Premier League

Time Out has named this spot as one of the best places to visit in the UK highlighting its stunning beaches, world-class museums and vibrant food scene

It’s time to look beyond the obvious and consider some of Britain’s finest destinations which may not yet feature on your travel radar — but absolutely should — and one of them is tucked away in the North East.

Time Out has unveiled its list of ‘The 14 best places to visit in the UK in 2026’, and cracking the top 10 is a North East city that is frequently overlooked in favour of its more celebrated neighbour just 10 miles down the road.

Certain spots earned their place on the list for their buzzing nightlife, others for their coastlines, some for their museums, and others still for their exceptional food scenes. Claiming the number 10 spot was Sunderland, carving out a reputation that stretches well beyond its celebrated football club.

Premier League glory aside, Sunderland might not immediately spring to mind for many travellers, yet according to the publication’s experts, there’s a wealth of experiences waiting to be discovered in this seaside city. With a host of exhibitions, sporting fixtures and much more scheduled throughout 2026, there are countless reasons to visit — and even more to make you want to linger.

Beaches

Unlike most thriving cities, Sunderland is fortunate enough to boast a handful of sweeping and stunning beaches, owing to its enviable position along the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea coast. The twin beaches at Roker and Seaburn are the perfect spot to kick back and relax, with many visitors hailing them as “the best in the UK” — some having made the trip since childhood.

Both hold blue flag status, making them a clean and safe destination for the whole family, whether you’re soaking up the golden sands in summer or enjoying a brisk stroll along the shore during the cooler months.

A recent visitor shared on TripAdvisor: “We spent a fine sunny spring morning walking on the seafront. We got there easily by taking the E1 bus from Sunderland city centre.

“Roker and Seaburn are attractive with good beaches with nice cafes with good coffee, which we sampled, and seafront restaurants that we would like to try next time. We only spent three hours here, but it has whetted our appetites and will certainly come again when visiting Sunderland.”

Pier Point at Roker sits right on the beachfront, lined with a variety of cafés and restaurants where you can tuck into classic seaside fare and stop off for a drink or two.

Museums

As highlighted by Time Out when unveiling their rankings, museums play a central role in Sunderland’s appeal as a tourist destination and serve as a brilliant showcase of the city’s rich cultural and historical heritage. It’s worth checking ahead for any upcoming exhibits, but on any given day, these venues are well worth a visit.

Standing out among the city’s attractions is the National Glass Centre, set within a striking glass structure beside the waterfront. The venue is devoted to examining concepts and heritage through the medium of glass, while offering visitors the chance to get hands-on and engage with the educational programmes available.

It’s highly regarded as one of Sunderland’s top attractions, ranking second on TripAdvisor. One visitor remarked: “This place is amazing. The glassblowing demonstration is really good, the cafe is really nice, food delish, staff very good. Nice setting on the water.”

Additional museums include the North East Land, Sea and Air Museum, Ryhope Engines Museum and, perhaps most significantly, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. Located in the city centre, Sunderland Museum chronicles the city’s story across four levels, featuring an array of captivating galleries and displays.

One visitor said: “The museum offers free entry and has plenty of exhibits. I first had to see the staple of the museum, which is Wallace the Lion who has been with the museum for over 160 years.

“There was a write-up about how Wallace came to be in the museum which was nice to read about. There were a few other areas which showed off the history of the mines and celebrated the miners’ unions, etc.”

For those seeking somewhere to while away a few hours indoors, whether escaping dreary weather or beating the heat, free entry means there’s every reason to discover what the museum has to offer.

Across the city, a diverse array of thriving independent eateries are serving up some seriously tasty grub, from street food stalls to cosy cafés and beloved seafront staples. Time Out made a point of singling out Propa Pies, a “nostalgia-fuelled pastry pop-up from Hairy Biker Si King”, which offers an impressive selection of inventively flavoured pies alongside timeless classics.

Jamie Vardy had left Cremonese after one season with them relegated from Serie A and his time in Italy a struggle for the family in terms of finding schools and home comfort foods.

Pensive Rebekah Vardy admits the future for her family is up in the air after their return from Italy – as her husband weighs up where to play football next.

The Mirror told yesterday how Jamie Vardy had left Cremonese after one season with them relegated from Serie A and his time in Italy a struggle for the family in terms of finding schools and home comfort foods.

On their future she joked: “Is there ever a f**king plan?” Before she went on to say she did not see Jamie returning to Leicester City. Other reports suggest he could join Sheffield Wednesday or go to play in the Netherlands or even return to the Premier League.

In an interview with the Times to promote their new ITV reality series about their time in Italy, Rebekah spoke of her public persona after losing the Agatha Christie trial against Coleen Rooney.

