Yorkshire Tourist Information

York & North Yorkshire Holidays

York city breaks are one of the most popular in the UK. The city offers a fantastic choice of heritage attractions and family museums plus boat trips and a superb choice of chic restaurants, bars and a buzzing nightlife. York has all the ingredients of a top European city break. Discover a veritable feast of attractions, from historic sights such as York Minster, York castle and York city walls to numerous fantastic York museums, art galleries and contemporary art centres.

York city centre and its many attractions are all tightly packed in a beautiful pedestrian friendly city centre. Spend a day at the races at one of England's top racecourses York racecourse. Pick up a York Pass, with discounts for York Museums, restaurants and more. Things to do and beautiful places to visit in North Yorkshire include heritage spa town Harrogate which offers great specialist shopping and surviving historic spa buildings. For Walking in North Yorkshire head to Masham and visit Thirsk for all things James Herriot. Thirsk is home to popular attraction The World of James Herriot. Find spectacular cathedrals in North Yorkshire like Ripon Cathedral and beautiful historic market towns like Malton. North Yorkshire caters for all holiday tastes from top Yorkshire city breaks to great Yorkshire walking, local produce and specialist shopping.

The famous spa town of Harrogate attracts thousands of people drawn by events at the Harrogate International Centre as well as the numerous antique shops, sublime Victorian and Edwardian architecture, heritage gardens and superb specialist shopping.

The Yorkshire Dales Breaks

Each part of the Yorkshire Dales has its own distinct character and history. To the east the Nidderdale area is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Ripon, Masham, Pateley Bridge and Bedale all serve as charming East Dales bases. To the north more spectacular scenery awaits around Swaledale and Wensleydale. Top Dales walking bases in this area include Reeth in the heart of Swaledale and Hawes the main hub for Wensleydale. The Pennine Way National Trail passes Hawes, making it particularly popular as a walker base.

Malham and Settle in the South Dales are perfect as gateways into the Three Peaks whilst Skipton with its intact medieval castle serves as bustling main market town and gateway to the Dales. At beautiful Ingleton you'll find White Scar Cave, the spectacular massive ice-age cavern with underground waterfalls, streams and thousands of stalactites. Cyclists love the Dales and all the National Park Centres offer advice on marked cycle ways and cycle hire.

West Yorkshire Attractions

West Yorkshire is Yorkshire's cultural and literary heart. The county's two largest cities - Leeds and Bradford sit within West Yorkshire, served by gateway to Yorkshire, Leeds Bradford International Airport which sits midway between these two dynamic cities. West Yorkshire is a hub for numerous themes. The National Media Museum in Bradford is a national centre for film, photography, TV and the web whilst largest city Leeds is one of the UK's best cities for shops, museums and acclaimed art galleries. Large towns like Huddersfield and Halifax with their spectacularly preserved Victorian architecture and cutting edge arts centres also sit in the region.

To the south just outside Wakefield sits one of the world's best centres for sculpture - The Yorkshire Sculpture Park which boasts numerous pieces by both Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Watch out for exciting developments along Wakefield's Calder & Hebble Navigation Waterfront where the spectacular Hepworth Wakefield Art Gallery is due to open in September 2010. West Yorkshire is a literary mecca with huge numbers of visitors heading to Haworth home to the Bronte Parsonage Museum.

West Yorkshire is also the centre for Yorkshire's industrial heritage, particularly textiles, and historic sites such as UNESCO World Heritage Salts Mill at Saltaire village near Bradford and the Bradford and Leeds Industrial Museums are where to head to find out more. Many of West Yorkshire's largest historic mills are now new exciting arts centres like Dean Clough in Halifax and Salts Mill. Industrial legacies such as the canals in the region now offer scenic narrow boat trips, stunning canal towpath walking and canal side heritage centres. A wealth of pretty villages serve as walker bases and hubs for arts and crafts shopping in a region which is as famous for its rugged moorland countryside as for its cities. Village hotspots include Holmfirth, centre for the popular 'Last of the Summer Wine' series. The choice of walking trails includes the Pennine Way which weaves across Keighley Moor passing Top Withins associated with Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and the Calderdale Way which guides you through some of West Yorkshire most spectacular countryside and historic industrial sites around Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Halifax.

