Thinking of heading to Belfast for a weekend and hope to take in a "bit" of shopping. Im looking for a really central hotel. Can anyone recommend one that is literally on the main shopping street?
Belfast city centre is quite small. Neither Days Inn nor the Europa are on the main shopping street but both are within a few minutes walk (Days is slightly further).
Foxylady, the Europa is not next to Central station which is where trains from Dublin come in when they have some rails to cross over the Broadmeadow Estuary! It is right by the main bus station.
Holiday Inn is near to Days Inn, slightly closer to the shopping area. Hilton is between the train station and the city centre shopping, Radisson is closer to the train station than town.
Belfast is a nice compact city centre so if you can handle ten minutes walk there are plenty of nice options.
Jurys Hotel is about 5 mins walk away from the main shopping streets, only problem is that it doesn't have it's own parking, if you arrive early enough you can park down the side street beside it. If you need to park then personally I'd use the Days Inn or the Premier Inn both very reasonable, no frills but clean and comfortable. I second what So-crates says; there is a train station beside the Europa but it's not the station where trains from the Republic arrive.
P.S. There are at least two other reasons why Jurys is a good choice - it's beside the Opera House which is well worth a visit and just down the road from the Crown Bar which is a great place to recover from the shopping!
I went up there last year after the New Year and we stayed in Benedicts hotel. it was a little outside the city centre but only £4 in a taxi. There was a pub nearby and the food was brilliant and they had a good night scene. Hotel was top marks and very resonable.
For anyone looking from now on for a central hotel in Belfast: belfastcentrehotels.com. Hope I helped in advance a lot of people, because I've read this question many times, until now, and no one answered back. So...this is me, helping. Kisses.
We stayed in Jurys last year - nice hotel but Very quiet. The Crown bar was good & don't forget the Banbridge outlet centre - did a lot of damage there - but the bargains were really good.