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Review: the Hilton Belfast hotel, newly refurbished

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This is our review of the Hilton Belfast hotel, which has recently been refurbished.

The last stop on my mini tour of Liverpool and Belfast was the Hilton Belfast hotel. The Hilton was one of the first international hotels to open in the city back in 1998 as part of the redevelopment along the River Lagan.

It has recently undergone a £10 million refurbishment of all the rooms and public spaces. It marginally increased its room count to 202 by moving the Executive Lounge to the ground floor.

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Head for Points paid for its room, but at a slightly reduced media rate.

Where is the Hilton Belfast hotel?

You’ll find the Hilton Belfast just East of the city centre, on a little peninsula of the River Lagan. It is next door to the Waterfront Hall and just across the street from St Georges Market. Lanyon Place, one of the train stations, is also very close.

Whilst it is on the fringes of the city centre, Belfast is tiny and very walkable – it won’t take you very long to get into town.

Inside the Hilton Belfast hotel

To its credit, the hotel has done an excellent job in the refurbishment and it looks very smart. Immediately as you walk in you are greeted by a number of reception and concierge desks, with seating on the right surrounded by a feature staircase to the first floor where you’ll find a range of meeting rooms.

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Suites at Hilton Belfast

I was checked in very quickly. The hotel was fairly busy with corporate guests so I was lucky to be upgraded to what I believe is one of the top corner suites in the hotel, on the 13th floor.

This was, of course, complete overkill for a one night stay (I probably spent about 14 hours in the hotel in total!) but I hope it gives you a good impression of how the refurbishment has gone.

This is a one bedroom suite. The first room is an open plan living / dining room:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

On the left is a large bathroom with bathtub with double washbasins:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

This is the larger of the two bathrooms, with the other featuring only a shower and one washbasin.

Here is the rest of the room:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

The minibar is hidden away in the TV stand, which is a bit of an odd choice for it given there are plenty of console tables elsewhere. The mini fridge was empty and there was only a kettle available – no coffee machine, as far as I could tell, which is odd for a top suite.

In the next room is the bedroom. This can be fully private or open thanks to two doors that disappear into the walls:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

The bed is big and there were numerous outlets on both sides:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Next to the bed is an armchair and coffee table whilst in the left hand corner you’ll also find a large corner desk with views across the river:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

To the right of the bed you’ll find the small bathroom. It’s fairly cramped – just enough for one person:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Toiletries are the standard Hilton Crabtree & Evelyn, but the packaging has been rebranded and now looks much smarter:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Oddly, some face soaps were still in the old brand – clearly the hotel is still making its way through old stocks.

Opposite the bathrooms is a large wall of wardrobes:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

The rooms had clearly had a full makeover, although the air conditioning units were prehistoric and in need of user-friendly replacement:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

The rooms also had a dis-ordinate number of light switches which all seemed to do similar jobs. It took me about five minutes to get all the lights off before I went to bed!

Hilton Belfast Executive Lounge & breakfast

I arrived just in time to enjoy the final hour of happy hour in the Hilton Executive Lounge.

As previously noted, this has changed during the refurbishment. It used to be on the 12th floor and has now moved onto the ground floor in the middle of the lobby. Whilst I’m told it is now physically bigger, it has unfortunately lost any natural light and the views it previously commanded.

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

It is still nicely done, however:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Whilst the food is self-service, drinks are poured by one of the staff members. Fortunately, she was excellent and came around multiple times before last orders.

The food itself was basic. The only hot items were quiches and chicken skewers:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

A small charcuterie was also available, plus cheese, bread and various other accompaniments:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Breakfast in the Riverside Restaurant

Whilst a small breakfast is available in the lounge, a more substantial offering is available at the Riverside Restaurant. This is a lovely, light filled space with views across the river and a small outdoor patio which must be great in better weather.

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

The breakfast comes in a buffet format and is fully self-serve. Once you check in at reception you can literally sit anywhere (and fetch your own tea / coffee in the process).

The buffet is in a side room. Hot items include everything you’d want for a full English breakfast, with scrambled eggs, baked beans, (cheap-looking) sausages, bacon and more. The tomatoes were a little underdone I thought.

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

There’s also a number of pastries:

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

Plus cereals, yoghurts and a small selection of other items.

Review Hilton Belfast hotel

To be perfectly honest, it isn’t the most impressive breakfast ever, but what was particularly silly was the mismatching cutlery at each table. It just comes across as cheap.

Conclusion

If you think Hilton hotels are boring and business-focused with no character, it is worth taking another look. We are, slowly, seeing Hilton start to refresh its properties with modern and stylish design, and the Hilton Belfast is just the latest to get it.

Overall, I would stay at the Hilton Belfast hotel again. Whilst there is still some room for improvement, it boasts stylish rooms (although I’m not sure why the AC controls were missed during the refurb) and some lovely views across the river.

Room rates start at around £120 per night, although they can occasionally dip lower. Redemptions start at 28,000 points. You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.


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Comments (53)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    That’s actually one of the simplest hotel air con units I’ve seen in a while!

    • CamFlyer says:

      Most importantly, does it do anything? I’ve gotten fed up with room controls that do absolutely nothing, regardless of what buttons one pushes or the temperature it shows. I’ve feel like I’ve had these in ~50% of the properties I visit (all 4*/5*).

