A Weekend in Newcastle City Centre: A 48-Hour Itinerary

Newcastle city centre is compact enough to explore on foot and varied enough to keep a whole weekend interesting. In a couple of days you can take in Georgian streets, a Victorian market, the Quayside bridges, a first-rate art gallery and some genuinely good places to eat, all within a short walk of Monument Metro. Here is one relaxed way to spend 48 hours, from Friday evening to a slow Sunday afternoon, whether you are visiting or you live here and fancy playing tourist.

Friday evening: settle in on Grey Street

Grey Street is the obvious place to start. Its long Georgian curve, built by Richard Grainger in the 1830s, is one of the finest streets in England, and it looks its best in the evening as the sandstone catches the last of the light. Wander up from the river end and get your bearings around Grey's Monument.

For a first drink, the Crown Posada on The Side is a good introduction to the city's older pubs, a narrow Victorian bar with stained glass and a long, loyal following. If you would rather eat straight away, The Broad Chare near the Quayside does proper North East pub food and a well-kept cellar, and it is an easy walk downhill afterwards to see the bridges lit up.

Best for: Best for a first night: a drink at the Crown Posada, then a wander down to the floodlit Tyne Bridge.

Saturday morning: market and Georgian arcades

Give Saturday morning to the Grainger Market, the covered Victorian market that has been trading since 1835. It is the heart of everyday Newcastle: fishmongers, greengrocers, cheese and bread stalls, the tiny original Marks & Spencer Penny Bazaar unit, and a growing run of independent food traders for an early lunch.

A few steps away, the Central Arcade is a beautiful Edwardian shopping arcade with tiled floors and a glass roof, worth a look even if you are only passing through. Fuel up first with a flat white from Pink Lane Coffee, a small independent near Central Station that roasts with care, or the long-running Pumphrey's Coffee if you want to sit a while.

Best for: Best for browsing: the Grainger Market on a Saturday, when the traders are at their busiest.

Saturday afternoon: castle, culture and the Quayside

Newcastle wears its history openly. The Newcastle Castle, the medieval keep and Black Gate that give the city its name, sits beside Central Station and rewards the climb to the roof with a wide view over the river and rooftops. From there it is a short walk to the Laing Art Gallery, the city's main art gallery, which is free to enter and keeps a strong programme of historic and contemporary work alongside its permanent collection.

Then make for the water. The Quayside on both banks has been transformed over the past few decades, and the walk along the Newcastle Quayside takes you under a run of famous bridges: the Swing Bridge, the great green arch of the Tyne Bridge and, further down, the tilting Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Cross the Millennium Bridge and you reach the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art on the Gateshead side, a converted flour mill with free galleries and a top-floor viewing box looking back across the river. It is easily walkable and well worth the detour.

Best for: Best for a first-time visitor: the Quayside bridge walk, finishing with the river view from BALTIC.

Saturday evening: dinner and a show

Newcastle eats well. For a special dinner, Blackfriars Restaurant occupies a genuine thirteenth-century friary refectory, said to be one of the oldest dining rooms in the country, and cooks confident regional food. Book ahead at weekends.

If you fancy a show, the Theatre Royal Newcastle on Grey Street is the grandest venue in the city, home to touring drama, opera and the Royal Shakespeare Company's regular seasons. Check what is on before you travel, as popular runs sell out. For something more informal, the bars around the Bigg Market and Pink Lane stay lively well into the evening.

Sunday morning: a slow start by the river

Ease into Sunday. If you are staying near the Quayside, Quay Ingredient does a well-loved brunch tucked beneath the Tyne Bridge, so it is worth arriving early to beat the queue. Then take in the Quayside Sunday Market, which runs along the river between the Swing Bridge and the Millennium Bridge every Sunday morning, with well over a hundred stalls selling crafts, artwork, records and street food. It is one of the nicest ways to spend a Sunday in the city, market stalls on one side and the bridges on the other.

Best for: Best for a relaxed Sunday: brunch under the Tyne Bridge, then the Quayside market.

Sunday afternoon: the Ouseburn or a green finish

To end on something a little different, head for the Ouseburn Valley, a former industrial pocket just east of the centre that has become the city's creative quarter, full of studios, galleries, city farm animals and characterful riverside pubs. Sunday afternoons here are unhurried, and The Cluny, a converted whisky-bottling warehouse, is a good spot for a pint and often live music.

If you would rather finish among greenery, catch the Metro out to Jesmond Dene, the wooded river valley given to the city by Lord Armstrong, with waterfalls, woodland paths and a café. Either way you leave Newcastle having seen the two sides that define it: the handsome, busy centre, and the softer green edges that are never far away.

Have a favourite corner of the city centre we should add to this itinerary? Get in touch and let us know.