Treasurer's House is a Grade I listed gem behind York Minster blending Roman remains, Edwardian eccentricity and haunted cellar legends.
United Kingdom: York – 10 great things to do
🏰 Discover the Magic of York
York is one of England’s most enchanting cities, where two thousand years of history sit side by side with cosy pubs, independent shops and peaceful riverside walks. Founded by the Romans and later ruled by Vikings, the city wears its layered past with pride, and you can feel it the moment you step inside the old city walls. Wander through the Shambles, a crooked medieval street once home to butchers and now filled with sweet shops, bookshops and boutiques, then look up at the soaring towers of York Minster, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe and the spiritual heart of the city for over a thousand years.
Beyond the obvious landmarks, York rewards curious visitors who take the time to dig a little deeper. Climb the ancient city walls for sweeping views across rooftops and gardens, descend into reconstructed Viking-era streets at Jorvik, or take a ghost walk through the city’s narrow, lamp-lit lanes after dark to hear tales of plague, murder and mystery. Families will love the hands-on exhibits at the National Railway Museum, home to royal carriages and record-breaking locomotives, while history buffs can lose themselves for hours in the Castle Museum’s recreated Victorian street or among the atmospheric ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in the Museum Gardens.
Whether you’re after culture, quirky attractions, great food or simply a relaxing stroll along the River Ouse, York has something for every kind of traveller and every length of stay. It’s compact enough to explore entirely on foot, with most major sights only minutes apart, yet packed with enough variety in its museums, markets, tearooms and tours to fill several memorable days. Add in the warm Yorkshire welcome and a calendar full of seasonal events, from Christmas markets to summer festivals, and it’s easy to see why so many visitors return again and again.
1. York Minster
Now then, you can’t come to York and not pop your head round York Minster, can you. It would be like going to Paris and giving the Eiffel Tower a miss. This great hulking lump of Gothic glory has been standing guard over the city for the best part of 800 years, and it shows no signs of packing it in. Inside you’ll find some of the finest medieval stained glass anywhere in the world, including the Great East Window, which is roughly the size of a tennis court and took glaziers years to finish. Climb the central tower if your knees are up to it, 275 steps, mind, and you’ll get a view across York that makes the puffing entirely worthwhile. There’s history dripping off every stone here, from Roman foundations beneath your feet to centuries of coronations and burials above. A proper must-see, no two ways about it.
- 📍 Location: Deangate, York YO1 7HH
- 🌐 Website: yorkminster.org
- ☎️ Phone: 01904 557200
- 🕒 Entry Times: Generally 10am to 4pm, varies seasonally, check website for tower access
- 💷 Entry Fee: From around £14 adults, towers extra
2. National Railway Museum
Even if you couldn’t tell a steam engine from a kettle, the National Railway Museum has a way of winning you over. It’s home to one of the finest collections of locomotives and railway memorabilia on the planet, including a replica of Stephenson’s Rocket and the streamlined Mallard, which once held the world speed record for steam trains. You can also clamber aboard old royal carriages and marvel at just how posh Queen Victoria liked her train travel to be. It’s a proper family day out, with plenty to keep little ones entertained, and the best part, it’s entirely free to get in, which is more than can be said for the gift shop on your way out. Set aside a good two or three hours, there’s more here than you’d expect.
- 📍 Location: Leeman Road, York YO26 4XJ
- 🌐 Website: railwaymuseum.org.uk
- ☎️ Phone: 0330 058 0058
- 🕒 Entry Times: 10am to 5pm daily
- 💷 Entry Fee: Free, donations welcome
3. Castle Museum
If you fancy a proper nostalgia trip, York Castle Museum is your ticket, quite literally a wander down a reconstructed Victorian street called Kirkgate, complete with cobbles, shopfronts and the sort of grocer’s window display that makes you want to buy a tin of boiled sweets. The museum holds an enormous collection of everyday objects, clothing and curiosities spanning several centuries, alongside some grislier exhibits on crime and punishment, given the building’s past life as a prison. Dick Turpin himself was held here before meeting his rather final appointment with the hangman. It’s the kind of museum that manages to be educational without ever feeling like homework, and you’ll come away knowing a surprising amount about Victorian plumbing.
