Hotels near Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

A little about Newcastle Upon Tyne...

Newcastle upon Tyne (usually shortened to Newcastle) is a large city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north bank of the River Tyne and was formerly the county town of Northumberland. The city was founded in Roman times under the name Pons Aelius.

Newcastle and the surrounding area has an extensive bus network that is coordinated by Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive. Buses are operated mainly by Go North East, Arriva Northumbria and Stagecoach North East. QuayLink (operated by Stagecoach ), a £5 m bus scheme using ultra low emission hybrid diesel-electric vehicles was launched in July 2005. The city is served by the Tyne and Wear Metro, a system of suburban and underground railways. The Metro is usually described as Britain's first modern light rail system. It is owned and operated by Nexus. It carries approximately 40 million passenger journeys per year and is the second biggest metropolitan train system in the UK. A Metro bridge was built across the Tyne and opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1981.

The city has two universities. Established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834, and becoming independent from Durham University in 1963, Newcastle University is now one of the UK’s leading international universities.

Newcastle has a reputation for being a fun-loving city with many bars, restaurants and nightclubs. More recently, Newcastle has become popular as a destination for Stag and Hen parties. Newcastle was in the top ten of the country's top night spots, and The Rough Guide to Britain placed Newcastle upon Tyne's nightlife as Great Britain's no. 1 tourist attraction.

There are notable concentrations of pubs, bars and nightclubs around the Bigg Market, and the Quayside area of the city centre. There are many bars on the Bigg Market, and other popular areas for nightlife are Collingwood Street, Neville Street, the Central Station area and Osborne Road in the Jesmond area of the city. In recent years "The Gate" has opened in the city centre, a new indoor complex consisting of bars, upmarket clubs, restaurants and a 12-screen Empire multiplex cinema.

The city has a wide variety of restaurants such as Italian, Indian, Persian, Japanese, Greek, Mexican, Spanish, American, Polish, Malaysian, French, Moroccan, Thai and has a Chinese village with many Chinese restaurants on Stowell Street. There has also been a growth in premium restaurants in recent years with top chefs. The biggest noticeable difference in the last ten years has been increased opening hours, more upmarket bars, a greater range of clubs and some of the older traditional pubs closing, although many have been revamped and remain very popular.

Festivals: The popular Newcastle Science Festival is held annually in March, coinciding with National Science and Engineering Week. The Newcastle Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA, takes place in April 2008 will be the 32nd Newcastle Beer Festival. In May, Newcastle and Gateshead host the Orange Evolution, which culminates with the FreeEvolution free music festival held on the Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides over the Spring Bank Holiday, with performances from well known and up and coming acts from the world of Rock, Indie and Dance Music.

There are several major shopping areas in Newcastle city centre. The largest of these is the Eldon Square Shopping Centre, which incorporates the first and largest Fenwick department store, and a John Lewis store (formerly known as Bainbridge) which is often cited as the first department store in the world. The main shopping street in the city is Northumberland Street. Other shopping centres in Newcastle include the relatively modern Eldon Garden and Monument Mall complexes, the Newgate Centre, Central Arcade and the traditional Grainger Market. The largest suburban shopping areas are Gosforth and Byker. The largest indoor shopping centre in Europe, The MetroCentre, is located in Gateshead.