East Belfast is the largest of the cities' 4 electoral wards and is serviced by a number of large arterial roads: the Cregagh Road, Castlereagh Road, Newtownards Road and Holywood Roads which all start in or close to the city centre.

East Belfast is a mainly residential and largely protestant area encompassing a wide range of housing from the working class terraced streets along the Beersbridge road, to wide tree lined avenues of Belmont and all areas in between. Despite it's being largely protestant nature East Belfast is generally the area of the city where newcomers of all religious and political persuasions to Belfast from within Northern Ireland will look to purchase houses in when they arrive in the city. The rationale for this may be that although South Belfast is often thought of as a desirable locale it is in many cases prohibitively expensive. North and West Belfast are even cheaper than the East but whilst both contain many pleasant neighbourhoods they still have a lot of echoes from the troubles that can put newcomers off. North Belfast especially has a large number of "interface areas" (regions where working class loyalist and republican areas meet) that can occasionally flare up into trouble. East Belfast, possibly because it has only one interface area and is relatively homogeneously protestant was less on the "coalface" of the troubles than both the North and the West.

• Stormont Parliament Buildings, Tel: 9025 0000. The parliament buildings are the home of the recently reinstated Northern Ireland Assembly. The buildings are massive and have marble interiors. The grounds are interesting in themselves, and a walk down the mile long road to the main parliament buildings is well recommended. Guided tours may be possible, telephone in advance.
• Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Tel: 9042 8428. This is approximately 8 miles north-east from Belfast City Centre and is most easily reached by train from Culta station. Open daily 10am-6pm, admission £6.50. It is one of Ireland's premier tourist attractions. It has an absolutely vast collection, and you could spend days exploring all of it. Highlights of the transport museum include a DeLorean (great scott!, etc.) and two train sheds full full of old steam locomotives and buses from Northern Ireland's past. The Folk Museum, on the other side of the railway line features a re-creation of an old Irish town. On Saturdays, there is a miniature railway operating, which is great fun. The folk museum is outdoors, so come prepared for the changeable Irish climate.