Tiny Newcastle Guide
Image credit NewcastleGateshead
Never been to Newcastle or the North East - Don’t worry we’ve got you covered!
We are hosting our conference in the beautiful Wylam Brewery in the middle of Newcastle a short walk from the Haymarket, so we thought we’d give you a little more details about the city
Getting around
Newcastle has a great public transport system. You can travel by Metro, Bus, or Taxi to get wherever you need to be.
Need directions to the venue? Just bookmark this link and you’ll be there in a jiffy!
Places to stay
Where you stay will probably depend on how much you want to spend!
Premier Inn, Newcastle has 4 Premier Inn’s in the center - when I checked you could get two nights for £60!
EuroHostel, this hostel has some double rooms with private bathrooms
EasyHotel this also is a cheaper option.
For a little more there is also a Motel One, a Jurys Inn, and a Rmamda
If you want to go a little fancier then Malmaison, Hotel Du Van and Crown Plaza
There are other places to stay in and around Newcastle..
Places to work
As well as an array of coffee shops (see below) Campus North have free co-working space, it is a really great space and hosts lots of Newcastle’s start-ups.
Places to visit
If you are spending a couple of days in Newcastle then there is some great places to visit in the city center!
If it is art you are after then Baltic* and the Laing are both worth a visit.
If it is more history and science then Newcastle has two free museums The Discovery Museum and Great North Museum. There is also not free Centre For Life and the Seven Stories national center for books.
A few other things
- Victoria Tunnel a 2.5 miles tunnel that runs under Newcastle.
- Jesmond Dene a narrow wooded valley with waterfalls and goats.
- Mining Institute a Victorian building built at the time when high-Gothic architecture was coming into fashion.
- The Lit & Phill the largest independent library outside London!
- Grainger Market Grade I listed covered market with some great places to eat.
- Quayside a great place for a walk to see Newcastle’s bridges.
Places to eat
I could go on all day about food, but I figured a few places would be a good start
- Alsham Restaurant great selection of Lebanese food. All about the Shawarma.
- As You Like It a little bit out the center but good food and cocktails
- Blackfriars Restaurant set in a 13th-century former medieval friary, great food.
- The Bohemian wouldn’t be a list without a vegan option!
- Broad Chare great pub food (maybe the best scotch egg you’ll ever eat)
- Cals Own a slight trip out of the center but listed in Guardian’s top 10 pizzerias outside of London.
- COOP Chicken House - Chicken with a mindblogging amount of sauces to pick from!
- Dabbawala Indian street food
- dAt bAr nice place for beer and pizza
- Dojo good selection of Japanese food
- Fat Hippo Underground peanut butter and jam burger? Yes!
- Kaltur Restaurant - great tapas
- MEAT : STACK @ no28 - more burger goodness!
- Peace and Loaf probably the best food Newcastle has to offer
- Red house traditional pie house
- Zaap Thai Street Food relatively cheap and a great selection of Thai food.
- Zapatista - burritos, taquitos and tacos! (Also tequila)
- Zucchini Pasta Bar great selection of traditional pasta
Places to drink
Newcastle has some great places to grab a coffee Pink Lane, Flat Caps, Pumphreys and Laneway & Co. If coffee isn’t your thing then there are also two great tea places tea sutra and Quilliam Brothers.
If you are looking for something a little stronger there are some great bars across the city DAT Bar, Town Wall, Bridge Tavern, The Broad Chare, The Crown Posada and The Forth.
If you are skipping past the beer then there is also Alvinos and Please to meet you serving up fantastic cocktails and gin.
There is also a great selection of places in the Ouseburn from The Tanners, Arch2, Ernest, The Ship Inn, The Cluny, Cumberland Arms, Kiln, The Tynebar (complete with disco ball) and finally the Free Trade Inn! That is quite the little trip.
If you are an animal fan then Newcastle has the most cat cafes outside of London! So check out CatPawCino and Mog on the Tyne. There is also Dog and Scone where you can meet Coffee a Welsh corgi!
Places to visit in and around
If you’ve got a few days to kill around the conference then there are some great places to visit around the North East.
Durham is 10 minutes by train, it has a stunning Cathedral you can also do a river trip if that is your thing.
Just a little outside Durham is Beamish Museum which features a Victorian town with trams, print shop and coal-fired fish and chips!
Alnwick is a market town to the north of Newcastle, it features one of the best bookshops in England - Barter Books as well as Alnwick Castle (as featured in the first Harry Potter film) and Alnwick Garden.
If Roman walls and forts are your jam then you are in luck! Hadrian’s Wall runs across the whole of the North of England from coast to coast, with various forts along the way. Which is an impressive achievement when you consider how much time we spend having arguments about tabs and spaces!
If you are after some traditional seaside then you can jump on a Metro and head to South Shields for amusements, pirate mini golf, fish and chips and a Roman fort or Tynemouth for markets, dinosaurs mini golf and a priory, you can also walk up the coast for some award-winning ice cream. You can get amazing food right on the beach at Riley’s Fish Shack.