I'm from a small town almost exactly midway between Sunderland and Newcastle; I know the area very well.  Newcastle have the better football team; let's get that out of the way up front...!

Newcastle is THE number one party town in the UK; the social life there is second to none, and as the crow flies it's not far at all from Sunderland.  The Bryster is spot-on in his assessment of the social deprivation up there; it's not in your face, but if you've never seen it before, it can come as a bit of a culture shock.  Having said that, most of the UK north of Birmingham could be described in similar terms.  If she's into nature and history, she's in for a treat, Northumberland is breathtaking and not far away.  Rail links nowadays are excellent and my wife will tell you in no uncertain terms that Newcastle is THE place to shop.  

My self-build system - Vista 64 on a Kingston 240GB SSD, Asus P5Q Pro MB, Quad 6600 CPU, 8 Gb Geil Black Dragon Ram, CoolerMaster HAF932 full tower chassis, EVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti Superclocked 2 Gb, Coolermaster V8 CPU aircooler, Enermax 600W Modular PSU, 240Gb SSD, 2Tb HDD storage, 28" LCD monitor, and more red LEDs than a grown man really needs.....I built it in 2008 and can't afford a new one, yet.....!

My Software - Poser Pro 2012, Photoshop, Bryce 6 and Borderlands......"Catch a  r--i---d-----e-----!"