Moving to Belfast Megathread

nedzer2011

el tel wrote: »

This information is not hard to find at all :rolleyes:

http://belfastkayakclub.co.uk/about_us.html

Also

The Boat Club at Cutters Wharf, off Stranmillis, certainly has rowing (and tennis, gym etc.) would say they could point you in the right direction of canoeing if they don' offer it themselves.

Cheers.... Much appreciated!

Mike 1972

6679 wrote: »

How do I go about getting an GP in Belfast? Any recommendations?

Try and register at one of the bigger practices/medical centres.

In some of the smaller ones it can take ages to get an appointment. In a bigger one if you want to get seen urgently and your usual doctor is busy theyll try and fit you in with another one.

IIRC you need to register with something called the "Central Services Agency" first. They send you out a medical card (not to be confused with a similarly named document in the Republic) and you take it down to a medical centre/clinic and tell them you want to register. You can also use the medical card to register at a dentists (in some places you might run into problems if their books are full)

student89

Ok so been offered a job with Lloyd TSB in Dundonald and Im from donegal so I probably will have to move up, anyone any ideas what its like to live in Belfast? and what accommadation is like?

Thanks

spider guardian

student89 wrote: »

Ok so been offered a job with Lloyd TSB in Dundonald and Im from donegal so I probably will have to move up, anyone any ideas what its like to live in Belfast? and what accommadation is like?

Thanks

Cost of living here is relatively cheap, wages are that bit less than the Republic though. Good nightlife and a nice town feel, plenty to do and plenty of people around, you will enjoy it here

6679

I am moving house to Surrey St off Lisburn Rd. Should I avoid this street?

NI Grapevine

Cavehill Red wrote: »

You shouldn't have a problem at work. Maybe the very rare bit of stand-offishness from some bigoted types at worst.
The issue is more where you live. Things are a bit more fluid now, but there are still those who don't like 'themmuns' living among them. As a woman you're less likely to face hassle, though. And I've always found Belfast a much safer city than Dublin, for all its troubles.

Cavehill is giving good advice here

NI Grapevine

6679 wrote: »

I am moving house to Surrey St off Lisburn Rd. Should I avoid this street?

Surrey Street is quiet, no problems there.

spider guardian

NI Grapevine wrote: »

Surrey Street is quiet, no problems there.

Agreed. You shouldn't have any problems there. Close to tesco and the bus, you can't lose.

nedzer2011

NI Grapevine wrote: »

.....and not run by paramilitaries...

This sort of information should really be on your flyers!!

6679

Seeing that I have moved can anyone recommend a good doctor and dental surgery near the Lisburn Road.

6679

Also does anyone know where I can get a second hand bike around Belfast?

el tel

6679 wrote: »

Also does anyone know where I can get a second hand bike around Belfast?

You could try gumtree but be careful of stolen bikes and sellers with unrealistic valuations of their bikes.

Also, you can get some excellent value new bikes at Chain reaction Cycles on Boucher Road,

6679

Anyone recommend a good dental surgery near the Lisburn Road/Queens?

Had a look at http://www.theguildpractice.com/ but prices seem a bit high like £70 for a new patient check up.

niallhy

hi all.
i'm moving to Belfast for a months work soon and after checking up on daft most of the rents seem to be for a year and i'm not going to fork out for a hotel either for a month so can anyone here please recommend something like a b&b or suchlike i could stay in.i'm from kilkenny and catholic so would be looking for somewhere quiet and without parties going 24/7.all help much appreciated.and i will be working near the M1 if thats any help..

pow wow

Gumtree Belfast has a short-term lets section, usually B&Bs looking to fill up or cash-strapped folks who let their spare rooms on and off. The link is here. We used it to let our spare room here and there and found it great. You can also post a free ad there yourself in this section - a friend's done it before and had oodles of responses. I wouldn't put your phone number on public view though as you'll get all sorts phoning you

niallhy

thanks a million pow wow,i'll get on it straight away:)

househunter1

hey guys i see this thread has been inactive for a while but hopefully some of you can help. Myself and 3 friends are moving to Belfast to start work in Bombardier in Queens Island. We've been looking at property around the lisburn road, malone, stranmillis and ormeau road areas. Would this be a good area to choose in relation to heading into the city centre for nights out travelling to and from work? Also we're moving up from the south, would this area suit us? Thanks.

Isotonik

househunter1 wrote: »

hey guys i see this thread has been inactive for a while but hopefully some of you can help. Myself and 3 friends are moving to Belfast to start work in Bombardier in Queens Island. We've been looking at property around the lisburn road, malone, stranmillis and ormeau road areas. Would this be a good area to choose in relation to heading into the city centre for nights out travelling to and from work? Also we're moving up from the south, would this area suit us? Thanks.

