Regional Guide
The Best Days Out in the North East
For its size, nowhere in England offers a richer choice of days out. In a single county you can walk a Roman frontier, watch puffins from a boat, stand under the darkest skies in the country and see world-class art on a reborn riverside. Here are the region’s essential days out, grouped by the kind of day you fancy — and don’t forget its castles, beaches and market towns, each with a guide of their own.
History & heritage
Hadrian's Wall
west of Hexham
UNESCO World Heritage · Roman Britain
The great Roman frontier strides across the wildest part of the county. Housesteads is the most complete fort on the Wall, while Vindolanda holds Britain's 'Top Treasure' — the Roman writing tablets — and runs live excavations every summer. Take the train to Hexham and hop on the AD122 Hadrian's Wall bus to reach the sites without a car.
Base yourself in Hexham→Beamish
County Durham
The Living Museum of the North
A vast open-air museum spread over 300 acres, where costumed staff, working trams and period streets bring Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, wartime and 1950s life in the North East vividly back to life. One of the region's most-loved days out, and easily a full day in itself.
Cragside
Rothbury, Northumberland
National Trust · Victorian marvel
The extraordinary hillside home of the Victorian inventor Lord Armstrong — the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power. Around it lie one of the largest rock gardens in Europe and more than forty miles of lakeside and woodland walks, spectacular when the rhododendrons and autumn colour are out.
Gardens, wildlife & the great outdoors
The Alnwick Garden
Alnwick
Grand Cascade · Poison Garden · Treehouse
One of the great contemporary gardens, built around the tumbling Grand Cascade. Its most notorious corner is the Poison Garden — around a hundred toxic and narcotic plants behind black iron gates, seen only on a guided tour — while one of the largest treehouses in Europe, complete with a restaurant, sits high in the lime trees.
Plan a day in Alnwick→The Farne Islands
off Seahouses
Puffins · grey seals · boat trips
A cluster of rocky islands and one of the finest seabird sanctuaries in England, run by the National Trust. Boat trips sail from Seahouses harbour from spring to autumn, out to a nature reserve that hosts around 200,000 breeding seabirds — including tens of thousands of pairs of puffins — and a big colony of grey seals.
Kielder Water & Forest Park
west Northumberland
Dark skies · England's largest forest
A huge reservoir ringed by England's largest working forest, and the heart of the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park — the largest area of protected gold-tier dark sky in Europe. By day there's cycling, walking and watersports; by night, the Kielder Observatory runs stargazing events (book well ahead). Autumn and winter give the darkest skies.
City & culture
Angel of the North
Gateshead
Antony Gormley · free
The region's icon — Antony Gormley's weathered-steel angel, twenty metres tall with a wingspan wider than a jumbo jet, standing on a hill beside the A1. Free to visit, and a fitting welcome to the North East.
Gateshead Quays
NewcastleGateshead
BALTIC · The Glasshouse · bridges
The reborn riverside on the south bank of the Tyne: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, a free gallery in a former flour mill; The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, the Norman Foster-designed concert hall formerly known as Sage Gateshead; and the tilting Gateshead Millennium Bridge linking them to Newcastle's Quayside.
Life Science Centre
Newcastle
Hands-on science · planetarium
A hands-on science centre at Newcastle's Centre for Life, with interactive galleries, a planetarium and a busy programme of shows and seasonal events (including a winter ice rink). A dependable all-weather day out for families.
More North East guides
Keep exploring with our guides to the region’s best castles, finest beaches , historic market towns and Hadrian’s Wall, the full Visit the North East guide, or see what’s on this weekend.