AS WE EMBARK on what could be Northern Ireland's biggest summer tourist season ever, I have been putting on my Mystery Shopper disguise to see if our most popular Visitor Attractions are, nin fact, worth visiting.

As almost all of them are publicly-funded by local ratepayers and taxpayers, you may be gratified to learn that my answer is Yes.

Belfast, in particular, has reason to be proud of the £500 million worth of developments that mark the renaissance of our capital city as one of Europe's hottest city break destinations - though I have seen it described as the 'coolest' as well. (The Council is, at long last, even addressing the notorious problem of the Belfast Sunday with a Sizzling Summer programme of events and entertainments centred mainly on the emerging Cathedral Quarter).

However, the refurbishment of the Ulster Hall, City Hall, a new library at Queen's and sundry cityscape improvements do not compensate for the fact that the Ulster Museum - which should be the flagship attraction for the whole of the Province - will miss out on the expected record influx of summer tourists attracted by much-publicised initiatives like the fleet of Tall Ships coming in August.

That's because our Museum will not now re-open until "some time later in the year." How can the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, for example, undergo a similar programme of refurbishment while keeping parts of it open for business?

This was a question asked by my Edinburgh-based family who make frequent visits here. They are my 'excuse' for acting like an ordinary tourist instead of being a travel journalist.

I accompanied them on a springtime break, so below are just some of our favourite family attractions outside Belfast, in no particular order.

OLD FAVOURITES ARE STILL BEST

CARRICKFERGUS Castle, even on a wet and windy day, has a warm welcome and plenty to keep you interested. However, I wonder why there are two interpretative films covering roughly the same ground?

As is the nature of nine-year-old boys, my grandson Simon was intrigued by Anglo-Norman toilet arrangements. There's an effigy of Good King John sitting on the latrine with his drawers undone which gets a giggle. The staff went out of their way to get the right size of tee-shirt proclaiming "I Escaped from Carrickfergus Castle".

The lack of a proper tea-shop at the Castle prompted us to take our guests to THE COURTYARD across the main Larne road where we had proper soup and baked bread in the deli/café there.

While we are on the subject, HOME-BAKERIES are among Ulster's unsung attractions. We do not appreciate just how fortunate we are in the range of breads and pastries on offer and we should should continue to support our wee corner-shop bakeries.

I was unable to explain to Simon what an Aerated Wheaten Bannock was, but he took a whole Crusty Loaf from SKINNER'S of Holywood back home on the plane because it was the best he has ever tasted.

At the reconstructed Midland Café in the Locomotive Gallery of the ULSTER FOLK & TRANSPORT MUSEUM, the muffins were not home-baked but tasted OK with a proper pot of railway tea. Alas, the Flight Experience was closed due to a leak on the day we went, but the attentive attendant gave us a free ticket to the Folk section of the complex in compensation.

The UFTM is still one of our few genuinely world-class attractions and deserves to be cherished by all. The exhibit of paraphenalia in the long glass case at the entrance to the Transport Gallery has not, it seems, been dusted since the day I was at the Press Opening back in the 1960s.

CRAWFORDSBURN Country Park claims to be Northern Ireland's most popular free attraction; it's a delight throughout the seasons - particularly on the two-day festivals celebrating our Apple and Potato heritage. With a bit of luck, the Fermanagh-bred Summer John apple tree I bought there two years ago will bear its first fruit this autumn.

Nearby, the BANGOR MUSEUM now has a replica Picture House showing great little movies. The Café/Restaurant there is one of my favourites.

The ARDS PENINSULA still has something superb to see round every corner - MOUNTSTEWART National Trust property is best, followed by EXPLORIS Aquarium. For friendly attention, my vote goes to LOUGH COWEY Fishery where the owner ensured that Simon caught his first trout and gave him a free certificate to prove it!

Back on the Co Down 'mainland', the FE McWILLIAM Gallery and Studio at Banbridge is our best new Cultural Tourism Attraction for years (and the best new café) but I can hardly wait until our one and only World Heritage Site, GIANT'S CAUSEWAY gets a Visitor Centre which is worthy of this unique seascape.

