The essential guide to the best places to shop, eat and relax in Carlisle. Find the best restaurants, cinemas and nightlife spots along with general need-to-know information including shopping hours and going out tips.

Carlisle's broad city centre, now mostly pedestrianised (although with access for disabled drivers) is dominated by the Old Town Hall, which houses the Tourist Information Centre. Major high-street stores line English Street and Scotch Street, including WH Smith, Boots, Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser (formerly Binns). Ottaker's Bookshop, complete with coffee shop, is on Scotch Street opposite the award-winning Lanes Shopping Centre (stretching over to Lowther Street). Amongst its 70 top-name stores are both HMV and Virgin Megastore, Gap, BHS, Littlewoods and - down towards the Civic Centre - a flagship Debenhams.

For probably the widest range of classical CDs as well as thousands of second-hand books, spend hours browsing in Bookcase on Castle Street, just past the Cathedral on the way to the Castle, opposite the old entrance to Tullie House. Top-class jewellers Jopsons are in Carlyle Court, between Bulloughs and the covered market. Locally made Carrs Water Biscuits are one of the popular savoury biscuits United Biscuits has inherited from the original Carrs of Carlisle factory.

The Victorian covered market, between Scotch Street and Fisher Street, operates daily except Sunday, with myriad stalls serving fresh meat, fish, vegetables and fruit as well as household goods and gifts. On the first Friday of each month a Farmers Market takes over the city centre selling Cumbrian produce, while Easter and August bank holiday weekends find continental markets in the city centre.

Shopping hours are 9am-5.30pm Monday to Saturday; Sunday trading is 11am-4pm.

There is no late-night shopping until Christmas, when Thursdays see stores open until 8pm.

Compact, pedestrianised city centre, with award-winning Lanes Shopping Centre

Given Carlisle's unique history as the only place in Britain where a state brewery system was imposed between the First World War and the late 1960s, there are many pubs in the city. Even though the brewery is long gone, for a taste of old times try the real ales in the Howard Arms on Lowther Street, nestled beside the Lanes Centre, or one of the new breed of pubs down Botchergate: Walkabout, Mood or Woodrow Wilson (a J D Wetherspoon pub). Alternatively, take a trip to the many great country pubs around – the Queen's at Warwick-on-Eden, the Stag at Crosby-on-Eden.

Carlisle has two main cinemas; the Lonsdale and City is an independent with five screens and the more recent development of Botchergate has seen multi-screen competition in the shape of VUE's seven screens. Live theatre occasionally visits the Sands Centre by the banks of the Eden north of the city centre, as well as in the Stanwix Arts Theatre at the Cumbria College of Art and Design off Brampton Road, north of the river. There is a healthy non-professional theatre scene with the Greenroom Theatre, a small friendly venue clinging to the precipitous West Walls.

Pubs with history, intimate meals and varied entertainment

Restaurants are found mainly on the fringes of the central shopping area in town (Pizza Express has taken over the old Lloyds Bank building close to the station for example), or further afield in villages around the city.

Various cuisines are available: there's a taste of the east in the new Shanghai Shanghai on Botchergate, promising an all-you-can eat oriental buffet. A long-established Italian favourite is Franco's in the historic Guildhall, while further afield, more exotic tastes are accommodated by the Stanwix Tandoori across the River Eden. There are plenty of out-of-town gastropubs and restaurants, Fantails in Wetheral or The Blacksmith's Arms at Talking Tarn, near Brampton are just two examples.

Expect to pay around £10-£15 for a city-centre light meal or around £30 for three-course dinner with wine.

A taste of Italy with a tiled-floor bistro at the front, and full restaurant with granite-topped tables behind, bar and coffee lounge, just north of the city. There's always a fish special and at least one vegetarian special.

A delightful country pub, close to favourite walking spot, Talkin Tarn, the Blacksmith's Arms offers bar food and a restaurant with great local produce and a very warm welcome.

9am-5pm Monday to Friday

Biscuit manufacture (Carrs of Carlisle, part of United Biscuits), textile printing (Stead McAlpin, part of the John Lewis Partnership), milk processing (Nestlé), tyres (Pirelli), transport haulage (Eddie Stobbart), broadcasting (BBC Radio Cumbria, ITV Border) and local administration (both Carlisle City and Cumbria County Councils)

City Centre (retail), Kingstown and Rosehill (industrial and retail), Caldewgate and west (industrial and Cumberland Infirmary - A&E)