If you haven’t visited Northern Ireland, the images you’re likely to have imprinted in your mind are ten-second snippets of trouble from the news or those warm, cosy tourism adverts promising a journey into a land like no other.

The reality is nothing like either.

There is much about Northern Ireland to remind you of home – ideal, perhaps, for those who fancy a holiday somewhere different but not too far removed from familiarity.

Inland areas take on the nature of the South Downs, the main difference being that the soil is clay instead of chalk. The coast reflects the characteristics of northern England and Scotland, with hardier plants and dark, rocky outcrops.

It rains a lot but you avoid the weather extremes of southern England. Much of the place is bursting with thick shrubbery, lively deciduous trees and carpet-like grass. It’s like something out of Medieval times, which would explain why the country was used to film the TV series Game Of Thrones.

Two cities worth visiting are Belfast and Derry – Belfast because it’s the capital, Derry because it’s the UK City of Culture for 2013 and Northern Ireland’s second largest city.

Drawing influence from Liverpool’s year as European City of Culture in 2008, the UK version was set up to draw attention to cities with something to shout about.

Known as Derry by nationalists and Londonderry by loyalists, it appears officially as Derry/Londonderry. We could fill a page on the whys and wherefores so it’s no surprise walking guides refer to it simply as “The Walled City” thanks to 17th-century ramparts, which have a history in the country’s sporadic Troubles.

Nowadays, those problems seem distant. The streets bustle with a vibrancy, restaurants are busy but not uncomfortable and pubs seem inviting.

The Millennium Forum, a theatre and conference centre, is the go-to venue for bigger performers. It dominates a cobbled incline that rises above a clutch of smaller bars.

Derry hosted the Fleadh (an Irish festival, pronounced Flar) this year for the first time. Among the bigger performers were recently departed poet Seamus Heaney and folk singer Cara Dillon. The streets have seen an array of traditional talent and, with autumn wrapping up the city’s celebratory year, there’s more to come.

While Derry is a bit hilly, Belfast is generally flat. Known for shipyards which were once the biggest in the world, it is famed for building the Titanic.

For some, the history of the ill-fated cruise liner of 1912 is a source of fascination. It’s possible to spend hours walking around Titanic Belfast, a museum of exhibits, models and storyboards, including mock-ups of the ship’s cabins and a narrated ride.

For those who want to get closer to what it was like onboard, the nearby dry-docked SS Nomadic is the next best thing. Acting as a tender vessel for the famous ship, it was modelled on its bigger sister and looks in fine condition.

Aside from boats, the Titanic Quarter of Belfast is home to The Dock, an honesty-box cafe relying on customers to pay what they see fit for their food. Elsewhere, The Black Dog (informal) and Ox (a finer dine) are two restaurants worth a visit.

The 70 miles between Belfast and Derry can be covered in two ways: by hitting the main roads for about an hour and a half, or driving the Causeway Coastal Route and its host of villages, towns and harbour hamlets.

Travelling from Belfast, you’ll see the Mull of Kintyre, the south-westernmost peninsula of Scotland, visible 22 miles away, even on an overcast day. To the east, the sea stretches into the distance like a sheet of polished steel, interrupted a few miles out by Rathlin Island and, farther beyond it, the Scottish island of Islay, where Scottish whisky is made. If the wind is blowing the right way, you can smell it.

For a taste of Irish whiskey, the nearby town of Bushmills accommodates Ireland’s oldest working distillery, making whiskey for 405 years.

A good deal older, the Giant’s Causeway, a collection of more than 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, is steeped in myth and folklore. Locals traditionally believe the coast was carved by a giant who left behind items such as a shoe and a chimney, now cast in stone. Scientists, on the other hand, put its creation down to the cooling and shrinking of lava 60 million years ago.

Whatever your outlook, the whole coast, with its sweeping bays and imposing cliffs, offers something different to the norm. While not a million miles from home, it has the potential to transport you somewhere else.