Tynemouth sits where the Tyne meets the North Sea, twenty-five minutes from central Newcastle on the Metro. It is a handsome place of Georgian and Victorian terraces, with a busy front street of cafés, pubs and independent shops, and it gets crowded on sunny weekends.
The headland is taken up by the ruins of Tynemouth Priory and Castle, a monastery inside a fortress with gun batteries that guarded the river mouth until the Second World War. Below, the North Pier runs half a mile out to its lighthouse.
North of the headland, Longsands is a wide Blue Flag beach and the best surfing spot on this coast. King Edward's Bay, a small sandy cove under the priory, is more sheltered. At weekends the market in Tynemouth station, under the restored Victorian iron-and-glass canopy, sells crafts, books and street food.