One of the good things about the nightlife in Newcastle is you can pretty much walk around all of the areas, as in distance they are all quite close, but in style all very different. But which is the best?

The main areas of Newcastle can be broken down to: The Gate, The Diamond Strip/Central Station, The Bigg Market and The Quayside.

What is considered cool/popular has changed alot. A few years ago the Quayside was a cool place to go, everyone went, clubs like Sea and Baja would be packed with massive queues. Then the people outside of Newcastle found out about it. Now there are stag and hen parties as far as the eye can see, and the locals by majority go to other places. I was in Quilted Camel a few months ago, 21:00 on a Friday night, and there was a handful of people there. Rewind a few years and you wouldnt be able to move. Have the Stag and Hens spoiled the Quayside, or are there now just more/better choices?

Blu Bambu @ the Bigg Market was also considered one of the best Saturday nights out in Newcastle. With big queues, a packed club every week, it was doing good for itself. They destroyed all that themselves by not moving with the times, and forgetting that all the people they would not let in went to other places, never to return. Soon enough they lost the ability to draw a crowd.

Today the place to be is the Central Station area, aka The Diamond Strip. Bars like Madame Koo, Perdu, Bijoux etc. People have a love of trendy bars at the moment, with nice decor, ‘posh’ feel, and a “no cheese allowed here” view. The problem i have with them is the price tag and attitude which goes with some of them. If they are upmarket, why do some of them sell cheap spirits? I hate the places which sell cheap vodka or cheap Martini, to me its like a shop selling a fake. If you go to these places and pay more you expect to get better standard drinks, which is why we go, to drink!

So i would say the best area is The Diamond Strip. BUT, it does depend on what kind of night you want. If you are into a cheesy mood, try The Gate and bars around the Bigg Market.

Leave a comment to have your say

Koosday, Madame Koos flagship event is now too big for its venue says its promoters. Koosday is the new word for Tuesday if you hadnt heard.

They have now extended the Koosday experience to next door, Floritas, so there is more space for you to get in and enjoy the party. With its mix of cheap drinks and VIP style table service and full bottles of spirits available, it is the place to be in Newcastle on a Tuesday night.

If you want a reason NOT to go check out the video below. This is Charlie who was in Big Brother. Why does Madame Koo want this as a promo? Tup Tup gets people like Alesha Dixon, and Koos has BB Charlie?!?!  He tries to cling onto some sort of ‘celebrity’ status, but his ‘douche’ status shines much, much brighter. What a twat.

According to their Facebook page, The team behind Floritas, Baby Lynch and Madame Koo are looking for shooter girls to sell drinks to their customers.

What are they thinking?! These places are supposed to be classy bars, and now it looks like they are following the trend of the lower class bars by having people come round and annoy you and pressure you into buying more drinks.

I personally HATE these kinds of things bars do. You are the customer, and have chose their establishment out of many that are in Newcastle. You buy their drinks, but now that is not enough for them. They now have people going around trying to sell you more. Shots are cool! I love them. Sambuca, Jagermeister, Tequila, i love drinking shots. But, if i want one, i know where the bar is. Why do the bars feel the need to have this kind of gimmick.

They do have their place. I can understand them being in a place such as City Vaults, Chase and ‘fun bars’; But The bars on The Diamond Strip are supposed to be more upmarket, and have class. There is nothing upmarket about having a girl come round trying to sell you something.

One of the good things about these bars is that they dont (or didnt) have girls coming round bugging you and interrupting your night. That seems to have now gone, and these three bars are now copying the trend which is the shot girl.

Newcastle nights out is all about the weekend. The bars are usually always full, for the last few weeks the bars on the diamond strip have had pretty big queues outside them. So what happens through the week? NOTHING! Its amazing to see places like Perdu and Floritas which get queues reguarly on Saturday night, being empty on a midweek night. I was in Perdu and Floritas, in each bar there couldnt have been more than 20 people in at any 1 time. I was gonna go into Baby Lynch but it was so sparse (i mean no staff aswell as no people) i didnt know if it were open or not.

Revolution was doing slightly better, but nowhere near what its like at the weekend. Still it got a few people in it which was more than any other bar around the area.

I guess if you wanna go out through the week the only place to go is the Gate, which does get decent numbers of people in.

This is a bar crawl idea if you want to go to more upmarket/trendy bars in Newcastle. It will suit you if:

You like to spend money
You are young-mature age 21-35
You like House Music/Ambiant music
You like drinking cocktails, or more high end drinks
You dress to impress

Is this you? Then read on….

Bars you will go to:

Destination (2 drinks)
Tokyo (1 drink)
Revolution (2 drinks + shots)
Madame Koo (1 drink)
Baby Lynch (1 drink)
Floritas (1 drink)
Perdu (1 drink)
Tup Tup Palace (many drinks)
Total Drinks: 9+
Total Cost: £50-£60+ (not including club entry fee or club drinks)

The bars you will be going to are all in the same area, the central station area. Dress code is smart casual. First bar is Destination, which is next to the station hotel. If its early enough you can take advantage of their happy hour, where you can get 2for1, free drink, half price or full price by pressing the button when you get your drink. This bar can get packed at times, there are 2 bars inside with seating, aswell as many TVs and an outside area for people who smoke.

When leaving turn right and follow the road round the bend and you will get to Tokyo. This bar might be hard to miss, at it looks like a little door and nothing more, and is on its own. Get yourself a cocktail once inside, you can chill downstairs or upstairs in this place.