The Yorkshire Coast Things to do

A mecca for seaside holidays in Britain, the Yorkshire Coast is one of the UK's most popular seaside coasts, with a mix of designated heritage coast around Flamborough Head and a choice of Britain's best holiday seaside resorts. The country's oldest historic seaside resort is at Scarborough which saw the arrival of the first bathing machines in 1735 followed by fame as spa town after the discovery of mineral spa waters at South Bay.

Scarborough is a seaside Victorian gem with beautiful sandy beaches flanked by heritage seaside pavilions, top seaside amusements and family cafes and restaurants. Discover a superb choice of theatres in Scarborough plus great Scarborough museums and galleries, cinemas, clubs, bars and restaurants and a host of holiday attractions. Maritime Whitby, with its close links with Captain Cook and courtesy of Bram Stoker - Dracula is another Yorkshire Coast holiday hotspot. The Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby pays due homage to the town's famous apprentice who went on from Whitby to undertake his three epic voyages. Whitby is also a feast for the specialist shopper with a fine choice of arts and crafts shops including jewellers selling the famous Whitby Jet. Whitby Abbey ruins, relatively intact compared to others in the UK, stands as a magnificent Gothic feature high above Whitby town on the east cliff.

Blue Flag beaches along the Yorkshire Coast are numerous and include Bridlington North and South Beaches, Hornsea Beach, Withernsea Beach, Filey Beach, Scarborough North Bay and Whitby West Cliff Beach. Peaceful Filey is retracing its maritime links with John Paul Jones via the Filey Bay Heritage Initiative whilst Bridlington is a mecca for family holidays with its fine beach and choice of family holiday attractions, especially its beachfront funfairs and amusements. South of Bridlington more fine beaches await on the Holderness stretch of coast around Withernsea and Hornsea. Further south still sit the stunning Spurn Point Spit, a haven for migratory birds which juts out across the Humber Estuary.

South Yorkshire and East Yorkshire Breaks

Acclaimed Yorkshire city breaks can be found in South Yorkshire and East Yorkshire. Sheffield city centre is a treasure trove of premier Yorkshire museums and galleries whilst maritime Hull is famously associated with William Wilberforce and boasts great shopping centres, art galleries and top Yorkshire family attraction The Deep aquarium.

Sheffield's choice of art galleries is impressive, with the longstanding Graves Art Gallery in the heart of the city centre alongside the new Millennium Galleries with their contemporary edge plus the treasured Ruskin Collection on display in the Rustkin Gallery within the Millennium Galleries. Sheffield's theatre choice is likewise impressive, with the historic Lyceum proscenium arch theatre and the famous Sheffield Crucible which plays host to the Snooker World Championships annually and the smaller intimate Studio Theatre. The city's green spaces further boost Sheffield's appeal, particularly the spectacular Winter Gardens, a giant glass arched greenhouse, the largest of its kind in a European city! Sheffield is home to Meadowhall, one of the largest and most successful shopping mall/centres in the UK.

Maritime Hull is home to the internationally acclaimed Ferens Art Gallery which contains fantastic contemporary artworks by David Hockney, Henry Moore plus plenty of old masters on display. Hull now has eight superb free entry museums, four of which are clustered around the central museum quarter - a most attractive city centre space noted for its Georgian architecture and narrow cobbled streets. Hull's celebrated anti-slavery campaigner and one-time MP William Wilberforce is given due attention at Wilberforce House, his birthplace home turned museum.

Learn about the industrial and social history of South and East Yorkshire at the Elsecar Heritage Centre near Barnsley. South Yorkshire offers a fine choice of attractions including two of Yorkshire's top racecourses - Doncaster Races and Beverley Racecourse. Great heritage Yorkshire castles are here too notably Conisbrough Castle and take time to visit Rotherham's stunning medieval perpendicular Minster and charming country parks. Beverley's Minster, like York Minster, is a spectacular Gothic medieval cathedral whilst best kept Yorkshire secret Wentworth Castle Gardens near Barnsley are not to be missed. There's more to South and East Yorkshire than you might think.

North York Moors

The North York Moors National Park is one of Yorkshire's top walking holiday locations. About a third of the North York Moors National Park is beautiful heather moorland dotted with ancient woodland. Walking trails in the North York Moors include the Cleveland Way National Trail which weaves around the edge of the National Park and along the coast from Saltburn south to Filey. Spectacular coastal walking awaits here!

Visit main North York Moors National Park centre at Danby for North York Moors walking trails, maps and guides. Fantastic attractions in the North York Moors include the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, one of England's most popular heritage steam railways running through the heart of the North York Moors National Park.