York walking tours - duplicative?

Haven't been to York in years, but the ghost tours I've been on have been great. The one in York wove in lots of history along with the ghost part. How old is your daughter?

She is 12. We are going to be in town from ~noon on Monday until 3pm on Tuesday, so we'll be there an evening and could do a ghost walk, great to hear it was good, thank you!

For a 12 year old (and her parent), I think a ghost tour sounds like fun!

As for during the day, wherever you're staying, ask the innkeeper for a map of York. My innkeeper was GREAT and not only gave me a map but also mapped out his recommendations of where I should go. York is massively walkable and so easy to do. So take that ghost tour and see York on your own during the day. That will be the best of both worlds.

We did 2 nights there - really enjoyed the national Railway Museum (my son was a big train fan but I enjoyed it as well), walking the wall , the cathedral. We also went to the Viking exhibit- cant remember the name- it was Disney like but fun.
It was one of my favorite places - enough to see and do, but a quieter pace.

The viking museum is called the Jorvik Viking Center. Highly recommended - and definitely book ahead if you decide to go - the £1 booking fee is worth it to skip a 20-30 minute wait.

I'm heading to York thursday so I'll try to scope this out!

Susan
Expat in Waterville, Ireland

As for a walking tour of York, I agree it is easy in that the streets are flat. But......there is a reason all the hotels are quick to hand out maps to visitors. The Medieval streets are laid out like a plate of spaghetti, and there is only one landmark you can use for navigation, York Minster. If you cannot see it from where you are, there is an excellent chance of becoming lost. I know.

The viking museum is called the Jorvik Viking Center. Highly recommended - and definitely book ahead if you decide to go - the £1 booking fee is worth it to skip a 20-30 minute wait.

We were a bit late with booking fastrack tickets as they sold out quite far in advance. We turned up about 10.30 Sunday morning and were second in line for the standard queue, waited a couple of minutes at most. When we came out the queue was about a hundred deep so it definitely pays to arrive around opening time.

York is wonderful, we spent three nights there and about 2 1/2 days exploring. Our two favorite sites were the fantastic Minster Cathedral and the National Railway Museum. The Jorvik Viking Center. might be good for kids, we were not impressed with what we saw in the brochures and what people told us about the place. Walk the walls, visit a couple of museums there and take in the amazing city. In my opinion the Ghost Tour would be more for kids.

Yes, have to agree with geovagriffith, the Jorvik centre is more suited to kids. With the exception of a very small museum housing various Viking era artifacts the centre focuses more on the ride. This is a four person carriage suspended on an overhead track much like a rollercoaster and it travels through various scenes with robotic mannequins nodding and moving an arm or two (think Disney's 'Small World' but on a smaller scale and not so much fun!).

Would I visit there again? No.
Would I advocate visiting without children? No.

I’m in York right now. There are several ghost tours. I really didn’t do my research and I did the one called Ghost Trails last night and I definitely do not recommend doing that one. The guide was an actor who “acted out” the stories and didn’t really engage the crowd. So don’t pick that one! It was only £4 so it was no big loss and I at least got a guided tour around the city. What I do recommend is the free AVG walking tour you mentioned. I did it this morning and it was very informative. The guide even took us on part of the medieval wall. She also retold a couple of the ghost tour guide’s stories in a much more entertaining way. The info between the 2 tours weren’t duplicative other than what I mentioned although we walked through some of the same parts of town which can’t be helped.

Claudette, thank you so much for the up to date info from your trip to York, very helpful! Based on that, we are going to do both the AVG tour and a ghost tour, and I'll provide an update after.