North Yorkshire Moors Railway trip and logistics

Mardee,

That ones easy. There is the bus X93 from Whitby Bus Station hourly at xx.36 (goes from Middlesbrough to Scarborough) towards Scarborough- 20 minute ride, comes back at xx.32 (into Whitby at xx.50).

For obvious reasons at Robin Hoods Bay it turns round at the top of the hill- at a stop just after the Church (there is a previous stop at the Church as well).

You could run down and back (up, up) in the 37 minute turn round, but that kind of defeats the purpose- give it 1hr37 minutes. At Whitby Bus and Rail Station are next to each other. So it should still give you a couple of hours afterwards to explore Whitby.

I think it's totally worth it, and you can say you've finished Wainwrights Coast to Coast walk- shame we can't shoehorn in St Bees to start it (or Whitehaven for the C2C cycleway start)- both of which have their start signs! You'll be close (an hour away), but not close enough at Carlisle.

PS- The bus is £2 each way.

Mardee, I am getting so excited about your trip. You are planning things I've never considered when visiting Great Britain. Although in 2019 I did take the train from York to Huddersfield to see my favorite Facebook cats. I really think we need to meet somewhere on I-35 to review your photos. I'm thinking I'll want more than your trip report, which I eagerly await.
Your fellow Minnesotan

Thanks, Stuart! That sounds very doable, and I like the idea of taking the bus.

Laurie Beth, I usually get down to the cities every couple of months for my Trader Joe's fix. I will let you know the next time I'm coming down and maybe we can meet up for coffee or lunch or something. I would love that! It will probably be sometime in May after I get back (and when the weather is a little nicer). 😊

Marge, Do you mean Robin Hood’s Bay? If so.., It’s a nice little village, accent on little. I didn’t feel like it was a can’t miss kind of place. It doesn’t compare to Whitney, which has so many things going for it. (It also doesn’t have the crowds, but I am hoping they won’t be bad in the spring.) You will be seeing so many nest towns and villages on this trip, I think you can skip this one. My two cents.

Stuart, I think I have it figured out - thanks again! I was able to pull up the little brick bus stop on Google St. View so now I can at least know what I'm looking for. :)

Carroll, I might wait and see what happens, but I have been to Whitby before and Robin Hood's Bay sounded like a nice little town on the coast. If I get too wiped, I may wind up skipping it as I know the train ride ot Whitby takes almost 2 hours. So we'll see - thanks!

I have taken the NYMR from Pickering to Whitby and back. The steam train often has engineering issues so it sometimes gets replaced with a diesel train which is what happened the day we went. Which was fine. We did get to see the steam train in one of the picturesque stations as it was limping back to the station. We got some great photos.

It was a very hot day when we went. The run down the Whitby from Pickering takes quite a lot of time. Well worth it, but it stops quite regularly for various things. I could have probably done without taking the train on the return journey. As you wander into Whitby and grab some fish and chips (The Magpie Cafe is a good one) be careful if you "take away" your food as the large Gulls are waiting to pounce. They can be quite vicious at times. Do not feed them, you will swarmed by a flock of mean Gulls in no time.

I wish we had tried to get to Robin Hood's Bay. It looks lovely, and next time I am in the area, I will figure out a way to get there. Perhaps skipping the journey back to Pickering would give you more time to explore Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay.

That's a point- you could do train out to Whitby and the Coastliner double decker bus #840 back. The bus is very scenic over the moors and gets you back to Pickering in an hour- another £2 bus ride. The bus goes all the way to Leeds every two hours to 1505 then 1745. The 1745 is to York, not Leeds.

A very different route to the train. Many people see it as England's most scenic bus route.

mpaulynsettle, thanks for all that good advice! I don't think I will need to worry about the heat as it will be mid April when I'm there, but the long train ride (both ways) is something to think about.

As much as I would like to ride the train, I wonder how difficult it would be to drive along the same route, and stop in at some of the stations. That would give me a lot more time at Whitby and I could make it to St. Robin's Bay. Or use Stuart's idea of taking the Coastliner coach back to Pickering Station, which would give me the train ride there, but a quicker (and still scenic) way back.

Definitely something to think about. I've been to Whitby before but it's been almost 30 years so I'm sure it's a little changed. :-)

Sorry about calling you Marge, Mardee. It was auto correct, and I didn’t catch it.

Thanks for starting this thread, Mardee, as I was considering the same issue regarding taking the train from Pickering to Whitby and wondered if it is worth it to also get down to Robin Hood's Bay. The suggestion to take the train to Whitby and then taking the double decker bus back to Pickering sounds like a great idea!

Hi Mardee -

As ever, Stuart is on the money. We caught the bus from Whitby to Robins Hoods Bay at the end of November (it was snowing!) and walked back to Whitby (it was a mudfest!).

The only thing to note is that the bus timetable was the winter schedule when we did it which means fewer buses a day. The bus timetable as displayed at the bus station was unrevealing in this regard which meant we had longer to wait than anticipated - fortunately there’s a Greggs with cafe inside almost directly opposite, so they got the dubious benefit of our company for forty-odd minutes. I assume that when you come to catch the bus to RHB the timetable will be at full strength and as advertised. The bus station (a slightly grandiose description for a couple of bus stops I thought) is very near the railway station.

It’s a steep, steep drop down to the bottom of RHB and the bad news is that whichever way you decide to leave - by return bus or on foot - you’ll need to make the climb back up to the top of the hill to access either. In my mind it is worth the effort though!

Ian

P.S. Followng my recent visit to Whitby (we were there three and a bit days) I think you’ll find it reassuringly largely unchanged, some tweaks round the edges of course, but not too different to what you remember.