Newcastle has gone through something of a transformation in the past ten years and it’s currently the key centre for travel and leisure along with business in the north east of England. Millions of pounds of investment have revived the city centre making it a desirable place to live and work and helped to generate thousands of brand-new work opportunities. There are numerous good reasons to pay a visit to Newcastle and it has been identified as the United kingdom’s favourite city break for 4 consecutive years in The Guardian/Observer travel awards. Newcastle has many excellent attractions for all your family and a weekend won’t be enough to take a look at all of them. It is well known that the north east is a hotbed of sporting zeal and seeing that Newcastle United are back in the Premier league there are certain to be thousands of football fans from across the country doing the trip to St James’s Park. The Great North Run is an additional event which appeals to hundreds of thousands of runners and spectators to the city every year and also helps to raise millions of pounds for charity. Shopping in Newcastle is something of a pastime for its residents and it is not really hard to understand why. The MetroCentre has the largest shopping centre and complex in Europe with a host of top name brands in one place. With the Newcastle Quayside Market starting in July 2010 as well as the already established Grainger market, Jesmond market and the Farmers & Country marketplace you’re hard pressed not to get a bargain somewhere. Newcastle has one of the best choice of night clubs and pubs in the united kingdom and possesses a reputation across the United kingdom as the place to go for a terrific night out. The Quayside and the Bigg market draw in a lively, young crowd and for the somewhat more mature you can find lots of traditional pubs, theatres as well as excellent restaurants. And needless to say no visit to Newcastle could be complete without trying the legendary Newcastle Brown Ale at least one time. There is a amazing range of hotels in Newcastle to choose from when you’re selecting your accommodation for the weekend. From B&B’s to five star hotels there’s accommodation to suit each and every pocket and I can personally highly recommend the Rosebery Hotel in Jesmond as a superb place to stay.