Tell your loved ones you are off to Northern Ireland and almost certainly they will grip your arm and ask you if you sincerely know what you are doing. Then tell them that Belfast is your destination and they will shake their heads regretfully.

Of course the 'troubles' that have plagued this land for decades have damaged more than just tourism. Families, towns, and cities have suffered and it would be irresponsible to say the effects are not visible. Speak to almost anyone in 'the north' and they will know someone who died in this bomb blast or that. Some count family members in the toll.

It will take generations for the scars to heal, but already the wounds are closing. Corinne McAllister took me to the end of Potinger Lane on which her Belfast pub the Morning Star stands, and showed me where the barricades had once stood. On this sunny day with crowds of lunch hour workers hurrying to get in some shopping as well as a sandwich, it was impossible to imagine a city which, under ten years ago would detonate any car left parked unattended within the centre of the city.

Corinne is not Irish though. An Australian with a broad Irish brogue, ("I had to learn to talk this way," she defends herself, "So the staff would understand me") she and her Irish husband-chef, Seamus, have been here for a dozen years although Corinne has been in Ireland since 1982.

The pub is packed out the day we visit, and we order, of course fish and chips and she joins us as we sit in one of the heavy leather booths in between spurts of jumping up to check an order, or play front of house welcomer. "We love it here," she says, "We have two children and we are happy to raise them here - now".

But why come here as a visitor? The locals stress that this part of Ireland is more Irish than the Republic itself, across the border. Certainly the plummy tones of English residents are in the minority and all the icons of Irishness are all here alive and well - claddaghs (those heart and crown and hand Irish wedding rings) and shamrocks, emerald fields and broad Irish faces - and even broader smiles.

Even Irish food, becoming legendary in the south, is on the up. A couple of years ago, I spent an hour or so with TV chef, Jeannie Rankin (co-presenter, husband Paul, was in London promoting the country and cuisine they love so passionately) at her restaurant Roscoff, the first in Northern Ireland to win a Michelin star.

We dined that night at their then newly established restaurant, Cayenne, surrounded by the smart set of Belfast, just a few hundred metres from the gothic tracery of one of the world's most beautiful universities. And to be sure - as they say so often in Ireland - with relaxed adventurous food like this, able to match anything in any country, bomb scares and brutality were the last thing on our minds.

Although police stations throughout the north resemble fortified zones complete with rolls of razor wire on the tops of the walls, police presence in the streets is often almost non-existent. In fact the only policeman I saw in several days was outside the Belfast Town Hall - and he was casually chatting to a coach driver, as if he was on holidays. Maybe he felt like it, in the new climate.

Welcome to present-day Northern Ireland, we thought. Tomorrow we would head off into the country to sample some wondrous fresh Armagh apples, and at last, it seems, the future for this troubled region looks just as rosy.

 - Sally Hammond

YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS

British Midland has several flights into Belfast daily from many parts of Britain and Europe but if you are planning to travel around Northern Ireland, a hire car is ideal.

Northern Ireland uses the pound sterling, and with the better status of the Aussie dollar, the exchange rate is now around $2.38 to the pound.

Accommodation in Belfast is of course as varied as the city itself, with everything from backpackers' hostels to five star hotels.

The McCausland Hotel in Victoria St is an elegant hotel in the centre of the Belfast. The Malone Lodge Hotel in Eglantine Avenue has self catering apartments and is located in the trendy restaurant district of Belfast, just walking distance from Cayenne.

EAT UP

Food in Belfast is not just restricted to TV chefs. As in other parts of Britain, there is a departure from the old system which has all ways been not just "would you like fries with that?" but "you WILL have fries with that!".

Like Australia, Ireland's strength lies in its produce and if you think that begins and ends with potatoes, pay a visit and see for yourself. 

Watch out for Armagh apples in everything from apple pie to apple sauce with pork - another of Ireland's famous products. Mushrooms, more flavourful and juicy than you may have ever tasted, turn up at every meal from the stay-with-you-until midday traditional Irish breakfast, to dinner. Berries, farmhouse cheeses so good you could make a meal of them alone with just a slab of soda bread or a flapjack, black pudding, another breakfast staple, and of course potatoes, as if you could forget.

The Rankins may have been some of the forerunners raising the bar for Irish cuisine, but there is now a bunch of talented new chefs, eagerly wooing Belfast palates.

Belfast's best restaurants include:

Aldens

Shanks Restaurant

Cayenne

Shu Restaurant

Opium

Restaurant Michael Deane

NIGHTLIFE

Midnight and you're still revving? Watch for queues of similar souls outside a dance club - the Milk Bar Club - in the atmospheric Cathedral Quarter of the city. Good news is it's not unique. Belfast has many more. See what's really rocking.....

Chances are you will be directed to Milk Bar Club, Irene and Nans, La Lea , The Fly Bar and a bunch of other current hot spots.

For details of anything to do with Belfast.....