Indoor things to do in the North East

The North East does not do half measures with weather. Between October and March a plan made outdoors is a plan that might not happen, and "what is there to do indoors round here?" becomes the question of the season. Here is an honest run through the indoor options across Northumberland, Newcastle and the coast, and where padel fits in.

The problem with a North East winter

It is not that there is nothing to do. It is that the good stuff tends to be outdoors. The coast, the castles, the Cheviots, the walks. All of it brilliant for about five months of the year and a genuine test of character for the other seven. So the indoor list gets reached for a lot, and most of it falls into the same few buckets.

• Eating and drinking. Reliable, sociable, and does nothing for you physically.
• Cinema, bowling, arcades. Fine once. Rarely something you book again next week.
• Museums and galleries. Genuinely good, and a day out rather than a weekly habit.
• The gym. Useful, and almost nobody describes it as the highlight of their week.
• Indoor sport. The one that actually becomes a habit, if you can find one you like.

That last category is the interesting one, because it is the only thing on the list people put in the calendar every week without having to talk themselves into it.

Why padel keeps coming up

Padel is the fastest growing racket sport in the country and it suits a British winter almost perfectly. It is played in a glass court roughly a third the size of a tennis court, it is always doubles, and the walls are part of the game rather than the end of the rally. The short version is that points last longer, beginners get a game going within minutes, and it is far more social than it looks from the outside.

The reason it travels so well indoors is simple. A padel court is small enough to roof properly, so the game plays exactly the same in January as it does in July. No wind, no wet surface, no cancellation text the night before.

What makes an indoor venue worth returning to

If you are picking somewhere to go when the weather turns, the thing that matters is not the activity on its own. It is whether you would happily spend two hours there rather than forty minutes. A few things to look for.

• Built indoors, not covered over. A court under a canopy is still at the mercy of the wind. A court inside a heated building is not.
• Somewhere to sit afterwards. Half the point of a social sport is the hour after the game.
• Kit you can borrow. Nobody is buying equipment to try something once.
• Parking. Unglamorous, and the thing that quietly decides whether you go back.
• Something for the people not playing. If one of you is sitting it out, there should be a reason to come along anyway.

What we built in Blyth

Padelsphere is Northumberland's first venue built for padel from the ground up. Three full panoramic glass courts, two doubles and one singles, all indoors and heated, open seven days a week with free parking on site. It sits about twenty minutes from Newcastle, five from Seaton Delaval and ten from Ashington.

The courts are only part of it. There is a licensed bar and cafe with live sport on, social lounges to sit in afterwards, and two infrared saunas in the changing rooms. The idea was never to build a sports hall with a court in it. It was to build somewhere you would turn up on a wet Tuesday and stay longer than you planned.

The sauna bit

Two infrared saunas sit in the changing rooms, and they are bookable whether or not you have played. Infrared heats you directly rather than heating the air, so it is a gentler experience than a traditional sauna at the same temperature. After ninety minutes on court in the middle of winter it is a very easy sell.

Doing it with no experience at all

This is the part that stops most people, so it is worth being direct about it. You do not need to have played a racket sport. You do not need your own kit, rackets are available to hire and members get hire free. You do not need three friends who already play, because our mix-in sessions pair you up on the day.

Padel is the easiest racket sport to pick up, which is most of the reason it has grown as fast as it has. If you want the detail before you come down, start with what is padel and the rules explained. Coming from tennis? Read padel vs tennis first, because some of your instincts will work against you.

What it costs

You book the court and split it between players, from £7 each off-peak. Off-peak is Monday to Friday, 7am to 3pm. Choose 60 or 90 minutes. Rackets are £3 to hire, balls are £7 a tube, both at reception. If you end up playing regularly, membership starts at £15 a month and includes free racket hire, a discount on every booking and sauna sessions.

Getting here from across the North East

We are at 6 Spencer Road, Blyth, NE24 5TG, with free on-site parking. Rough drive times: Seaton Delaval five minutes, Cramlington seven, Ashington ten, Whitley Bay fifteen, Newcastle twenty. If you are searching for somewhere closer to the city, we have written up where to play padel near Newcastle in more detail.