What to Do With a Free Saturday in Newcastle

Make two decisions and the day sorts itself out: indoors or outdoors, and short or long. Newcastle gives you a city centre small enough to walk, a river, a coast at the end of the Metro line and plenty under a roof for a wet one, so the hard part is choosing rather than finding.

Make both decisions on the Friday. A free Saturday with no decision in it gets spent in a retail park, and that is nobody's idea of a day out.

Indoors or Outdoors, First

Look at the forecast once, on the Friday, and then commit to it. Checking it eight times on Saturday morning is how you end up leaving the house at two o'clock.

If it is dry, go outdoors and keep the indoor plan as your backup. If it is not, pick the indoor day properly rather than doing a damp version of the outdoor one. A cold walk you talked yourself into is worse than a good afternoon under a roof.

What It Costs

Less than you would think, because a lot of the best of it is free. Most of the museums and galleries in the city and along the river cost nothing to walk into, the coast costs a Metro fare, and the bridges are free in both directions.

• Getting in and out. A day ticket on the Metro usually beats parking in town, and it means nobody has to drive.
• Food. One good meal instead of three snacks, and eaten earlier than you think.
• Whatever the main thing is, if the day has one. Tickets for Dreamworx at Digital, or a match, or an exhibition: one cost, settled on the Friday.

If you spend on one thing, spend it on not driving. A day where somebody is watching the clock and staying off the drinks is a day off for everyone except them.

The Coast Version

The Metro out to the coast is the easiest good day in the region and it works in almost any weather. A beach, a long walk, fish and chips, a proper look at the sea, and back in plenty of time for the evening.

It is also the version that survives kids, parents, a hangover and a dog, which is not true of much else. Go early and it is quiet. Turn up at noon in July and it is not.

The City Centre Version

The centre is small enough to do entirely on foot, which is its best feature. You can get from the top of town down to the river in about fifteen minutes, so you do not have to decide everything up front.

Build it around one fixed thing: a film, an exhibition, a table booked, a match. Then let the wandering happen either side of it. A whole day of nothing but wandering runs out of steam by three o'clock.

The Quayside and the River

Walk the river. Both sides, over one bridge and back over another, with a stop somewhere in the middle. It is the thing you would show a visitor and it is worth doing properly when you live here.

Sunday mornings bring the market to the Quayside, which is a different day out altogether and worth knowing about when you are planning the whole weekend rather than just the Saturday.

The Long Version

If what you want is a proper day rather than an outing, start earlier than feels normal. Something at midday or in the afternoon, food built into it, and home in the evening.

Daytime clubbing has grown for exactly this reason, and Dreamworx at Digital is a straightforward way into it: 90s and 00s dance, an afternoon start, a finish in the evening. You get the whole experience of a night out with an ending you can live with, and you still have a Sunday afterwards. An afternoon start also means you travel in daylight both ways, which makes getting home cheap and simple.

If It Rains All Day

Have this decided in advance so you do not spend the morning arguing about it. The indoor options are the free museums and galleries, the cinema, the pools, the covered markets, and a long lunch you deliberately let run.

The trick with a wet Saturday is to pick two things and walk between them, rather than one thing that has to hold you for five hours.

How to Decide

If you are stuck, ask yourself three questions. How long do you want to be out for. Does the day need to work for somebody who is not you. And do you want to remember this one, or do you just want to get out of the house.

All the answers are allowed. A walk and a coffee is a perfectly good Saturday. Just do not aim for the big one and end up in a car park because nobody had decided anything by eleven.