Menu:
Home page
General
 
Our vehicles
Travel
Ian's pages:
    Personal
    University
Lois' pages
Hannah's pages
 
Where we live
Where we work
Recommendations
Family area
 
e-mail
Ian
Lois
Hannah
 

The Neals' recommendations

During the last few years we've come across a number of good places and suppliers. Any that appear on this page we've tried ourselves, and we've found them to be excellent. We pass these suggestions on to you. You may not find them to your taste, but they seem good to us!

General
Restaurants
Music & Leisure
Vehicles
Travel
We're mentioned on...

General
The Red Herrings A troupe of actors who put on Murder Mystery evenings - they did Lois' 50th birthday party and were EXCELLENT! We can't recommend them enough!
Precision Homeworks Extremely competent (and reasonable) people. We can thoroughly recommend them for the work they've done round the house (see here for an example). No website, but they can be contacted on 07745 104 721 or 0191 411 1640 .
Stanwix Park Holiday Centre On the Solway Firth, just outside Silloth-on-Solway. It's a big holiday complex with holiday caravans and a big tourer field too. Excellent facilities (pool, bars, entertainment etc). We have a holiday home (ie a static caravan) there.

Top

Music and Leisure
Saxophones direct
(Hanson International)		 Excellent on-line supplier of really good instruments. Unbeatable prices (we found, anyway). Really, really helpful people and good, sensible advice over the phone. They deliver fast too! They also do clarinets.
Najla Dreams - Belly Dancing constumes Lois' smart costume came from here (see pics on the main site). They are really nice, helpful people and make beautiful stuff. Good on-line offers sometimes available too.
The Dancers World E-bay store with some lovely dancing bits and pieces, as well as full costumes.
J G Windows Excellent music store in Newcastle Central Arcade - knowledgable people who give good advice. They are also about to begin full internet shopping.
  EBGB Music Great little music shop in Durham. A really nice guy runs it. He has some really good deals on some things, but other things can be expensive, but it's always worth visiting just for the experience.
Jewels of the East On here as a recommendation for the dance tuition - Gill Hutton is great, and Gillian and her sister Jen also do demonstrations, events and workshops.
  Richard Woods Guitar Tuition The incomparable Richard Woods (did you catch him at The Sage, Gateshead?) offers electric guitar tuition.
Top
Restaurants

 The New Inn, Blencogo, Cumbria This is, without doubt, the best English restaurant we have ever found. (Risky calling it English, since it is run by a Scotsman). The food is mostly locally produced and the quality and presentation are really first rate. Worth the journey! (Do a Google search on "the new inn" and blencogo, and you'll see some of the reviews this place gets.
  Casa Pedrosa, Carlisle, Cumbria A really excellent Portugese restaurant. Interesting dishes, prepared traditionally. Nice surroundings, too. Their own website link (www.casapedrosa.co.uk) doesn't seem to work - sorry. Tel: 01228 710333
Bettyhill Hotel, Sutherland Really good family-run Hotel with a restaurant with a view to kill for! Excellent food and surroundings. Relaxed. Very nice with children.
Hippopotamus, France Nice chain of restaurants across France. Manage English well, and children are really well catered for.
Old Orleans, Newcastle (amongst other places) A good chain of restaurants, several of which we've tried. Never had a poor experience!
Top
 
Vehicle Stuff

 Tinley Tech LPG Equipment These are great - they supply LPG conversion kits, and all the advice about coversion you'd ever need. Very reasonable, and really helpful.
CLS Dual Fuel Ltd Very good and helpful LPG conversion people - great LPG prices too, the best in the region.

Stoneacre Durham Actually a Kia and Suzuki main dealer, but they'll deal with anything! They do a great job on our Series 3 Land Rover, and have really taken to the 101 FC too. Highly recommended!

Steve Graham Services Steve is well known in the Land Rover world, and writes for Land Rover Owner magazine. He also has a fine business servicing and rebuilding Land Rovers.

M & S Motorcycles

 M&S Motorcycles Honda motorcycle dealer with a real helpful streak. We invariably go to the Durham branch, and if you go there, ask for Gary and tell him Lois sent you!
LEGS Specialist Land Rover engine & gearbox outfit. Really, really nice and helpful people.
MVS Landrover Stock Good, helpful people. Mail order very quick. Useful for hard-to-get miltary bits.
Paddock Spares Good for everything, especially Series spares. Helpful on the phone.

Chris Perfect Components

 Chris Perfect Components Used to be an excellent supplier of parabolic springs and gas-filled shock absorbers (as fitted to our Series 3), also LPG and disk brake conversions. Sadly now out of business.

John Craddock Ltd Good supplier of parts for Land Rovers - especially old ones. I first became a customer of theirs in 1974 (when I had a Series 1) and although they are much larger now they still offer the same solid service. Good for tyres, too.
Top
 
Travel
Travelodge Big chain, but good, cheap-ish, safe places
Campanile Hotel Throughout Europe, and plenty in UK. Reliable, but unremarkable for staying and eating. The staff are always very nice!
Bettyhill Hotel, Sutherland Really good family-run Hotel with a restaurant with a view to kill for! Excellent food and surroundings. Relaxed. Very nice with children.

Top

We're mentioned on: