Nov 6, 2024
Amazing and insightful tour led by Marti - Great tour, very interesting and insightful, would highly recommend!
Would also advise taking the music and street art tour as well
Our guide Marti was available at short notice and made us feel safe throughout
Very passionate about the topic as well as peace and climate change in general, which was amazing, Marti got his messages through very well!
Focused on peace and maintaining peace without forgetting past events
Objective and lovely guide, thorough and impressive knowledge, lots of information and key points about the history of Northern Ireland
Good amount of walking, covered a lot of ground and history through street murals. Very informative and interesting!
Breath of fresh air
Very interesting artwork, food for thought!
Lots of useful local recommendations for drinks/dinner/live music after the tour
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 12, 2024
Political Murals and Street Art - Really enjoyed this tour. My husband and I arrived a bit late but the tour guide sent us a message and waited for us. The tour guide covered an incredible amount of information and took us to some very interesting places. He was very knowledgeable
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 9, 2024
Belfast's difficult road to the future - Very interesting and upsetting experience with a dedicated and well informed guide. Highly recommended!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 5, 2024
Fascinating, insightful & thoroughly recommended. - An amazing tour where you learned so much as an outsider gazing in on a complex issue. Thanks for a fascinating insight. A fabulous thought provoking three hours.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 4, 2024
Healing through art - Marti is an encyclopedia of his beloved Belfast. A historian who lived it and walks the very thin line that is needed to preserve the peace. To win the peace. Such amazing insights to a complicated situation. You will not regret it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aug 19, 2024
Memorable - I took this tour last week. It was really interesting and I learnt a lot.
But.... the amazing bit is how much I have thought about it afterwards. My mind keeps coming back to the tour... not really the pieces of information, but the memory of the nature of Belfast... the awful troubles but, more importantly, the sense of moving forwards, with one eye on the past (but not two).
I have tried to tell people about it, but I really can't capture the sense that Marti gave through his words and the murals and places he showed us.
It is a detailed tour.... not an easy listen... but worth it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jul 28, 2024
Take this tour for a different understanding of Belfast’s past, present and future! - Marti provides an excellent overview of the nuances other considerations of the history of Belfast during, in particular, the las century. Walking in the areas of the Peace Wall and other community gathering places, it was easier to see the Belfast of today vs that of years in the past. A very interesting tour!
Review provided by Viator
Sep 18, 2024
A curate's egg - Tour – This is a 3 hour guided walking tour which starts from MAC building in St. Anne’s Square – it is a lot cheaper than taking the Black Taxi tour that appears at many of the stops on this tour
There was a lot of walking – different underfoot surfaces - some uphill - often at speed – across busy roads – through housing estates – through security gates with views of the walls separating the communities
Many views of the murals on the Peace Wall – some disturbing - others controversial especially referring to the fallen from the Troubles as well as those reflecting a pro-Palestine agenda – we had a comfort break after about 2 hours – we ended close to Kelly’s Cellars pub and the community centre next door
Guide - Marti - good to start with a detailed explanation of the history of Ireland as background to the tour – but he often talks with his back to you whilst walking at pace - at different volumes - strident to a whisper - lost my attention at the Falls Road – for me he mixed messages and opinions amongst a smatterings of fact – as well as seeming to think he could be a target for assignation - overly theatrical - seemed to think that Belfast invented Peace and could export the process to anywhere in our troubled world – didn’t impress a couple from Israel who were faced with some very graphic pro-Palestine murals – the walls told a different story.
Despite Marti - this tour route was interesting and instructive – clearly wounds haven’t fully healed and the divide is still being enforced by gates – being in a guided group gave the feeling of security in areas we would have been reluctant to visit on our own – so despite my reservations this tour is a must when visiting Belfast – thank you.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 16, 2024
Interesting tour but dry presentation - The explanation of the complex history of the Island of Ireland, with multiple groups forming and unforming. Descriptions of the most recent events in the last 60 years. The tour leader appeared a bit reluctant to engage with questions. More interaction with the group would have been better. We left before the end of the tour so I can’t comment on the elements we missed.
Review provided by Viator
Jul 26, 2024
Informative but awkward - We did this tour yesterday and firstly, we must give Marti credit for his knowledge on the troubles dating way back to 5-8000 bc. He is sure knowledgable! The tour felt like a school field trip as we were hit with a plethora of information from beginning to end. Questions are not always welcomed as the guide was quite rude to a lady in our group when asked about one of the many facts that we were given. This was within the first 10 minutes of the tour which sort of lost all of our full attention for the next 3 hours. The vast majority of the tour was really good, as previously mentioned! If you want a lot of information and a personal/historical view on the troubles, then definitely go with Marti, however other members of the tour with whom we stayed with after the tour had finished, felt Marti was rude and there was another issue with a local due to some comments he made out loud about the area of Shankill road… awkward.
All in all I think it was a decent tour, but on this occasion there were too many awkward moments… all due to the guide and his manner! The three stars are for his knowledge alone!
Review provided by Viator