There is no shortage of good quality hotel rooms in Newcastle many at excellent budget prices. The luxury end of the market is slightly less well catered for, as higher end hotels have taken a little time to catch up with the rest of the regeneration of the city.

Amongst the best places to stay is the Hotel Indigo on Fenkle Street, a modern boutique hotel boasting a Marco Pierre White restaurant. Centrally situated the hotel is of particular architectural interest, although modern it has been designed to sympathetically match the geometric lines of the surrounding buildings and achieves this to perfection. A top class hotel in a top class location.

At the other end of the price scale is the Jesmond hotel in the leafy but trendy district of Jesmond. The rooms are well maintained and neutrally decorated in this small fifteen room hotel and all have excellent clean amenities. Modern and sleek this little gem of a hotel has a small price tag for rooms that really deliver.

With the recent regeneration of the city has come an influx of top quality restaurants and chefs but Newcastle has always enjoyed some of the finest restaurants in the country, often tucked away and frequented only by those in the know.

One restaurant that has recently come to the attention of a far wider audience – in no small way due to the vast amount of accolades and awards it has received, is Blackfriars restaurant on Friars Street. Passionate about local produce, this historical restaurant with the honour of being the oldest public dining room in Britain is simply stunning.

If Chinatown is on your itinerary make sure that you eat at one of the great Chinese restaurants, all of them excellent and all of them falling over themselves to serve you the absolute best quality food at the best value for money prices. It is almost impossible to pick the best of the restaurants here; they really are all best.

Newcastle is known best for its excellent nightlife, visit the Quayside for the lively cosmopolitan bars and clubs, or Collingwood for its glitzy nightspots that attract the rich and famous. For something a little more tame visit Chinatown with all the bright lights and party atmosphere of a vibrant Chinese city.

Not just about nightlife though Newcastle has all the history and culture that you could imagine. Visit the West Road area to see the remnants of that great historical physical border ‘Hadrians Wall’ built to stop the more Northerly Pictish tribes from travelling south it is an important monument in British history.

Newcastle Castle is also of great historical importance as it is the very thing that the city is named after – The New Castle. Although not so new now, the building has history dating back to the 11th century and the battlements of the keep are said to have one of the best views over the city.

With its oceanic climate Newcastle enjoys a temperate climate with one of the lowest rainfall rates in the UK. The gulf stream brings a warming influence, although as with anywhere in the British Isles unpredictable extreme weather is always possible.

With its profusion of year round festivals there really is no bad time to visit Newcastle. The Chinatown festivals start in January/February and last until the Chinese new year and then April brings the cities annual beer festival.Throughout the summer months the festivals just keep on coming with gay pride, food festivals and the Mela celebrations all being popular and lively.