Car-free holidays in NorthumberlandNorthumberland
From the beautiful borderlands around Berwick upon Tweed to the less explored industrial heritage around Blyth, Northumberland is packed with cracking destinations for a car-free break. Explore seaside castles and colonies of seals, gardens, museums and miles of dune-backed beaches. With a railway line along the coast, regular bus services, and year-round boat trips, there's no need to drive. Head inland to the medieval treasures of Hexham with its ancient abbey and bus connections to Hadrian's Wall.
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Getting to Northumberland and getting around
Arrive by train and explore by bus, bike or on foot.
How to get to Northumberland: Fast trains up the East Coast of England mean it’s quicker to go by rail than car. And it’s beautiful, too. The railway passes through the Northumberland Coast National Landscape and the line has been voted England’s most scenic rail route. Trains stop regularly at Alnmouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed and you can book tickets fee-free through Railsmartr. The best way to reach Blyth is by express bus from Newcastle (see below). For Hexham, take the train from Newcastle.
How to get around Northumberland:
- By bus: There are surprisingly good bus services to most of the places you might want to visit. Bus X18 from Newcastle to Alnwick and beyond is particularly useful with family tickets and lots to see. See our suggestions below for more details. Arriva buses sell day tickets for the whole region that let you travel from Berwick to Carlisle to Scarborough.
- Walking: The Northumberland Coast Path is a wonderful way to see the coastline close up. Or you can follow Hadrian’s Wall Path across the Northumberland National Park, riding the AD122 bus to get there.
- Cycling: There are great opportunities for cyclists too, like the Coast and Castles long-distance route.
- Tickets to ride: Arriva buses offer several different rover tickets for different areas. Some of the best value are Discover North Northumberland tickets, valid for one day, three days or a whole week.
- If you’re starting from Newcastle, check out the Explorer North East ticket, which gives you unlimited travel on lots of different buses, plus the Tyne and Wear metro and the Shields ferry.
- Show your bus ticket for a 10% discount to Alnwick Castle.
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Where to base yourself for a car-free Northumberland holiday
With castles and gardens, long sandy beaches and wildlife-rich islands you’ll be spoilt for choice. Scroll down for more details about stunning staycations in each of these Northumberland towns.
- Make Alnmouth your base and you’re perfectly placed for buses to craggy castles, the atmospheric priory on Holy Island and boat trips to the Farne Islands with their huge colonies of seals and seabirds.
- Stay in Berwick-upon Tweed and you can reach lots of the sights around Alnmouth, but are also close to the Scottish border. You can get buses to the sandy beaches at Eyemouth, Floors Castle at Kelso, the fishing village at St Ebbs and more.
- From Blyth, you can reach some different attractions like the Woodhorn Museum in what was once the world’s biggest mining village, or the National Trust mansion at Seaton Delaval with its intriguing gardens and history.
- Medieval Hexham makes a great base for exploring Hadrian’s Wall and has a beautiful old abbey at its heart.
Keep reading for everything you need to know about memorable car-free holidays in each of these places.
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Alnmouth
On the winding River Aln with its colourful houses and quiet beach, this coastal village is a lovely place to stay. It’s 1½ miles from the railway station to the beach and there are regular buses.
- Ten minutes ride on bus X18 is the lovely town of Alnwick with its castle, a key film location for Harry Potter. How to get to Alnwick Castle without a car? Follow Good Journey’s directions and get a discount.
- Nearby Alnwick Garden is another great attraction with rose gardens, fountains and terraced paths. There are swings in the cherry orchard, a bamboo maze and even a poisonous plants garden! Follow Good Journey’s directions.
- Bus X18 will also take you directly to Bamburgh Castle (which gives you 20% off for arriving by bus) or Warkworth Castle. You can also reach the harbour villages of Amble or Seahouses, the jumping-off point for the Farne Islands. Take a boat trip to see the thousands of grey seals who live here, their curious, whiskered faces surfacing just metres from the boat. You’ll see puffins swimming, gannets diving and surreally beautiful vistas of the castle-spangled coast.
- Head out to Holy Island to explore Lindisfarne Priory and get 10% off with your bus ticket at Lindisfarne Castle. Follow Good Journey’s directions to the castle.
- Alnmouth is packed with places to stay but does get quite booked up in summer so keep reading for some slightly more off-the-beaten-track suggestions.
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Berwick-upon-Tweed
If you look out of the window near the Scottish border, on a train journey between London and Edinburgh, you’ll get a fabulous view of Berwick-upon-Tweed. You can admire its long, arched bridges, its polygonal town hall spire rising over the rooftops, and the river widening out to meet the sea.
