Spending a full day with the missus in Newcastle on Saturday. Looking for good stuff to do. Any recommendations? Museums to see? Places to eat?

Also looking for recommendations for good (proper) pubs. Always keen to sample a city’s finest pubs.

We’ll be on foot; no car or bikes. So city centre, walking distance or short Metro hops from the train station would probably be best.

Go to Durham.

You’re in luck – it’s toon festival day on Saturday

Everybody wears red & white vertical stripes and has a great time dancing in the streets

(err, 😉 , just in case)

Defo Go to Durham, but don’t mention Sunderland if you stay in the Toon.

Shame you can’t put it off a little and you could experience the delights of championship football…

Quayside.
Pub – Crown Posada.
Eat – Piccolino.

Broadchare is always good for proper ale and food http://www.thebroadchare.co.uk/

Pubs – Tilleys, Bodega, Brewdog.

food – Longhorns, zapatista,

Food and drink – The Botanist, Dat Bar.

Discovery museum is ok and free, Centre for life is worth a look, Hancock museum is good if you havent been before.

A wander round the grainger market is a bit like a trip back in time, get a cake from the pet lamb pattiserie, a sandwich from sloppy joes and some coffe from pumphreys.

Call in at Start Cycles and get some cheap stuff.

Always keen to sample a city’s finest pubs.

You’ll struggle on this front. All the “proper” pubs in the city have fallen victim to either the smoking ban or ‘stag-do-ification’. The best you can hope for is some newer style craft/real ale places like Tillys, The Forth Hotel, Head of Steam etc. They still get busy though with the weekend drinking crowd. I’ve always liked The Trent House, but it’s quite studenty so an acquired taste.

Visit the football ground and see what a Championship stadium looks like.

Pubs – Pleased to meet you, Datbar, Bacchaus, The Tyne Bar. To be honest there’s droves of them

Food – Dat Bar do great burgers, Fat Hippo underground do betterer ones, Dabbawal for great Indian food. House of Tides. Again you spoilt from the regular chains to independent.

Museums as mentioned.

Just don’t go to Durham. 😉

DazH must like spit and sawdust pubs. 😆

DazH must like spit and sawdust pubs.

Indeed. Infinitely preferable to chrome-filled bars full of idiots or old-mens pubs which reek of farts and racism (there are plenty of both types in Newcastle). Bacchus is ok actually but a bit wetherspoons-ey.

Brew dog is boring though isn’t it . Full of people from singletrack forum 🙂

I quite liked Tynemouth . I also really like Newcastle

Zapatista for nice burritos.
Flat Cap Joes, Pink Lane and Kuppa Coffee for great coffee.

I’m lost to what you like then Daz. 😀

Good call on Flat Caps

Never heard Tilleys called a ‘newer style ‘ Pub before DazH!!

Think the only thing thats changed in the last 20 years is the condom machine in the Gents.

Never heard Tilleys called a ‘newer style ‘ Pub before DazH!!

Old pubs I class as places like the Strawberry, Percy Arms and the 3 Bulls Head etc which attract the classic binge drinking football crowd (although strangely I always liked the Adelphi). By newer I was referring more to the sort of beer people drink rather than the decor. And yes before anyone says, I am a fully signed-up and committed beer snob 🙂

I have a proper soft spot for the Percy, first Pub in Newcastle I got served when I shouldnt. Just after being thrown out of the Farmers.

Old pubs I class as places like the Strawberry, Percy Arms and the 3 Bulls Head etc which attract the classic binge drinking football crowd

Delightful.

Ah, the Tardis like Strawberry. When i was a kid my Grandad used to take me to see the slumbering giants play (mind, it was only 10-15 years since they’d last won something then, as opposed to the nearly 50 now). The ground would be 1/4 full at 2:45 and then somehow 35,000 people would come out of the Strawberry and in to the ground.

Just after being thrown out of the Farmers.

The destruction of the Farmers and it’s replacement with an Old Orleans was a travesty which the city never recovered from. In my football going days the George and Dragon in Old Eldon Sq was always the primary choice, followed by the Trent, hence my lingering attachment to it.

Delightful.

True though 😉

George and Dragon in Old Eldon Sq was always the primary choice, followed by the Trent, hence my lingering attachment to it.

Now I see. 😀

+1 Fat hippo for burgers, they even do veggie ones (phew)

Laing gallery is always nice and in the city centre, and a stroll down to the Quayside and the Baltic.

coffee in Trader Coffee just off the High street, coffee shop with sun tan booth attached, you get to laugh at the orange people as they walk past…buy some in Pomfreys in Grainger Market

I nearly fell over in shock when I went in Fitzgeralds recently to find its been done out, which never would’ve happened previously as your feet were always well and truly stuck to the floor with layers of grime.