- 📍 Location: Eye of York, York YO1 9RY
- 🌐 Website: yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk
- ☎️ Phone: 01904 687687
- 🕒 Entry Times: 9.30am to 5pm daily
- 💷 Entry Fee: From around £14 adults
4. Jorvik Viking Centre
Built smack on top of a genuine Viking-age excavation, Jorvik takes you back roughly a thousand years to when this city was called Jorvik and run by chaps with rather impressive beards and even more impressive axes. You hop aboard a little time-capsule ride that trundles you through reconstructed streets complete with sounds, sights and, brace yourself, smells, since the Vikings weren’t terribly fussed about sanitation. The whole thing is built on real archaeological finds dug up on this very spot, so it’s not just smoke and mirrors, there’s proper history under the wisecracks and waxworks. Kids tend to love it, and most adults secretly do too, even if they pretend they’re only there for educational purposes. Good for a rainy afternoon, of which York has plenty.
- 📍 Location: Coppergate, York YO1 9WT
- 🌐 Website: jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk
- ☎️ Phone: 01904 615505
- 🕒 Entry Times: 10am to 4pm daily, last entry 3.30pm
- 💷 Entry Fee: From around £14.50 adults
5. Treasurer’s House
This house was the residence of the treasurers of York Minster from 1100 until the office was abolished by Henry VIII. It belonged to 3 post-Reformation Archbishops of York, the last of whom, Thomas Young, rebuilt it. Further alterations were made in the early 17th century; the building fell into decline during the 19th century by which time Young’s mansion had been split into at least five separate properties. The present garden front with its classical central entrance bay dates from c.1630. It now contains the furniture collection of the wealthy industrialist and aesthete Frank Green, who restored and remodelled the building after acquiring it in 1897. Inside, Green’s architect, Temple Moore, created a huge hall out of the 2-storey central block with a half-timbered gallery supported by classical columns. There is an early 18th-century staircase that has been attributed to the joiner-architect William Thornton, who worked at Beningbrough.
6. Clifford’s Tower
Perched on its great grassy mound right in the heart of the city, Clifford’s Tower is the largest surviving chunk of what was once York Castle, northern England’s mightiest medieval fortress. William the Conqueror put up the original wooden version in the 1060s, none too gently, and it was rebuilt in stone after burning down, as wooden castles on hilltops have an unfortunate habit of doing. The tower’s history isn’t all battlements and bunting either, it’s also the site of a grim chapter in 1190 when the city’s Jewish community perished here, a story English Heritage now tells with proper care and sensitivity inside. A welcome area at the base includes a tactile map of the castle and city, with three resting places to make the steep climb up the mound a bit easier on the knees. Once you’re up top, the timber roof platform gives 360-degree panoramas over York and beyond, and on a clear day you might even spot the Moors in the distance. Mind those 55 steps though, they don’t muck about. English HeritageEnglish Heritage
- 📍 Location: Tower Street, York YO1 9SA
- 🌐 Website: english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/cliffords-tower-york
- ☎️ Phone: 01904 646940
- 🕒 Entry Times: Generally 10am to 4-6pm depending on season, check website for exact hours
- 💷 Entry Fee: From around £9 adults, free for English Heritage members
7. Walk the city walls
If your legs are willing, a walk along York’s city walls is one of the best ways to get your bearings, and your steps in. These are the longest surviving medieval town walls in England, clocking in at around two and a quarter miles, and they wrap right round the old city like a stone hairband. Built largely on Roman and Viking foundations, they’ve been patched, rebuilt and fought over for centuries, including a fair old battering during the Civil War. Walk the full loop or just tackle a stretch between two of the four main bars, Bootham, Monk, Walmgate and Micklegate, and you’ll get smashing views over rooftops, gardens and the Minster itself. Mind your footing in the wet though, the steps can be slippier than a politician’s promise.
