Yorkshire trip..part 2

Any reason why you don't want to stay in York itself? It's better provided for than many of the small villages that surround it in terms of accommodation. York is very walkable once you are there, but I'm not sure how well it is served by public transport from the nearby towns and villages. Buses in the main I think. That said, the Archbishop of York has his 'palace' just outside York at Bishopthorpe which always strikes me as very pleasant and there are bigger towns further away such as Ripon (large cathedral and not far from Fountains Abbey) and Harrogate (a former 'spa' town - a sort of Bath in the north!). Always considered a bit 'posh' by us non residents, but very nice though. Skipton, even further away from York calls itself 'The Gateway to the Dales' and there's some truth in that. It's a small market town with a large castle and you can get narrowboat trips there on the canal! Again the further away from York you get the more difficult to connect.

My home town of Leeds, a major city (and the the only UK city featured in Lonely Planets 'ones to watch' in 2017) is south west of York but has frequent and quick rail links to York, but while I would defend it to the bitter end, I'm not sure it's quite what you are after!

All that said though, for your outlined plans York is ideally located, between the Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors, so maybe concentrate on staying there?

Ian

Ian. Thank you. Staying in York was the original plan. I was thinking of possible alternatives for next time my sister and I get together to discuss plans...and in case we rented a car which would be silly to have in a big city! My sister lives in San Francisco and realizes this!! HA

York is a good-sized city with about 200,000 people, but nothing like London or even Leeds (nearly 800,000). While you wouldn't want a car to get around within central York, much of which is pedestrian streets anyway, you wouldn't have much trouble driving in and out of the city to the highways and roads around it. The key is a hotel or B&B that provides parking (preferably free or at least low cost), or is close to a public lot where you can park overnight. For example, the Abbey Guest House has limited free guest parking but is right next to a big public lot that was crowded in the daytime but had plenty of overnight space as I recall. Most accommodations that don't provide parking will be reasonably close to parking and their websites will explain where.

Since York isn't such a big city I'd be surprised if there were any really convenient public transportation to and from outlying areas or towns. Of course there is good bus service, used by many commuters I'm sure, but you should be able to find a place to stay that lets you park nearby and also walk to the main sights.

GPS is always helpful driving in Europe. Rental companies provide it for a charge that adds up fast on a daily basis, or you can buy a unit for under $200 at home, load it with a Europe map (under $100), and use it for years on both continents. It's especially helpful navigating through cities and towns. Best used along with a good map and a navigator (you or your sister). I'd recommend GPS and a map whether you stay in York or elsewhere.

thank you again for advice.. Happy New Year!

I would suggest Helmsley as a beautiful place to stay. Not sure I understand some of the comments above about villages not offering much.... there are multiple hotels (lovely grand old-english type ones!), plenty of guesthouses and B&Bs... Lots to do, too. On a very easy bus service to and from York......

www.visithelmsley.co.uk.

Susan
Expat living in Ireland

As you mentioned a boat in the first post...
There's and Airbnb houseboat at Bishop Thorpe, I stayed there last year.
It's very good ,no hesitation recommending it.
They also have a small motorboat to you could tootle up to York on that.Theres buses too.
There's a nice bakery too, we actually got talking to Bishop Sentenu up at Bishopthorpe palace.
There's a couple of Fred's bakery's in York ,I think it's York company....

We visited the Yorkshire Dales six years ago. It was very beautiful with charming people. We took the train to York from London and spent 3 nights there. Then we rented a car and drove to Thirsk to visit the “World of James Herriot Museum.” It was very nicely done! Then drove to Pateley Bridge and stayed 3 nights at the Roslyn House B&B. We loved this little village so much and have often talked about going back. The Niddledale Museum is there and is really very interesting! Pateley Bridge has two excellent butchers where you can buy pork pies and sausage rolls for day hikes or picnics. Also it has a tourist information office, chemist, outdoor clothing and gear shop, jeweler, tobacconist, the Crown pub and restaurant, fish and chips, tea shop, bank with ATM and the oldest sweet shop in England! Everyone in town was so friendly! We day hiked for two days!
Then we drove to Hawes and spent three nights there at Loxley House B&B. The Wensleydale Cheese Factory was fabulous and we had lunch there, went on the tour and bought things to take home. They have a great cheese tasting bar. The Yorkshire Dales Countryside Museum is in Hawes. We again hiked and visited the water fall, Hardraw Force, you pay at the Green Dragon Pub to walk back to the falls. We had a pint at the Green Dragon, a 13th century stone built pub!

We drove back to York early our last morning, turned in the rental car and took the train back to London. We were glad to turn in the car. We did not enjoy driving in the Dales!!! If we had to do it all over again we would take the train to Harrogate and use buses and a private driver to visit the Dales!

Thanks Richard.
Melloadobe...why did you not like driving the Dales? Anything specific? I will look up the towns. Thank you

Richard,
We asked for an automatic transmission in our rental car and the agents were so excited to show us the biggest Saab sedan I have ever seen, and it was reserved for us! We actually had to fold in both of the side mirrors to get down the alley to our B&B in Hawes! Driving to Thirsk was fine, but the narrow Dales roads were terrifying. The roads are actually about a lane and a half wide, with few turnouts. Locals drive crazy fast and the thrill of having a giant tractor heading straight for you at a high rate of speed is not something we care to experience again! Signs on the major roadways are good but in some of the smaller Dales towns, going backwards around a roundabout trying to look for small signs was difficult. We live near Truckee CA and it has seven roundabouts and we know how to use them. But in the Dales a roundabout might be a big white dot painted in the middle of a six way intersection! We stopped for directions at the Black Sheep brewery in Masham. Received great info only to find a detour after the second turn! I must say driving up on the high moors was beautiful! My husband lived in Germany in the military and drove huge trucks with missile launchers on them and has also had Code 3 pursuit driver training, but he hated it! He said he found it difficult to judge where the edge of the road was on the passenger side. He asked me to yell “curb” whenever he got too close. We ended up missing a lot of places we wanted to drive too. We asked ourselves, “what would Rick do” and how could we salvage this trip? It ended up we loved hiking the trails! It was spring with baby lambs everywhere! England has a Right to Roam law and there are public trails on private property through farmers fields. We packed a picnic lunch and stopped at pubs along the way. In the fall Pateley Bridge hosts the Nidderdale Farm show and we have always wanted to go back for that. The B&B we stayed at in Pateley Bridge actually catered to hikers(walkers in the UK). They drove them out to trail heads in the morning and picked them up in the afternoon. They had boot racks at the entry to keep mud out! In York we went on the fabulous free Walking Tour on the City Walls and also visited the Minster and the Railway Museum. We had dinner at Betty’s Tea Room one night, make reservations. Alf Wight(James Herriot) used to take his wife to Betty’s in Harrogate so I wanted to eat at one of them. My UK friends tell me it is easy to drive on the right in the US because our highways have good signs and our roads are wide! We have now been to the UK three times on our own and on RS tours in Italy, Ireland, France and Germany.