Newcastle Overnight

Your weekend, day by day

1. 1

   Day 1

   

   Guided bar crawl

   From about 20:30 · 4 hours

   Arrival day. Travel in and check in; the evening is the guided bar crawl: a run of bars with the guide handling the doors, finishing at a club. Dress codes are enforced at the top end of the strip. Dress for the last venue: no sportswear.

   More about this+

   Newcastle crawls typically start around 7pm, in the Bigg Market, on the Quayside around Sandhill or near Newgate Street, and run about four hours before finishing at a club. Bring photo ID. Several routes ban fancy dress, and doors refuse entry to anyone who has had too much, so pace the early stops. Self-led versions send the route and timings around a week before, and a two-night weekend pass is available. A pub golf format runs closer to five hours and is better started in the afternoon. With the Bigg Market and the Diamond Strip minutes apart, taxis are rarely needed.

   You meet the guide at a fixed point and move through a run of bars across the evening, usually four or five, finishing at a club. The guide knows the doors, so you skip the queue and the group is not turned away for being too large.

   Most crawls include a welcome drink or a shot at each stop, and entry to the final venue. The rest is on you. Groups from several bookings are often merged, which some stags like and some do not, so ask whether yours is private.

   Dress code is the club's, not the guide's. No trainers and no sportswear at the last venue, and matching shirts get refused at some doors.

   

   Add-on

   Activity bar (games, darts, shuffleboard)

   From about 15:00 · 2 hours

   If the group picks the activity bar, it runs in the afternoon: a reserved booth with digital darts or shuffleboard, the screens keeping score, and drinks and food ordered at the table.

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   Newcastle's games bars cluster in three spots: Collingwood Street on the Diamond Strip for shuffleboard, the leisure complex on Newgate Street for fairground-style arcade games and interactive darts, and Pilgrim Street for a multi-floor venue with street food, darts and shuffleboard. There is also a retro arcade bar on Dean Street with console booths and tokens. Most bookings are one or two hours with a welcome drink, and smart casual is the usual standard. A pool lounge that stays open until 6am makes a useful last stop if the group is still going.

   You get a reserved area for a set block of time, with the games on your table or lane and someone on hand to explain the scoring. Most venues run digital darts, shuffleboard, beer pong or a mix of all three, and the screens keep score so nobody argues.

   Drinks and food are ordered at the table. Some venues include a drink or a platter in the booking, others put it on a tab. Check which you have before you arrive so the money side is settled.

   No kit needed. Wear what you would wear to the pub. Trainers are fine.

2. 2

   Day 2

   

   Bowling, darts & pool

   From about 12:00 · 2 hours

   Departure day. If the group picks bowling and darts, lanes or oches are reserved for a block of time, with automatic scoring and a bar alongside: a low-effort way to finish before the journey home.

   More about this+

   This all happens in the city centre. The leisure complex on Newgate Street has short-format bowling on reserved lanes, with a pizza break option, and a bar in the same complex has interactive darts with live sport on the screens. One of the larger bowling venues adds pool, ping pong and karaoke under one roof and takes groups of up to 50. A pool lounge offers a private room with its own table and darts for ten or more. Allow two hours. Each darts oche takes about eight players, so a group of 16 should book two.

   You book a set number of lanes or oches for an hour or two and play through a scored league or a knockout. Scoring is automatic, shoes are handed over at the desk and the staff will set up a group format if you ask.

   It is low effort, indoors and cheap to add drinks to, which is why it survives on almost every weekend. Nobody needs to be good at it and nobody gets hurt.

   Socks are needed for bowling. Beyond that, wear what you like.