Travel: Roker Hotel, Sunderland

Do Not Disturb – Scotland On SundaySunderland might conjure up several pictures for you. It was once known as the greatest shipbuilding town in the world – as well as one of the most successful teams in the top-flight of English football – but both those accolades have long since faded. However, the spectacular vistas sweeping down the east coast of Wearside have meant a new soubriquet has attached itself to the area and it is now known affectionately as the Roker Riviera. Taking in the bays of Roker and Seaburn, these miles of blue-flag beaches are breathtaking and about as far from the industrialised notion of the northeast as it is possible to get.