North East England

Travel Guide Europe United Kingdom England North East England

Introduction

North East England is colder and drier than the rest of the country. Attractions in this area include the port city of Newcastle, ancient cathedral city of Durham, the remote Cheviot hills, the Wear valley and Kielder Water.

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Geography

The region is generally hilly and sparsely populated in the north and west, and urban and arable in the east and south. The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in the Cheviot Hills, at 815 metres.

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Local Government areas

Counties

Unitary authorities

Newcastle upon Tyne
North Tyneside
Gateshead
South Tyneside
Sunderland
Hartlepool
Stockton-on-Tees
Middlesbrough
Redcar and Cleveland

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Cities and towns

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Weather

North East England has an oceanic climate with narrower temperature ranges than further south in England. Summers and winters are kept mild rather than hot or cold by the strong maritime influence of the North Atlantic Current of the Gulf Stream, along with a relative distance to mainland Europe and heat and coldwaves forming there. Met Office operates several weather stations in the region. The stations nearest significant urban areas are Durham, Stockton-on-Tees and Tynemouth, that all show variations in temperature especially in summer in relation to its distance to the North Sea. The warmest summers in the region are found in Stockton-on-Tees and the Middlesbrough area with a July average high of 20.4 °C. Precipitation is often low by English standards, in spite of the low sunshine levels, with Stockton-on-Tees only averaging 574.2 millimetres during a year, and seaside Tynemouth recording 597.2 millimetres during a year, in spite of a slightly sunnier climate. The summers on the northern coastlines are clearly cooler than in the southern and central inland areas, with Tynemouth only just being above 18 °C in July. Moving further inland, frosts during winter gets more common due to the higher elevation and distance to the sea.

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Getting There

By Plane

Newcastle International Airport (NCL) handles both flights within United Kingdom and to several international destinations in Europe, Africa and North America. The airport can easily be reached from the Newcastle Central Railway station by a direct service and journey takes around 30 minutes.

To/from the airport

Rail: Airport station on the Tyne and Wear Metro is directly connected to the terminal through an indoor walkway. The station is the northern terminus of the green line with frequent, direct services to Newcastle (22 minutes) and Sunderland (55 minutes) city centres.
Road: The Airport is connected to the A1 trunk road by the A696 dual carriageway. A regular bus service also runs from the airport to Newcastle and southeast Northumberland. A half-hourly service links the Airport to the nearby villages of Ponteland and Darras Hall, as well as Newcastle City Centre, on Monday to Saturday only, with the last journeys around 6:00pm. Service 74A operates a limited service to the city centre at other times.