- Better still, step off the train for a holiday packed with castles, boat trips, wildlife, history and waterside walks. The sights around Alnmouth (above) are all accessible from here along with lots of others in this fascinating border town with its castle ruins right next to the railway line. The town walls now form a mile-long amble round the major sights. Medieval ramparts overlook the Tweed, and Elizabethan fortifications tower above cave-backed beaches.
- The town’s beaches below are alive with wading birds: noisy oystercatchers, stilt-legged redshanks, curve-billed curlews and seaweed-brown turnstones. You can see all these and more from Berwick Boat Trips, who operate cruises on the smart Border Belle into the winter months and regularly spot seals and dolphins near the estuary.
- The Curfew micropub is recommended and Atelier, opposite the pub, is a great wine bar and bistro. Or there’s tasty fish and chips up the road at Coull’s on Castlegate.
- Bus X18 will take you to Seahouses harbour (for trips to the wildlife-rich Farne Islands) and to Bamburgh castle, on its volcanic headland, while bus X15 will take you to Alnwick for the castle and garden. See our feature writer Phoebe’s Guardian article on car-free trips in and around Berwick for more ideas and inspiration.
- The Walls B&B, in a quayside Georgian townhouse fifteen minutes’ walk from the station, has a log fire and honesty bar in the lounge. Three big rooms look out over the River Tweed so you can seal-watch from the upstairs windows. Or for a budget option head to the quayside YHA Berwick hostel.
- You can also hire bikes with a delivery service to your accommodation.
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Blyth
At the southern end of Northumberland, close to the border with Tyne and Wear, the area around Blyth makes an interesting base for a holiday. Blyth is not a typical seaside resort, but rooms and restaurants are easier to book in this less-touristed southern part of the county. Blyth has plenty of its own attractions for visitors as well as bus links to tourist hotspots further north. See our travel writer Phoebe’s Guardian article on Blyth for details.
- Seaton Delaval Hall is a restored National Trust property five miles south. Architect John Vanbrugh, of Blenheim and Castle Howard fame, designed it in 1718 and its empty halls are brilliantly memorable. Bus X7 from Blyth stops outside the gates frequently (regularly on Sundays). Follow Good Journey’s directions to Seaton Delaval Hall and get a surprise car-free reward!
- A five-mile walk from the hall, through fields and wooded valleys, passes close to St Mary’s Lighthouse, which stands on a small rocky island with a causeway.
- The Woodhorn Museum, heading north on bus 1, has a dramatic walk-through Coal Town and a gallery of artworks by the local “Pitmen Painters”. To get there, hop off the bus at the Tweed Street bus stop, among Ashington’s brick terraces, walk a few steps back and turn right along Ashfield Mews. Keep straight five minutes past allotments, over the A197 and freight railway, into the QEII Country Park and turn right to reach the museum.
- The Drift Café, in a former mine building near Cresswell Beach is also served by bus 1, which runs all the way to the picturesque harbour village of Amble. The bus stops in Cresswell near the Pele Tower, a small restored border castle. The dune-backed miles of Druridge Bay are just steps away.
- In Blyth itself, there’s a beach with a distinctive row of colourful beach huts with flowery Ridley Park nearby. The Northumberland coast path and the Coast and Castles cycle route both run through the park past neat banks of geraniums.
- The Commissioners Quay Inn is a great place to stay. It has a maritime-themed bar and views out to sea across Blyth’s harbour, with its tall sailing ship. Facing east means catching some great sunrises in a county where each day can bring spectacular new adventures.
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Hexham
For a Northumbrian break that explores wild moors and ancient heritage, you could also base yourself at Hexham. Trains from Newcastle to Hexham take around 45 minutes.
- In the heart of this lovely town is a medieval abbey and flowering Sele Park. There are great walking routes passing through the town, including the River Tyne Trail and the Way of Light to Durham, one of six Northern Saints Trails.
- Hexham also makes a great base for exploring Hadrian’s Wall using bus AD122 to reach impressive Roman sites like Chesters Fort, Housesteads and Vindolanda. Follow Good Journey’s directions to AD122 Hadrian’s Wall Country Bus.
- For bus journeys to Hadrian’s Wall and beyond on the day you arrive by rail, get a PlusBus ticket.
- There are lots of places to stay in Hexham including the reasonably-priced, convenient Station Inn, which makes an excellent base for car-free travellers. Nearer to the abbey, the Victorian Beaumont Hotel is about ten minutes’ walk from the station.
- For a challenging six-mile walk with great views across the Tyne Valley, catch bus AD122 to Chesters Roman Fort and walk back past Roman walls and watchtowers, battlefields and the atmospheric hilltop Heavenfield church. Follow the Hadrian’s Wall walk eastwards to Heavenfield and then the waymarked Northern Saints Trail back to Hexham.
