IF you’re looking for a fine time on the Tyne in cosmopolitan Newcastle, the city’s outstanding Malmaison and Hotel du Vin take some beating as your base, as IWAN DAVIES discovers.

IT may be well known as a party town par excellence, but there’s more to Newcastle than its celebrated nightlife.

With top restaurants and boutiques, the renaissance of its famous football side and the recent regeneration of Gateshead Quays, Tyneside is flourishing.

And with the iconic Tyne Bridge towering majestically over the river, Newcastle’s waterfront has great character.

For culture vultures, The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, opened in 2002 after the famed Baltic Flour Mill was converted, is the city’s answer to the Tate Modern.

While the Millennium Bridge on its doorstep, linking Newcastle to Gateshead, is the north-east’s riposte to the London version.

On the quayside, nestled among the bars, restaurants and cafés, is the lovely Grade II listed building that is home to the Malmaison hotel.

Once a seven-storey warehouse on the Newcastle side of the river, it now has 122 rooms and 14 suites, many with great views of the riverfront.

Its brasserie is first class with a very reasonably priced menu.

Highly recommended sample dishes include the salad with avocado, blue cheese, bacon and croutons starter and grilled cod haddock and potato chowder for main.

Another great place to stay, just a short walk away from the Malmaison, is the Hotel du Vin, a beautifully converted red-brick warehouse built in 1908 as the headquarters for the Tyne Tees Steamship Company.

Opened three years ago it has 42 individually designed and contemporary rooms and four luxurious suites, named after wines or vineyards.

All have luxurious handsprung mattresses, fine Egyptian linen, deep baths and powerful drench showers, plasma TVs, DVDs and air conditioning.

The French-style bistro produces classic and local dishes and has a wonderful selection of wines for every budget.

Recommended sample dishes are the chicken liver and foie gras parfait as an entrée, the entrecote and pommes frites for main and strawberry trifle to finish.

Fact file

  • Malmaison Hotel, 104 Quayside, Newcastle, NE1 3DX, 0191 245 5000, malmaison.com
  • Hotel du Vin & Bistro, Allan House, City Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2BE, 0191 229 2200, www.hotelduvin.com
  • When Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit was Newcastle United manager in the late 1990s, he lived at the Malmaison Hotel and publicly thanked its staff for being ‘really good to me’ after he resigned.