Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumbria University

Yes, Newcastle is as crazy as one would expect. But besides the craziness I experienced Newcastle as a great and lively student city that offers and actively encourages its students to undertake plenty of activities, benefits and trips.

Newcastle as a city

Newcastle has approximately 280'000 inhabitants of which roughly 30% are students. Therefore, it is a lively student city and offers a wide range of different restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs and acitivites to its students. The Geordies are more scottish than english so that everybody is friendly and open and conversations start out of nowhere. They love beer and going out and although their nightlife is excessive (also during the week), the city is considered to be safe. 

Northumbria University

The campus is located next to the city center which you will reach within a 5 minutes walk. The university makes a lot for its students as they offer a lot of activities, a student bar and a sport central. You will probably have school in different buildings, but all are really close.

Accommodation

As Newcastle is a student city, there are many providers for accommodations. Usually you can either have a single room, a studio or a shared flat with 4-7 flatmates. Most of them are within a 5 minute walk from the university campus and the city center. In my opinion, you better book a room of another provider than the university, as they often offer a better cost-performance. As the accommodations from the university have fixed arrival and leave dates, you may have to rent your room for a longer time than your semester actually goes and you will lose a lot of money. Other providers are generally more flexible with the time period. The price range is around 70-130£ per week for university accommodations, other providers are cheaper. You can either book the flat in advance online or at your arrival.

Arrival

You can book a shuttle transfer from the airport to your accommodation over the university, however it will take you way less time to take the metro. There are several welcome events for new students and the first week is only reserved for the new ones in order to get to now the people and the university. Check out facebook for different events, the students love to undertake things together such as sightseeings, short trips, bar crawls, parties etc.

Weather

Surprisingly, the weather was better than the english standards I expected. The weather is relatively mild, with approximately 27 celcius in summer and 5 degrees in winter. The autumn is unfortunately very windy. You will see that the Geordies are not wearning any jackets when going out in winter, however I would definitely recommend to bring your winter clothes with you.

Public Transport

You can go around Newcastle with the buses or the metro, however as everything is pretty close, you can easily walk. The tickets are cheap, with the metro you have 3 different zones A, B and C. One way to the airport costs around 5£. If you plan a longer distance travel by train, think about buying a ticket online in advance, as you need to book a seet (Use the app Trainline). Remind also to enter the right section in the train. Be aware of huge price differences depending on the time of the day, during rush hours it is way more expensive.

Day/Weekendtrips

If you want to go out of Newcastle, you can easily reach beautiful cities. Edinburgh (btw. you pronounce it „Edinbrah“) is probably the most interesting and biggest one, you can walk for hours through its wonderful parks. Visit the Edinburgh Castle and walk down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Visit the Minster in York and let yourself be enchanted by the wonderful old town (The Shambles), which apparently seem to be one of the bases for the Harry Potter movies. Tynemouth is a lovely littly town 20 minutes from Newcastle's citycenter you can reach easily with the local metro. Spend a day at the beach and eat Fish&Chips from the local restaurants. Go into the highlands, following the trails of the romans and walk along the Hadrian's wall. If you want to go further away, you can also go to London, Dublin, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow or Manchester, but I would recommend to stay there over the weekend to have enough time to visit the cities. You can either go by yourself or with the university union.

Nightlife

One word: Excessive. Never seen that before! Even for english standards, the Geordies are creazy. Just walk through the town and you will find loads of clubs and pubs. Check out the clubs TigersTigers, Soho, Perdu, Jalou, Livello and way more. Digitals is one of the clubs which have big parties on Mondays. The most beautiful and impressive bar is the Botanist -- go there, you will find yourself astonished.

Restaurants

Good food is everywhere. Definitely recommended is Banyan (Brunch and other dishes), Zizzi (Italian), Fat Buddha (Asian), Thomahawk (Steak), Six (Expensive but beautiful view and equisit kitchen), Ernest (Brunch), Kimchi (cheap Asian also to go), Five Guys (Burger) and loads more. Check out the Street Food Containers located at the river under the Tyne Bridge and the Street Food market on Sundays at the Quay.

Shopping

The biggest shopping center is the Eldon Square. You will find there everything you need.

Bank Account

The university is working together with Santander and has open a on-suite store in the Student Union. It is an easy process to open a bank account and you can choose out of different plans.

Saving tips

• Check out some gym promotions (e.g. Sport Central 5 months only 99£)
• Compare the accommodation prices and the duration of the stage, you find different providers easily online
• You can book grocery deliveries from different suppliers like ASDA or Tesco for a reasonable price
• Giffgaff is a great mobile provider. You can register online and your SIM card will be sent to your accommodation within a few working days. Price plans from 4-14£ per month
• Normally your accommodation is a 5 minute walk to the university or to the city center, so you don't need to take the public transport
• Too Good to Go is an app where restaurants give out their meals for a low price to take away
• Sometimes the club entrance is for free, sometimes up to 10£. Look out for promoter next to the entrances which offer discounts
• Book trains in advance to avoid rush hours and high priced
• Some accommodations don't offer bed sheets, cutlery and other housing stuff. Go to Wilkos for buying cheap things or go to the sales in the student union in the beginning of the semester

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