Belfast is an affordable alternative to Dublin and home to some of the best pubs in Ireland. Photo: Britain on View

If, like me, you happen to be a war junkie, then post-ceasefire Northern Ireland has plenty to offer, writes Henry McDonald.

You can visit 26 mini-Berlin Walls, gloriously misnamed "peace walls", which permanently separate Protestant and Catholic communities in north and west Belfast. You can go on a "terror tour" by London-style black cab or bus, where your helpful guide will point out the nooks and corners were infamous terrorists were gunned down or atrocities committed against combatants and innocent civilians.

You can take snaps of yourself taken for the folks back home beside the murals dedicated to the IRA, INLA, UDA, UVF, LVF and all the other, alphabet soup nomenclatures for paramilitary factions in Northern Ireland. You can even make sense of it all in the region's conflict study centre - the Linenhall Library's political collection in central Belfast. Inside the permanent exhibition there you can see the IRA's A-Z handbook, chocolate bars commemorating loyalist violence at Drumcree, the secret communications, secreted in loo rolls and on cigarette papers, between the republican hunger strikers in the Maze prison and the IRA leadership outside, and the Hang-David-Trimble hangers, complete with a picture of the ousted unionist leader with a noose drawn around his neck.

Belfast and the whole of Northern Ireland, just like post-war Beirut, has become a must-see haven for conflict addicts.

If, however, you lack these dubious inclinations, there are still many other attractions that make Northern Ireland an interesting and distinctive place to holiday in - regenerated and affluent Belfast, for a start.

Northern Ireland's "capital" has one singular advantage over its larger and more famous southern counterpart. Belfast is far, far cheaper than Dublin. The capital of the Irish Republic is now one of the most expensive cities on earth, where the cost of drinking and eating out is at London West End levels and often beyond. Belfast by contrast is an affordable and uncluttered alternative - especially for hen and stag party weekends, as well as more civilised short breaks.

It is home, for instance, to one of the best bars anywhere in these islands, the TV and Muzak-free socialist gastro-pub/Irish trad music boozer, the John Hewitt, named after a radical Ulster poet. The Hewitt is located in the up-and-coming Cathedral quarter of Belfast, which is also home to the city's only five-star hotel, the Merchant. The top suite costs around £500 a night, ice for the drinks is imported from a spring in Fiji and the hotel hosts a mini-orchestra to entertain customers and guests on Saturday afternoon. Situated inside the Edwardian splendour of the Ulster Bank's former headquarters, the Merchant offers decadence wrapped up in opulence.

The city has also gained a reputation for some of the most innovative restaurants in Britain or Ireland. Among the favourites are Dean's Deli, close to the BBC's headquarters in central Belfast, and Nicks Warehouse, an old favourite back in the Cathedral quarter frequented by journalists, police officers, lawyers and writers as well as locals.

Outside Belfast, though, options for tourists are limited. The Glens of Antrim are definitely worth a visit, particularly the Glenariffe waterfall and Cushdendun. The latter is a quaint little seaside village with a view of Scotland on a clear day. Homages to the Mountains of Mourne from songsters such as Percy French are not exaggerated. The landscape of south Down is stunning, as are the Fermanagh Lakes and their main town, Enniskillen, one of the livelier and more interesting rural centres of Northern Ireland with a thriving nightlife.

Places to avoid include almost all of Co Tyrone, which has so many non-descript, grim one-horse towns you can hear the collective hooves clop from across the border in Donegal. I have found next to nothing to see or visit in that county. Ditto for most of Co Derry, although Derry (or Londonderry, depending on which side you take in the ongoing naming dispute) is a place on the up. Take the tour around the city's ancient walls and make a compulsory visit to one of the friendliest, charming small hotels anywhere in Europe - the Beechill Country House, just off the main road into Derry on its Waterside.

Overall, the paradox of Northern Ireland is that you will find yourself among some of the most hospitable, tolerant people on the planet - except to each other of course. That would be too much to ask for.

• Henry McDonald is Ireland editor of the Observer and born and bred in central Belfast