She said: “I accept that I am very Marmite. I’ve been portrayed as a villain since I met Jamie — they called me a gold-digger and said I’d leave when his football career ended — and to an extent I’ve played up to being that villain.

“I don’t do emotions; that’s genuine. Someone once said I have a ‘resting bitch face’ and I ran with it. It gets me into trouble because my face doesn’t portray the feelings I have inside. I am not a bitch. I find it hard to show vulnerability because of my childhood [Vardy’s family were Jehovah’s Witnesses], and the church forces you to suppress how you feel.

“That cycle is hard to break. So yes, I do come across as cold, but when you look at the bigger picture there’s a reason. At the same time, I am not a victim. I will not play the victim card.”

She also says abuse from trolls and losing the court case against Coleen, leaving her with legal bills of millions of pounds, have taken their toll in the past.

Rebekah added: “There were times when I questioned the point of existing. I didn’t want to be here any more. It was a horrendous time. What got me through was the life we have together and our children. Always the kids. They are our world.”

ITV will next week profile the family’s time in Italy in three-part series The Vardys. The new ITV documentary was supposed to celebrate a great new chapter in their life.

But instead the cameras show Rebecca struggling to find accommodation and schools for their children; Olivia, six, Finley, nine, Sofia 12, Taylor 16.

It was not the Italian dream they hoped for and lasted less time than expected. Once positive is Rebekah will get Jamie at home this Summer as at 39 he is too old to make it into the England squad.

And she insists she won’t miss not being at the World Cup. She said: “It’s actually quite lonely. You go to support your husband or boyfriend but you don’t get to be near them very much. And Russia was terrifying. It was not an easy place to be.”

* The Vardys airs at 9pm on Tuesday June 2nd on ITV1 & ITVX. All three episodes will be immediately available to stream as a boxset online.

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Families heading to France from Dover are enduring a two hour wait, while train services out of London have been hit by cancellations ahead of weekend of route closures

Drivers arriving at the port of Dover have been warned of two hour waits as millions of others elsewhere face bank holiday travel chaos.

Authorities at Dover have alerted customers to a “120 minute processing time for tourist traffic in the buffer zone” before reaching French border control on this side of the Channel. It added: “Please note there is external congestion on the port approach roads.”

Writing on social media, the Port of Dover said: “Thank you for your patience. Our teams are working hard to get everyone through border control and check-in as quickly as possible.” The go-slow comes as Brits flying to Europe also fear lengthy waits to get through border control after the implementation of new passport checks.

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Doug Bannister, Port of Dover chief executive, warned Saturday would be even busier: “We’re looking at about 8,000 cars on Saturday, so that is going to be the busiest of the three days. Our busy time for cars tends to be about 5am till until 1pm. If you’re arriving for a sailing during that period of time, we ask people not to arrive more than two hours before their sailing so that we can keep everybody flowing through.”

It is not much better for those staying at home and enjoying the forecast heatwave, with temperatures of over 30C predicted in some areas over the weekend.

National Rail warned the hot weather can “cause overhead lines to expand and sag”, rails to buckle and pose a risk of track-side fires. “Speed restrictions may be imposed,” it added.

Tens of thousands or rail passengers suffered cancellations even before a weekend of disruption due to engineering work and strikes.

Operator LNER said northbound services between London King’s Cross and Peterborough were disrupted due to a fault with the overhead power lines in the New Barnet area. Delays of up to 50 minutes were expected. And southbound, services between York and Doncaster were disrupted due to a fault with the signalling system.

The East Coast Main Line is expected to be one of the worst routes affected in the coming days because of a closure for works in North Yorkshire. A rail replacement bus service will operate but, as a result, will add more than more than an hour and a half to a normal three hour journey.

The closure has impact thousands Middlesborough fans travelling to London for the Championship play-off final against Hull City at Wembley.

Industrial action is also planned on London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway on Friday and Saturday, with passengers advised to “only travel if necessary” as trains will only run on a small number of routes.

Elsewhere, the Transpennine route will also be impacted, including a rail replacement service between Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield over the whole weekend, and between Huddersfield and Leeds, Dewsbury and Wakefield Kirkgate on Sunday.

Buses will replace trains on the Great Western main line between Newport and Bristol Parkway, while one train an hour will operate between south Wales and London via Gloucester from Saturday right through to Monday June 8.

Passengers using part of the Thameslink line in London and South Western Railway between Havant, Fareham and Portsmouth Harbour will also be disrupted.

Anit Chandarana, from Network Rail, said: “Bank holidays are still among the least busy times for us in terms of passengers, so it makes sense to plan these major improvements for those days.