      • Andi F says:

        Yes! I have visited this Hotel a few times since October (when this refurbishment had already been completed) and the aircon works really well and is actually quite intuitive.

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        Yes they’re often switched off centrally or at least restricted in temperature range

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      That was my first thought too – I’ll take those controls any day over some touchscreen with a load of ambiguous symbols relating to mysterious “modes”.

  • Frankie says:

    Rhys. I do think you mean “an Ulster fry”.

  • Davis says:

    Having grown up in Belfast and having stayed at the Hilton Belfast many times maybe I can explain more about the breakfast:

    The breakfast you are being offered is an Ulster Fry which is similar to an English Breakfast but slightly different. It has more types of fried bread including potato bread and soda bread which I don’t think you mentioned.

    It has local sausages – traditionally Cookstown or Denny sausages (the major local brands and much beloved by locals) which you considered “cheap” but which are one of the things that most remind me about home and which I look forward to most when I go home.

    The Ulster Fry doesn’t have baked beans and I thought it very bizarre the first time I went to the mainland and saw them being served for breakfast. Hotels in NI tend to serve them as English guests expect them.

    When I stayed last at Hilton Belfast in April, the breakfast was one of the best hotel breakfast I had had in ages.

    • Richie says:

      Thanks for the explanation, sounds better than in the pic.

    • Rhys says:

      Thanks! Didn’t know that. Although I think some people might also like Richmond sausages because they remind them of home – doesn’t mean they’re good….

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        Richmond sausages a best seller apparently, nuff said about English diets, obesity, diabetes Ill health etc almost makes me want to call for smashed avocado on toast

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      Well blow me down I’ve enjoyed a good Irish breakfast before many times but didn’t realise the peace dividend hadn’t got to brekkers and so we have the Ulster Fry! You’ll be telling me the hotel has its own peace wall next! Papists on 1st floor and Proddies on 2nd floor

  • Mat says:

    Last time I stayed at this property was after previous Christmas which they just opened their doors to guests after a short hiatus.
    Although executive room that I was upgraded to was quite good and onsite staff were all welcoming and friendly, but Executive Lounge and Breakfast offerings were abysmal!
    For example, in the lounge there weren’t any biscuits nor nonalcoholic beverages during the day since all were in a locked fridge that would become available in the evening only to be “guarded” by the lounge staff! Which I’ve never seen such a scene in any Hilton anywhere in EU/England/Wales! Hilton Lounges may offer cheap wines/beers but they would never offer it like they did in Belfast!

    Breakfast was abysmal in a sense that a lot of usual items were missing! Not much fresh fruits, nor waffles, tomatoes, etc. some mornings even teabags were missing!

    Housekeeping wasn’t available much either since in a 5nights stay I only had two times service which happened only after complaining about no one serving the room while having sign for service on the room door for days!

    I did have a talk with the GM but he was rather dismissive and just contributed everything mentioned above to lack of staff.

  • TooPoorToBeHere says:

    Air conditioning in Belfast?

    I mean…I guess a few days a year…

    • Rhys says:

      The sun was streaming into my room, it was quite hot!

      • TooPoorToBeHere says:

        Close curtains, open window.

        God, I sound like my parents.

  • Peter W-G says:

    “Room rates start at around £120 per night…” How much, on average for your suite Rhys? It looks great for a longer stay.

  • rob keane says:

    “Belfast is tiny”.
    It definitely isn’t.

    How was you walk from belfast city airport ?

    • ken says:

      Belfast City Centre is pretty tiny and you can walk to everywhere worth seeing easily. So is Liverpool city centre, so is Leeds or Newcastle.

      What possible relevance the airport is I’m not sure (I’d walk it in 90 mins easily though, probably get to Titanic experience in less than an hour).

      Its a great city with some magnificent buildings, great pubs and some decent restaurants. Perfect place for a 2 or 3 day city break.

    • Richie says:

      Rhys arrived by ferry.

    • Kevin says:

      Everything is relative but Belfast City Centre per se is one of the smallest city centres of all UK cities. The accepted boundaries of the city centre (defined as the “central part or main business and commercial area of a city”) are the University of Ulster campus in the north of the city, Botanic Gardens and Queens University in the south, the river Lagan to the east and the A12 dual carriageway (Westlink) to the west. It takes about 30 minutes to walk east to west and 40 minutes north to south. Of course some areas which could be classed as being in the city centre do exist just beyond these arbitrary boundaries eg. The SSE Arena.

      The Greater Belfast area stretches some 8-10 miles beyond this. Although not officially part of the city centre, the majority of this 60 square mile area is controlled by Belfast City Council. These areas mainly comprise of housing although major roads leading from the city centre are populated with shops, cafes, restaurants, banks, hospitals and hotels. The majority of these areas are referred to by their specific names. Examples include. Andersonstown, Strandtown and Ardoyne.

    • Bluekjp says:

      Belfast City Airport to Titanic Quarter takes me just under 40 minutes on foot. The first stage is along the pavement by the dual carriageway which is unpleasant like any dual carriageway. The second stage is through Victoria Park which is very pleasant indeed. The third and final stage is through an industrial park which is bland but has the big advantage of being right up close within touching distance of the iconic Samson and Goliath for great photo opportunities if it’s your first visit.

  • Thomas Carroll says:

    You left out the bottle of Bushmills whiskey that tends to sit beside the porridge at breakfast. The ideal way to start the day!

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