Discover the delights of Dublin and wonders of Belfast

Dublin is a city apart, a place of whimsy, imagination and enormous fun. Here the word craic is supreme in all its forms - spoken, written or sung.

The trick to getting the most out of a visit is joining in the craic - and not to miss a single thing: from elegant Georgian doors to one of Europe's finest new theatres.

The key to seeing it all is to ride the red bus. Dublin is one of those cities where that staple of big city tourism, the 'hop-on, hop-off' red bus sightseeing tour, is the best way to join up so many surprises.

Dublin was once the second city in the British Empire after London, with prosperity to match, and grand buildings worthy of Vienna.

From the top deck we ticked off the best of the randomly scattered legacy, stepping off for such unexpected marvels as Caravaggio's The Taking Of Christ - only discovered in the Nineties - in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Then out to the great green spread of Phoenix Park - there is room for four Hyde Parks - speared by a two-mile long tree-lined avenue.

Or you could wander Dublin on foot, listening to a free podcast audio guide (visitdublin.com). To misquote Henry Ford, you can have any colour of Dublin door, as long as it isn't black.

We saw green, yellow, red, blue and cerise. They come single and double, generally up a short, graceful flight of stone steps, in the city's elegant Georgian squares. Some of the best are on FitzWilliam and Merrion Squares. The 30 Dublin doors poster, based on a collage of photographs in the Irish Tourist Board's New York office in the Seventies, became one of the most successful promotional images for any city.

Many magnificent doors were lost in the Fifties and Sixties, when 18th Century houses were cleared to make way for offices. Fortunately, a campaign by conservationists halted the madness.

Crazy as it sounds, the finest view of the Irish capital is from inside a drink. The glass-walled bar on the seventh floor of the Guinness Storehouse, atop the 250-year-old brewery, is shaped like a gigantic beer glass. We stood in the bar on the top of the 'pint'. This place is unlike any other of the many, friendly pubs of Dublin. You are not here to talk, but to gaze in silent wonder. Free drink in hand - there's a pint of Guinness for making it to the top - we previewed Dublin's marvels, spread out below.

The windows are adorned with lines from James Joyce's descriptions of his home city from his novels. In direct line of sight behind them are the locations in question.

Joyce was just one of a huge cast of literary giants. Dublin is powered by the pen. How can a single city produce so many great writers? There are four Nobel prize winners for literature alone - led by that bearded titan George Bernard Shaw. Other greats include Bram Stoker (Dracula), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) and Oscar Wilde.

Every April the city encourages people to read the same book - in 2013 it is Strumpet City by James Plunkett (dublinonecityonebook.ie). Look out for the new Samuel Beckett Bridge over the Liffey, the shape of a giant harp on its side. Don't miss Shaw's birthplace, a neat terraced house in Synge Street. Or the Writers Museum, which celebrates the city's literary heroes (writersmuseum.com). In the city where many a tiny pub can claim to be the centre of the world for music and comedy, they play it big, too.

The 2,111-seat Grand Canal Theatre opened in 2010 and last year changed its name to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, evidently a sponsorship thing (bordgaisenergytheatre.ie).

This big, bold building by the river Liffey, the largest theatre in Ireland, is by architect Daniel Libeskind, who won the competition to rebuild on the Twin Towers site in New York. This year's performances range from Carmen to The Lion King. The show goes on inside and out, with the piazza in front of the complex an outdoor stage for free events. Another 21st Century creation is the 390ft Monument of Light - which is like a giant silver tin tack - on O'Connell Street.

The bustling and beautiful Art Deco cafe Bewley's on Grafton Street was restored to full Twenties splendour in 2006, complete with stained-glass windows and statuary.

Writers and artists went here for coffee the morning after the pub before. Now it provides balm for passengers who have just got off the early flights from the UK.

We took the whole deal, the full Irish breakfast, before heading out for a day of exploration in one of Europe's greatest cities.

For further information on Dublin, visit visitdublin.com and discoverireland.ie.

Reborn city pushes the boat out...

Peace came to Belfast in the late Nineties, and the city has been riding a wave of optimism ever since. They've even turned a maritime disaster into a tourist triumph, in the Titanic Quarter. But I found the strongest statement of reconciliation in, of all places, the new Victoria Square shopping complex.

Here the commemorative plaque relates that Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness - once bitter enemies - performed the opening ceremony. If they can agree, you feel anything is possible in the world.

Our guide on the open-top bus tour gave an excellent commentary as we weaved around the key city locations, from the outrageous excess of Stormont Castle, set imperiously on the hill above Belfast, to the tragic Falls Road and Shankill Road, still divided by an enormous wall.

The Ulster Museum is a splendidly up-beat 21st Century antidote to 20th Century pain, even though one section deals candidly with The Troubles.

Inside the atrium is a four storey-high steel and glass tower that's called Window On Our World and houses random wonders. I saw Ireland's most complete dinosaur fossil, Viking brooches, gold coins from the Spanish Armada, a Solomon Islands canoe, Alexander McQueen's Hummingbird Dress and a Chambers car built in Belfast in 1908.

First place in the city's boasting book is Titanic Belfast, a six-floor building opened last year. Its glittering façade is made up of 3,000 silver anodized aluminium sheets. Galleries explore the sights, sounds, smells and stories of the ship.

I slipped easily between the eras on a short stroll around the city centre.

The big confident post-Troubles statement, Waterfront Hall, is busy with conferences and concerts. Close by is the symbol of late Victorian pride, the magnificent City Hall.

In Great Victoria Street, opposite the ornate Grand Opera House, there's a perfect little gem. It's the National Trust's Crown Liquor Saloon, decorated by Italian craftsmen who came over to build the Catholic churches in the 1880s, all scalloped gas lights, gleaming brass work, etched glass, floors of mosaic tiles, and cosy snugs.

I stayed at the five-star Culloden Hotel, a great slab of stone-built Victorian elegance in sloping parkland six miles out of town, overlooking Belfast Lough. A five-minute taxi ride from the airport, it's a great base for exploring this emerging city.

Getting there

For more information visit gotobelfast.com

The Culloden Hotel (028 9042 1066, hastingshotels.com) offers a two-night break including one dinner, breakfast each morning and use of spa from £155pp.

Float all the way to the Emerald Isle

Stena Line (08447 707070, stenaline.co.uk/NFF using code KIDS) offers free travel for children if you book by March 16 for travel up to next January. It offers crossings from Holyhead to Dublin Port and Dun Laoghaire as well as from Cairnryan and Liverpool to Belfast. One way fares start at £79 one way for car plus driver.

P&O Ferries (08716 646464, poferries.com/ferryfortnight) has crossings from Liverpool to Dublin and from Cairnryan to Larne near Belfast all year. There's a high-speed summer service from Troone to Larne. Return fares start at £188 for car plus two.

Irish Ferries (08717 300400 quoting NFF10, irishferries.com) offers free travel for children if booked by March 19.

Fares from Holyhead to Dublin start at £79 one way for car plus driver.

Irish Mail