When leaving turn left cross the road and head back up to the bar on the corner which is Revolution, it is hard to miss. Here you can enjoy a cocktail, have one of many different kinds of vodka drinks, or get you and your mates a rack of shots, which i highly reccommend. If you are going with a few people a Jug (pitcher) of something is a must; i advise Absolut Chambles (Vodka, Champagne, Redbull). Rev is an amazing bar because of its decor, yet again its a very popular bar, and the music is House.

From leaving there turn left and walk down the street which is Collingwood street, aka “The Diamond Strip“. There are a few bars in a row here, which are Floritas, Madame Koo, Baby Lynch. Go to all of them. Whats better than bars directly next door to each other?! Get yourself a cocktail in each or some wine, or beer if you prefer.

When you exit any of these places turn left and carry on down the road to Perdu. Unfortunatly there can be long queues here, but if you can stand a 10-15 minute wait you can go in here. You can get more cocktails, long drinks or whatever you fancy here. If you are drunk enough you can dance to the commercial pop/rnb music, or chill in a booth if there is one available.

If you want to head to a club at this point there is Tup Tup Palace, which is on the opposite side of the road, further down. Another choice would be Tiger Tiger at the gate. If your not ready for a club you can keep walking down Collingwood street and go to bars Bijoux, Grund Floor @ The Attic or no.1 Grey Street

Newcastle was probably the busiest its been this year last night, considering its the middle of the month and the weather didnt help matters either since it was raining most of the day and in drabs on the night.

The bars had queues! Even bars which dont normally have queues, such as Destination, were packed. The standard queues for the diamond strip bars especially early on, Perdu, Floritas and Revolution all had pretty big queues outside so i thought better of going to them at that point of the night.

I did go into Revolution, where some fucking muppet spilled more or less a whole pint down the back of my jeans, what a dickhead. He actually said “i’m sorry there’s not much else i can say”. What a cock. I used my I Heart Vodka card and got 12 shots and a jug of Absolut Chambles which only came to £22. Not bad for 6 glasses of drink and 12 shots

Baby Lynch was pretty quiet early on, and the latest entry to the diamond strip, Madame Koo was open for a pre-opening kind of thing. Unfortunatly the place looked like a building site outside, why have a pre-opening like that? They should of kept the place closed till it was ready, but maybe they are just testing the water or something.

Blue down the quayside is now closed. This might just be for refurbishments, but it was not open and looked like it was getting a makeover or the place may be gone for good.

There was also police everwhere. There was apparently some trouble after the Newcastle game. Police were dotted all over the town outside bars, subway etc.

According to the Facebook pages of Floritas and Baby Lynch, there will be a new bar opening…

Date for opening is supposed to be Friday 29th May; with free drinks 7 – 8pm.

Will this be something different? Do we need another bar in the diamond strip? We’ll have to wait and see what this has to offer.

Answers on a postcard for the name of the place….Or just write a comment

Some things i get asked in emails from people outside Newcastle visiting is the bar policies and door staff aka bouncers aka door supervisors aka the people who will spoil your night for no reason.

Some, probably most door staff and bar policies are fine, if you are used to the bars and know the types they are e.g. dress codes then you probably wont have many problems. Some on the other hand are a different story.  Getting into a place depends on many things, some bars are just twats, some wont let groups in, some are more funny if you are drunk or if you are young.

Some of the things bouncers have said to the visitors here, me or my friends are:

“Sorry not the night lads” -why? (no response)

“I cant let you in, you’re shaking, i think you have been taking narcotics” (in the middle of the winter when wearing a short sleeve shirt)

“Sorry not tonight” – Why? “you’re dressed like a cunt” (Blu Bambu, thanks to a visitor for letting us know this one!)

“No Trainers/White Shoes/other clothing”

“Sorry its a 21″

“Sorry, no rockports” (and a girl walks past wearing rockport boots

“Sorry no —insert any brand name here—”

“I Think you’re drunk, can you say the alphabet backwards….”

Just a small selection of what you have sent in or what i have heard over the years

The most notorious places in Newcastle for not letting people in for no reason without a doubt is Blu Bambu. I am amazed they have any visitors left (although its getting less and less) since they seem to reject people for no reason; and if you do get in i think you will be disapointed. They have been riding the wave of success for a while, however that wave is slowly crashing down on themselves as people go to other, better clubs. Other places, like Liquid Envy, will check you for tatoos. Perdu, Revolution and Floritas also get picky at times, for no reason at all other than they can be….They dont really understand that its seen as a major offence not letting customers in who have chosen to spend their money in their place, but they soon learn this when the queues disapear almost faster than their profits…Apartment was rebranded as Floritas and their main selling point was “there is no VIP, everyone is welcome”…At least they did learn a valuable lesson.

I like Floritas Bar which is on Collingwood Street in Newcastle aka “The Diamond Strip” but we would like to know what makes it a “Miami Bar“? It doesnt really scream out Summer, but then again it is a bit cold in March still. I was in the V.I.P section a few weeks ago and it was nice. Not much has changed since it was the Apartment down there from what i remember, but it is cool, it has a laid back atmosphere, with nice sofas. There was a hostest/girl on the door who seemed to be doing evrything! on the door, waitress and more. She looked like a genuine person and was dressed amazing in a white dress, every bar should have someone like this rather than a girl going round trying to get you to buy shots or sell you something.

The crowd is a real big mix of people and ages, from very young to errr ‘old’ haha When the place gets busy it can sometimes take a while to get served, and the prices are the standard for this kind of bar in the area.

It has tried to get away from the old “exclusive-ness” which it had before and clearly didnt work well, although it was a nice idea.

You can checkout the Florita’s website by clicking here