The best budget hotels in Durham
An insider's guide to the best budget hotels in Durham, including the top places to stay for historic buildings, period interiors, comfortable rooms and great breakfasts.
In a quiet area of the city, with large, stylish and colourful bedrooms - including a family room - free parking and a terraced garden. There’s a relaxed atmosphere and hands-on owners. A quiet place to re-charge after a day doing the sights. It has a quirky layout with the rear (guest) entrance one level higher than the front door, as the house is built on a slope. Rooms and landings are large, light and furnished in an elegant, contemporary style with fresh flowers, modern vases, family and local photographs.
A well-run, smart yet friendly b&b in a light-filled Georgian terrace house, a few minutes' walk from the city-centre. Rooms are large and airy with ultra-modern bathrooms. There's also parking and a quiet garden; two rarities to find so close to the centre. Light colours with contemporary furnishings and natural-wood doors show off the original features of architraves, panelling and cornices. An elegant staircase with bold red carpets and a handsome long window leads up to the first and second floors.
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It's called the Victoria for good reason. Despite a rather unprepossessing brick exterior, inside you step straight into a 19th-century pub with William Morris wallpapers, etched-glass windows, blackened floorboards, red banquettes and faded rugs. The three bar rooms are warmed by coal fires, their walls hung with assorted Victorian prints, with shelving crammed with Staffordshire pottery. Rooms have been furnished with thought: sunny colours to keep them light, plantation blinds for privacy, thick, good-quality curtains and embroidered bed covers.
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Sleep not only in a Norman castle but a World Heritage Site to boot. Simple student rooms (available during academic holidays only) plus two magnificent suites are available year-round. Take breakfast in a medieval hall then explore the city on your doorstep. It has all the requisite castle ingredients including tower gatehouse, keep, great hall, castellations, thick stone walls and lots of arched doorways. The buildings - altered over the years but originally dating from the 12th century, with a few Norman features - cluster around a grassy courtyard with the octagonal keep dominating.
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The Garden House feels as though it should be overlooking a village green. It was once a coaching inn and then a drinkers' pub, and now has a focus on good food and a quirky style. The interior is notable for the reclaimed gymnasium floor, modish grey walls, rustic wooden tables, smart black and grey seating in the bar area and a more bordello style – sofas and rocking chairs - in the cosy dining area. There's also a conservatory that adds a wooden-clad ceiling and cast-iron pillars to the mix. It sounds odd, but it works.
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A good value, family-friendly pub restaurant with rooms in a quiet, just-off-centre location in Durham. Rooms are pleasant and frills-free, the atmosphere is bright and welcoming, and the food filling – and there’s even free parking; a rarity in the city. The open-plan ground-floor is home to the bar-restaurant and reception, tricked out in folksy, rustic style with tartan carpets, tongue-and-groove panelling and exposed brickwork. Mismatched chairs, collections of bottles, antlers, photographs of old Durham or framed wine labels add colour and warmth.