“I know it can be frustrating to have to check before you travel, but this investment is about making everyday journeys better – improving reliability, reducing future disruption and helping the railway work better for passengers.”

So much rail disruption will inevitably mean even more people take to roads already predicted to be busy due to the weather and the start of the half term school break.

Adding to the risk of jams is the fact it is the final weekend of the Premier League season, with hundreds of thousands of fans travelling to cheer on their teams.

Motoring group the AA is forecasting Friday will be the busiest day, with around 23.4 million journeys taken, then 2.8 million on Saturday, and 22.4 million on both Sunday and bank holiday Monday.

If you have been disrupted by the travel disruption, email graham.hiscott@mirror.co.uk

Vinnie Jones says one career moment is way above all others

Vinnie Jones believes winning the FA Cup will be written on his gravestone. Footballer and actor Jones, 61, was part of the Wimbledon team that stunned Liverpool in 1987 with their victory at Wembley. A new Netflix documentary looks at his extraordinary career working as a hod carrier and playing semi-pro football to becoming a Premier League star and then a Hollywood actor.

Looking back, Vinnie said: “I think the biggest achievement is the FA Cup. The odds, you know? Leeds was magnificent, but we built a good team and that was “shit or bust”—we had to get up that season. But Jack and the Beanstalk was a great story of mine as a kid, and that’s what we did at Wimbledon when we beat Liverpool.

“I remember the first round being 1-0 down against Mansfield away. Fast forward a few months, and you’ve beaten one of the greatest teams in the last 50 years. 1-0 in front of a hundred thousand people. It was some achievement. It will probably be on my gravestone, I should think.”

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Vinnie is still making movies and also now has his own reality TV show In The Country, detailing his life after taking on 2,000 acres of West Sussex countryside, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. His wife Tanya died in 2019 with cancer, having beaten the disease several times in the past.

Asked if his attitude in life was all about proving people wrong, he said: “Not prove people wrong, but to keep trying to get to the summit. When you get to the ledge, there’s another ledge and another ledge. I don’t really know where the summit is, to be honest. So I’ll go to the next ledge and the next ledge. Hopefully one day I’ll get there and go, “There’s no more ledges.

“We’re happy in life right now. I’ve got a couple of great movies and TV shows. It’s been a long road; the last six years has been a long road for me. You can’t stay on the same ledge. You’ve got to look up.”

Vinnie admits in the doc he has a “big ego” but also that he had periods in his life when he struggled due to trouble he got into but also heavy drinking, with no one to talk to about his problems. He recalls how he considered suicide when he took a shotgun into the woods near his home and was struggling with his mental health.

He says in the film: “I was on the bed and I was just curled up like the baby position and I was like, enough. I can’t keep doing this to people, can’t do it to the family. So far, I thought I could go for a walk up the wood…. I took the gun, walked up the wood, and then all stupid things go through your head. And the easiest thing to do was just to stop it right there and then, that would be it.

“And then I sort of came round, like being knocked out I suppose like in boxing, when you come around and miss all the scream and the shouting and everything is slow motion and you’re kind of back, you go right f*** this.”

Later in the film he adds: “I’ve taken as many knocks as I’ve given, but I’ve grabbed every opportunity that’s come my way. Be someone, make your mark. I’ve made my mark.”

Asked what people should take away from his story in the documentary, Vinnie says: “I can remember back when I was cutting the grass at the Masonic School in Bushey, just looking up and thinking: give me one chance, one chance, wherever it is, third division, fourth division, please, I want to be a professional footballer. You’re saying that every day. And then all of a sudden, a bolt of lightning or a flash or a spark gives you that chance.

“Talk to the universe and be straight with the universe. Ask for what you want and don’t let it down when it gives you that chance. That’s what it is. There’s a reason why the chance to win the lottery is a billion to one. To build on your dreams is up to us. I think we’re the bricklayers and the carpenters of our own dreams.”

Asked about mistakes in his life, he said: “The biggest regret is not giving up drinking probably 20 years beforehand. I tried it but never stuck at it. I think I’d have achieved a lot more without the booze. When I first went to Wimbledon on that trial, I never had a drink for a year. I wanted to be the fittest I could be. And then I fell into the culture.”

He added: “I wasn’t a drinker or a smoker growing up; it was just football. It was all part of being part of the Crazy Gang. I think I’d have been a lot better player if I hadn’t drunk through my career. But when you’re a young lad from a building site and the next minute you’re playing in front of 50,000 people, you never think it’s going to end.

“Older people say, ‘I hope you’re putting money away because this won’t last forever,’ but they’re talking to a brick wall. You think it’s going to last forever.” Thankfully for Vinnie he found a new career and big paydays in films including Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

* Untold UK: Vinnie Jones is on Netflix from Tuesday May 26.

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