Let's hope,too, that the Titanic Signature Project does justice to the heritage it is meant to commemorate. Frankly, the latest artists' impressions leave me as cold.

I cannot understand why the City Council did not follow up the plea I made in these pages years ago - under the headline "Time to Take Titanic Project Off the Ice" - to purchase all the movie sets used in the filming of James Cameron's blockbuster.

If they could have been erected in the Titanic Quarter as a pay-in attraction at the time, they would have already paid for themselves and given today's Titanic tourists something to actually SEE!

BUS TOUR HITS RIGHT NOTE

AMONG the events being promoted to enliven Belfast Summer Sundays (see above) is the Music Tour of the city created by the rockers of the OHYEAH CENTRE which is housed in a former whiskey warehouse in that Victorian warren of commercial streets behind St Anne's Cathedral.

Tours depart from the unsurpassable showcase of local music, our magnificently-refurbished Ulster Hall, from 2pm on Sunday afternoons starting this month. The bus trip takes in many of the city's musical landmarks and finishes at the new Belfast Music Exhibition at the Oh Yeah Centre in Gordon Street.

Most of the big names of our city's musical heritage are being celebrated on the tour - Van Morrison (surprise, surprise), Snow Patrol (Bangor,surely), Ruby Murray (the only artiste ever to have five discs in the UK Top Ten at the same time), Stiff Little Fingers, etc etc.

I have been doing some research on www.ohyeahbelfast.com, the Centre's intriquing website which deserves a hit from everyone with an interest in the past, present and future of popular music here.

The exhibition of Belfast Music Legends on the website (and in the Centre itself) is as baffling as it is intriguing: Bap Kennedy is celebrated but there's not much about his more famous brother Brian. Eurovision songwriter Phil Coulter is there, but his only Belfast connection is his time at Queen's (where we became friends).

Belfast-born Ronnie Carroll does not get much of a show, yet he is the only Eurovision singer ever to have represented the UK twice, in the early 60s.

Ruby 'Softly,softly' Murray, the all-time record-breaker from Benburb St, gets less coverage than punk bands who surfaced without trace. Every blues fan in Belfast owes much to the late great Jim Daly, who does not rate a mention. Yet.

Also, there is no celebration of the fact that Yours Trewly, yes me, made a guest appearance on the Van Morrison/Chris Barber/Lonnie Donegan album, The Skiffle Sessions. recorded at the Whitla Hall. I shouted "Yeah,man!" on the 'Rock Island Line' track in a spirited manner. I have never received any royalties, either…

Seriously, I am trewly delighted that somebody has had the vision to get this enterprise going. I hope Oh Year Chief Exec Stuart Bailie reads this and sends me a free ticket for the tour, which will probably run at other times in addition to Sunday afternoons.

MY CURRENT FAVOURITE READER

FEEDBACK from readers is what I enjoy most about this job (as well as the global travel, the gourmet meals, the spa treatments, rubbing bronzed shoulders with celebrities… and other figments of my imagination.)

Regular reader Stephen Allen rang in from Banbridge recently to claim his prize of a Free Cruise with Emerald Star which he is looking forward to enjoying next month, starting from Portumna on the Shannon.

As a keen traveller, he mentioned that one of his best holidays of recent years was following an itinerary along the Cote d'Azur which had been recommended in Trew's Travels.

" I booked flights to Nice and just brought your article along," he told me we spoke. "I used it as my blueprint and was very pleased indeed that all your tips turned out to be first class".

He was particularly delighted with the tourist train journey from Nice through the pine-covered foothills of the Alpes Maritimes to the old spa town of Digne les Bains. Once there, he enjoyed a wonderful lunch with local families in a characterful old Inn I had written about in this column.

" Planning holidays is made easy if you read Travel News regularly," said Stephen - without being prompted. "You get up-to-date information about places, written by people who know what they are talking about."

Thank you, Stephen, and do you have any tips of your own?

"I really like Cannes during the Film Festival. If you go on to Marseilles, make the boat trip out to the island where The Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned in Chateau d'If. I love the Baja peninsula of Mexico; Barcelona and Lisbon are great cities and I like Gibraltar a lot.

"And there's one word that everbody in the whole world understands that will get you anywhere you want to go: Taxi!"