Hmmm you can access the town quite easily from those areas but Queens Island is the other side of the city centre. Still it's not beyond impossible.

househunter1

Hi just on the off chance would anybody know anything about local soccer clubs in Belfast? I'm moving up from Dublin in the month or so and need to find a team up there. I found the Antrim league and divisions on line but I don't know if I should avoid teams from certain areas because i'm from the south. Would that even be an issue do you think? Thanks

Riverfarset

a few clubs in North Belfast you might be interested in:

Www.hibsbelfast.co.uk (a bunch of eejits but good craic as a i know a couple of them)

http://www.malachiansfc.com/index.html

http://newingtonfc.com/

south belfast club; Rosario Fc http://www.facebook.com/pages/rosario-football-club-belfast/158921324662

Hope that helps

ddogsbollix

Very sorry in advance for repeating everything..... just got a job in belfast working in the docks in the east. im from mayo so i would appreciate any advise on housing and soccer and gaelic teams that i would 'suit' as in im from mayo (self explanatory)

scared_to_move

Hej Hej!

I'll probably be moving to belfast from Stockholm early next year. I have two girls, 7 and 4. Can anyone give some tips on schooling? Whats the best way of transferring in the middle of the school year? Is it difficult? Both kids are fluent in English, so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem.

Also, what areas of the city are good to live in? I'd like to be outside the city, where I can afford a larger house. Is it better to rent or to buy? Whats a nice upscale neighbourhood thats ok with a non-catholic-protestant family who may have foreign sounding accents?:)

Thanks for the help!!

FarmersSon

Hi,

I would recommend living in Hillsborough Co. Down.

It is a large village 25 minutes from the center of Belfast by car. It is on the main arterial route to Belfast / Dublin, with good bus services to and from Belfast city center.

Large out of town shopping center 10 minutes away, with the largest Marks & Spencer on the island of Ireland, Sainsburys, Boots, Next, etc etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough,_County_Down


Lots of good primary schools in the area, Downshire Primary in the village itself, and Meadow Bridge Primary further out.

Plenty of restaurants & bars, shops and amenities, too.

Large forest park, with historic fort, lake, ducks, etc.

Regard to any accents, no one will bat an eyelid. I have heard plenty of Irish, German, English accents about the village.

Check out propertynews.com . That is the main source of information regarding properties for sale and to rent within Northern Ireland.

http://www.propertynews.com/

hawkwind23

Hillsborough is a good shout

i would recommend Holywood or any of the towns along the coast from there to Bangor.

excellent rail links to the city centre and an easy commute with the car.

can walk along the whole coast

schools some of the best in Northern Ireland.

It can be expensive however

hungry hippo 4

God help ya mate!

martinedwards

North Down is REALLY expensive.

Jordanstown on the North side of Belfast Lough is a bit cheaper and the schools are just as good.

as to trains, Jordanstown & North Down are equal

driving in, Jordanstown has more free flowing traffic than North Down. Hillsborough will take a LOT longer to drive into Belfast in rush hour.

Hillsborough is very nice, but also expensive (because its very nice!) after all, its got a castle where the Queen stays when shes in the province......

The housing market is at the start of an upturn after a LONG dip, so it's the perfect time to buy.

as to schooling, schools have to keep a few spaces for kids moving into the area. the later in the year you are, the fewer spaces will be available.

the general standard of education here is pretty good, but just like every where else, there are good schools and not so good.

we moved house by 300m when our eldest was 2 to get into the catchment area of an excellent school.

each school has it's own set of admission criteria. heres a wee linky that might help......

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/applying-for-a-school-place-admissions-criteria

one wee thing, I taught kids who had moved from Holland.

perfect English, the integrated very well, but where everyone else was taking their GCSE exams at 16, they both took GCSE Dutch at 14 and scored very high marks because they were obviously fluent.

your kids are too young for that yet, but well worth remembering (and pushing for) as very few schools will run classes in Swedish, but entry for the exam is very simple, so long as you don't mind doing a (tiny) bit of home schooling for it.

catrionanic

Holywood and Hillsborough are indeed very pretty, but very expensive to boot!

I was brought up on the upper Antrim Road, just before it becomes Glengormley. Fantastic schools there and never any trouble. It's a majority Catholic area but there were quite a few people from further afield living in the community and there was never any trouble - if anything, as kids we were MORE interested in new students who moved to the school if they were from somewhere abroad as it made them more interesting.

The schools up there are awesome - Our Lady of Lourdes Park Lodge is one of the best in the city. St Therese of Liseux is also very good. Transport links to city centre are great, and if you're driving in it'll only take less than 10 minutes.

The only downside is that you're never too far away from an interface.

Zcott

South Belfast is good too, around Ormeau Road/Saintfield Road.

IS_a_Class

hey guys, galway lad here. Thinking of moving up there with my wife and considering an offer. What do you think is the minimum net income that a couple could live on up there?

el tel

If you don't mind me asking, would you be working in Belfast and do you have a budget for rent or house price?

I would not necessarily recommend living outside of the city, but rather on the outskirts.

Saintfield Road is nice, good new schools (e.g. St Ita's). As is Rosetta area.

Malone and off-Malone (Lisburn Road) is great too but expensive.