanic band, Wallace Hartley. As a violin player myself, to see the violin he was playing as the Titanic sank (recovered later along with his body) was incredible.

What else can you do at the Titanic Belfast exhibition?

You won’t be short on things to do at Titanic Belfast. Allow a full morning or afternoon and don’t rush your way through. And that’s just for the Titanic Belfast exhibition itself.

Aside from the museum part of this masterpiece of a visitor attraction are plenty of other activities to take your time with. The ground floor has a wonderful gift shop. Selling everything you can think of putting the word Titanic on or a picture of the ill-fated ship, it’s impossible to leave without at least one item.

Next to that is a café selling snacks, light lunches and other refreshments. After walking through every nook and cranny of this eight-storey building, you’ll be in need of a sit down and some hydration.

Hickson’s Point bar can be found outside, adjacent to the museum. This traditional-style recreated 1900s pub has great food, live music and cold beer – just as 1900s shipbuilders would have enjoyed their local pub.

Make sure to explore the rest of the shipyards area including the slipways where the Titanic and Olympic were built. You can trace the ship using the white outlines on the ground which highlight the deck, the funnels, the benches and promenade.

Is the Titanic Belfast exhibition worth seeing?

The museum takes a leaf out of its muse’s book – impressive and almost beyond words. I’ve wanted to visit for so long, and it was way better than even I expected.

Plan to spend at least 2 hours making your way through the enthralling Titanic Belfast exhibition. Even if you don’t read everything you see, it’s a huge place and a couple of hours can easily disappear.

There are somber moments as you make your way around the Titanic Belfast exhibition. Getting caught up in the interesting facets of shipbuilding and the shiny dazzling grandeur of the world’s most famous ship, you’re periodically brought back to Earth with a dose of reality reading how it all ended.

It can often feel a little odd that Belfast seems proud of building a ship that sank on its first journey. But this tale will continue to fascinate people for generations, so where better to learn about it than the docks where it was built.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about the Titanic Belfast exhibition and my experience there, leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you visited, or would you visit Titanic Belfast? What are your thoughts on this museum?