Belfast: Harbor Walks, City History and Art

Belfast can be explored from different perspectives: the harbor and its waterfront paths invite outdoor activities, while the museum and guided city tour put the city’s history in the spotlight. In June, the annual Arts in the Park festival adds to the cultural offerings. As you plan your trip, consider whether you’d like to experience Belfast mainly outdoors, learn more about its history, or plan your stay around an arts event.

Exploring the Harbor

The Belfast Harbor Walk runs along the waterfront in downtown Belfast. The short, scenic loop is about 0.8 miles long and can be used for walking, cycling, or jogging. This makes it easy to include a manageable stretch of waterfront in your day’s plans; the figure describes the length of the trail, not how long it will take you. If you enjoy exploring Belfast on the move, you can choose between a walk, a bike ride, and a jog.

Belfast Public Landing also serves people visiting Belfast by water or planning boating activities. It has a boat launch ramp and adjacent parking for boat trailers. The landing also offers transient and rental slips. Seasonal slips are available at Thompson’s Wharf.

A Former Rail Corridor and a Waterfront Trail

The Belfast Rail Trail is a former railroad corridor that has been converted into a walking trail. It is 2.2 miles long. Together with the approximately 0.8-mile Belfast Harbor Walk, this gives you two trails of different lengths to choose from. When choosing a route for your stay, you can take these distances into account and consider whether you’d prefer to include the shorter harbor loop or the longer former rail corridor trail in your plans.

Discover Belfast’s History

The Belfast Historical Society and Museum presents Belfast’s history through vintage photographs, maps, postcard collections, and interpretive exhibits. These different materials offer a range of ways to explore local history: photographs and postcards show visual and everyday-life records, while maps provide a distinct perspective on Belfast. If you enjoy learning about a place through specific historical objects and representations, you’ll find a different focus here than on a stay devoted mainly to trails and the harbor.

Another way to learn about the city’s history is Museum in the Streets: a guided tour of Belfast that explores the city’s past. You can choose between a museum visit featuring photographs, maps, postcards, and exhibits, and a guided tour. Both offerings put Belfast’s history in the spotlight, but they present it in different ways.

Art in June

Arts in the Park takes place every June in Belfast. The festival showcases about 100 artists and craftspeople at Steamboat Landing Park. If you’re planning to visit Belfast this month, you can make the festival a distinct cultural highlight of your trip.

When choosing a vacation rental in Belfast, it may help to first decide what kind of trip you want: would you like to spend time at the harbor, on the waterfront trail, and around the boating facilities; are you interested in the city’s history; or are you especially drawn to the arts festival in June? This way, you can focus your search on the experiences that matter to you, rather than treating the different offerings as one single itinerary.

More places to discover as you plan your trip: Lincolnville, Searsport, Stockton Springs, Winterport.

For the broader travel overview: Waldo County.