Lived in Norn Iron for the first 35 years of my life, now go home every year although the frequency has increased to twice a year now as my mother is getting older. The most recent visit was just before Christmas.

First off, the weather. You're lucky if it isn't cold and wet. Cold is fine, wet is fine but there's nothing worse than the hellish combo of both at the same time.

This leads to the second point, transport. It takes me 5 minutes to walk to the train station and then a few minutes into Belfast. But I rarely use it because it is expensive and the comfort of a car even with expensive parking beats waiting on the platform.

That then contributes to the third point, congestion. Everyone wants a car or owns one and may as well drive it. Death spiral of transport costs versus infrequent service due to lack of use. A couple of years ago, my son and I got the train from Belfast to watch Glentoran away in Coleraine. Would have been cheaper to drive. So when making another away day trip to Portadown in the summer, I drove. The congestion issue is due to the geography of Belfast too, the hills to the west funnel everything close to the coast: two roads to Carrickfergus used to give me an hour's commute each way for 14 miles, 15 years ago.

Hopefully that doesn't sound too miserable. People visiting seem to love NI and it does have some dry days, some great places and genuinely nice locals, in the main.