Shopping Up North!

Siogfinsceal

Hi everyone,

Im thinking of heading up North for spot of shopping at the weekend and possibly staying over. As belfast is 3hrs and Newry 2.5 hours from my starting point I was thinking of Enniskillen which isnt too far away. Have any of you been and whats it like? Im heading in the morning so any info would be really appreciated!!

narommy

I don't know about the weekends but I was up there mid week and it was dead.

There seemed to be a few things advertised for the weekend. They have a theatre and cimema out the road and Whetherspoons where there is cheap food and drink.

Was put up in the Rosberry Hotel. Was basic and cheap but you wouldn't eat or drink there.

There high street is reasonable

Oriel

Enniskillen is probably going to be crap. You may as well make a day of it and come to Belfast for the whole day

sandyg

If your shopping in Newry at least sainsburys and 90% of other shops there take euro which can be handy when you see the bargins!!:D

BoozyBabe

Enniskillen is complete crap, absolutely no worthwhile shops in it.
Wouldn't waste your while.
Really Newry or Belfast are your best bets.

I quite like Craigavon myself, always seem to come home with loads (where practically anywhere else I come home empty handed:- i hate shopping)

But whatever you decide:- avoid Enniskillen

Oh, for staying over:- Portadown is right beside Craigavon & there would be plenty of accomodation there.

One point:- Portadown is very "Great Britain", so just a note in case you'd be put off by that.

dundalk cailin

Yep Newry is great..and i only live bout 20mins away no thanks to the motorway

My mam sometimes stops in Sprucefield (near Belfast) on her way to Belfast so if you wanted to go that tiny bit further?

declanoneill

Dunnes in Newry give a very good rate of exchange, €1 = £0.70. Assuming you've got your own car, it wouldn't be a bad idea to turn the trip into a beer run

Oriel

Siogfinsceal,
Come up north, have a cuppa with me

franksm

Belfast ! It's only another 40 mins up the road from Newry, and there's a real buzz about the place, you'll love it.

Flukey

I was in Enniskillen in 2004 to do some Christmas shopping. I was not impressed. So either go elsewhere in the North or just take a trip down to your local shop.

biko

Belfast, Newry or Lisburn's Bow street mall http://www.bowstreetmall.co.uk/
Check the North forum http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=184

Riamfada

Its great cause you can smoke up there. Thats the best bit.

Oriel

Siogfinsceal, how did you get on then?

franksm

Bet she's got a norn-iron accent now.

"hey, you up there on that there horse ! Get dine on the wee grind nigh"

Siogfinsceal

heya funny story actually! thank you for all the advice by the way im definately hoping to get to Craigavon or Portadown soon. We hadnt realised last weekend was valentines weekend - d'oh!! and everywhere was jam packed so we needed a hotel room that Saturday and realised it wasnt going to be easy to get one ( we never book anything). So we had to ring my mam and get her to find us a hotel - the hotel book she had just had hotels in the south and we ended up in a hotel in kilkenny which was very nice but we only got it on a cancellation - v lucky!!!

mise_me_fein_V2

Newry's not all that hot as regards shopping.

Head on to Belfast.

By the way, Kildare to Enniskillen is probably the gonna take the same amount of time as to Belfast with the m1.

I'm from mid louth and i can get to Newry in 30 mins and it only takes me just over an hour to get to parts of Kildare.

go through Lucan and Ratoath and then on to the m1 turning in the duleek directions.

Siogfinsceal

I live in Kildare but woul dhave been heading from Leitrim on saturday if I was going up North as I was there on Friday night. Thats why I was asking about Enniskillen its not that far from Leitrim but from whats been said its prob better to travel further for the better shopping elsewhere

nlgbbbblth

I go to Belfast once or twice a year.

The HMV and Virgin there are far better than their Dublin counterparts.
A much better selection (i.e. they don't seem to 'have a problem' stocking certain items like down here) at lower prices.

fdevine

generally go to belfast myself

newry is ok, but belfast is much better

went to lisburn before xmas and thought it was better than newry

if i had to choose - belfast

like someone else said, HMV, Virgin are great. GAME is good. Penneys/Primark is huge. Castlecourt Centre is excellent and lots of smaller shops very close to each other too

Endurance Man

My folks head up to Sainsburys once a week and do all their grocery shopping, my mom is a fruit nut and the Tesco "range" just doesnt cut it for her.

cournioni

Newry is a good spot. You have the Buttercrane and the Quays there. Need I say more?

Siogfinsceal

all thi stalk of shopping is making me want to go now! ;-) im gonna plan a trip up soon to Belfast!!