Look up the Championship fixtures for next season.

go and smoke a peace pipe with chewkw

Crown posada, free trade and Cumberland arms awesome pubs untouched for decades.
Town wall and the bridge (the one next to the akenside) for new pubs but done well and decent beer.
Grey street and monument good to look at.
You’ve got to have a mooch down the quayside and a ride in the lifts at the Baltic.
El torero for good tapas lunch.
Vieri Velo bike shop and a bit further out pedalling squares bike cafe are decent.
Don’t really go to Durham.

Oh and panis just of grey street is a great Italian and the Tyneside cinema is good for independent films if its raining

If its raining trudge out to the Free Trade and spend an evening looking at the bridges through the window.

Everything I like has been mentioned except the giant pizza slices in the Grainger market. The length of the queue is an indicator of quality.

Datbar burgers are amazing. Zapatista burritos also good. Tilleys again for local beer. Try a pint of Jakehead.

Edit: Durham is pretty but very boring

Look up the Championship fixtures for next season.

Last time we were in the championship it was great. Cheaper tickets, different and more interesting venues to visit at away games, visiting fans who mostly were here to have a good time rather than thinking they were better, a less money-driven commercial atmosphere and a more grassroots culture, and fewer prima donnas on the pitch. I knew a lot of fans who were disappointed to go back up.

The city i loved is gone:

No Broken Doll
No Rupali
No Mayfair
No Turkish Baths
No Hardisty Cycles (home of the mountain biiiike..)

🙁

Turkish Baths

There is hope for the future then 😀

Mackem – Member
Go to Durham.

Neewhere to eat though.

My favorite – Ouseburn pub crawl. Tanners, The Ship, Cluny, Cumberland Arms, Tyne Bar, Free trade. All good. Stagger back along quayside.

If you want trendy bars the latest places are Pleased to Meet You and the Botanist.

Bar 28 above the Grainger Market, Alvinos and Datbar if you want something a bit more alternative to the diamond strip fake tanned selfie brigade.

Better pubs (for beer/music/atmosphere/lack of orange people) – The Forth, Town Wall, Tilleys, Head of Steam, Brewdog, Bridge Tavern.

Old man pubs – Crown Posada, The Bridge (next to High Level bridge behind castle), Centurion in station are worth a shot.

If it’s sunny try to get on the roof terrace at the Botanist or head across the high level bridge and go to the Central for a canny wee suntrap roof terrace watching the trains go by or a game of table tennis… One thing Newcastle lacks is beer gardens. Maybe worth jumping on the metro to Tynemouth if its nice and if you’re early enough go down to Riley’s Fish shack on king edward bay. Great food and beers just sit on the sand. Gets rammed mind.

As mentioned previously Hancock and Laing worth going to. Discovery museum and Centre for Life better for kids IMO. Go in the Sage and go up the stairs to the top to look back across Newcastle from across the river. Baltic is hit and miss. The Castle keep is worth the entry fee to go up and look off the top.

Naywhere to eat in Durham? Get in the sea. Granted there are now fewer places, thanks to Finbarrs closing but there’s everything from cheap and cheerful (Spaghetatta has to be a favourite on that front) through to pricey and classy (DH1 springs to mind) with everything in between.

As far as Newcastle goes, for me on a bike ride/pub crawl it’s usually Tyne Bar, Free Trade (love the view out of the window) and go to Bacchus if we’re out for sushi just down the road.

Old man pubs – Crown Posada…

Well that’s me told!

High Bridge St – Bacchus for the best pint in Town IMHO, Pani’s cafe across the road for some lunch,

Head down to the river for the bridges and a wander, plenty of walking and shopping in the rest of the town, nowhere I’d suggest you avoid during the day but museums and galleries aren’t up to much. Try the Hancock/Centre for life/Discovery Museums if you’ve got kids.

It’s a brilliant city, Durham is nice but not worth missing Newcastle for.

Sunderland and Gateshead are utterly dreadful – and that’s not football allegiances talking.

Last time we were in the championship it was great. Cheaper tickets, different and more interesting venues to visit at away games, visiting fans who mostly were here to have a good time rather than thinking they were better, a less money-driven commercial atmosphere and a more grassroots culture, and fewer prima donnas on the pitch. I knew a lot of fans who were disappointed to go back up.

Nicely argued, but I’m sure you’d have preferred to stay up.