Newcastle City Guide

Newcastle is one of those cities that grabs you immediately. The approach across the Tyne, with its procession of iconic bridges — the arching Tyne Bridge, the tilting Millennium Bridge, the High Level Bridge — is one of the great urban arrivals in Britain. The Quayside below is lined with bars and restaurants, and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Sage Gateshead concert hall sit just across the river.

The nightlife is legendary. The Bigg Market, the Diamond Strip, and the Ouseburn Valley offer everything from raucous pub crawls to sophisticated cocktail bars to underground club nights. But Newcastle's cultural life runs much deeper than a big night out. The Theatre Royal hosts touring West End shows, Northern Stage produces bold new work, and the independent cinema and gallery scene in the Ouseburn Valley is thriving.

The food scene is having a moment. The Grainger Market is a Victorian gem, home to butchers, bakers, and cafes that have been serving the city for generations. Around it, restaurants serving everything from Nepalese momos to Geordie-Italian fusion have opened up, and the Jesmond and Heaton neighbourhoods are packed with independent eateries.

Geordies are famous for being some of the friendliest people in England, and the city has a warmth that you feel immediately. It is compact, hilly, and best explored on foot — though the Metro system connects the city centre to the coast at Tynemouth, where you can be standing on a beautiful beach within twenty minutes of leaving the Tyne Bridge.