- 📍 Location: Various access points around York city centre
- 🌐 Website: visityork.org
- ☎️ Phone: 01904 550099
- 🕒 Entry Times: Daylight hours, generally 8am until dusk
- 💷 Entry Fee: Free
8. Stroll the Shambles
The Shambles is the sort of street that makes you wonder if the buildings are having a conversation over your head, they lean in that close. Once upon a time this was where York’s butchers plied their trade, hence the name, and you can still spot the old meat hooks under some of the eaves if you look up rather than just gawping at the shop windows. These days it’s all sweet shops, bookshops and a fair bit of wizardry-themed tat, thanks to a certain boy wizard supposedly drawing inspiration from the place. Whether that’s true or just a marvellous bit of marketing, nobody seems entirely sure, and frankly nobody much cares. It’s free, it’s full of character, and it’s the sort of spot where you’ll happily lose half an hour without noticing. Go early if you want it to yourself, by lunchtime it’s heaving.
9. Cruise down the River Ouze
Sometimes the best way to see a place is to sit back, let someone else do the navigating, and watch it drift past. A cruise along the River Ouse does exactly that, gliding gently beneath York’s bridges while a guide rattles off local history, the odd flood story, and a joke or two depending on how chatty your skipper’s feeling. You’ll see the city from an angle most visitors never bother with, and on a sunny day there’s not much finer than a cuppa on deck watching the swans give you disapproving looks. Trips generally run for about an hour, with longer evening cruises available if you fancy a glass of something while the sun goes down over the Minster.
- 📍 Location: Departures from King’s Staith and Lendal Bridge, York
- 🌐 Website: cityexperiences.com/york
- ☎️ Phone: 01904 628324
- 🕒 Entry Times: Sailings generally between 10.30am and 3pm, evening cruises seasonally
- 💷 Entry Fee: From around £12 adults
10. Visit York’s Chocolate Story
York has a sweet tooth running right through its history, this was after all home to the Terry’s and Rowntree’s chocolate empires, the latter giving the world the Kit Kat and the Aero, no less. A hands-on chocolate-making workshop lets you get stuck in yourself, melting, moulding and decorating your own bar while learning a bit about where cocoa actually comes from and how York became such an unlikely confectionery powerhouse. It’s good fun for adults and children alike, and considerably less messy than you’d imagine, give or take the odd smear of melted milk chocolate on your sleeve. You get to eat your efforts afterwards too, which in my book is the best part of any workshop going.
- 📍 Location: Various venues across York city centre, check current operator
- 🌐 Website: getyourguide.co.uk (search York chocolate workshop)
- ☎️ Phone: Varies by operator
- 🕒 Entry Times: Sessions typically run mid-morning and afternoon, by booking
- 💷 Entry Fee: From around £35 per person
Planning your visit to York
📍 Location
York sits in North Yorkshire, in the north of England, where the rivers Ouse and Foss meet. Encircled by mediaeval walls, the city centre is compact and easily walkable, and York makes a handy base for exploring the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales nearby.
🚆 Getting there
By train, York is well connected nationally, with LNER, TransPennine Express, CrossCountry, Grand Central, Northern and EMR all serving the city. Direct services link York with London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Liverpool, arriving at York station, just outside the city walls on Station Road.
By road, York lies close to the M1, A1 and M62. The old street layout wasn’t built for traffic, so driving right into the centre can mean congestion.
By coach and bus, operators including Coastliner and East Yorkshire run direct services from Scarborough, Whitby, Hull, Leeds and Malton.
By air, the nearest airports are Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle, with onward bus and rail links into York.
By bike, national cycle routes 65 and 66 pass through the city.
🚶 Getting around
Walking is the easiest way to explore. The centre is small enough to cross in about 20 minutes, with the Minster, the Shambles and the Museum Gardens all close together within the walls.
The City Walls themselves, the longest mediaeval town walls in England, form a circular walking route taking in fortified gateways like Micklegate Bar. Walking the full loop takes around two hours.
Drivers can use one of six Park & Ride sites around the city, parking free and taking a bus into the centre. Local buses, including routes 3 and 4 near the station, and a hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus also help reach sights a little further out.
The Best Time to Visit Yorkshire
🌸 Spring — March to May
Spring breathes new life into the dales and moors. Bluebells carpet the woodland floors, lambs dot the hillsides, and seabirds return to the cliffs at Flamborough Head. The North York Moors and Dales are vivid and uncrowded, and May is the pick of the season — mild weather, long days, and lower prices than summer. Coastal towns such as Whitby and Scarborough are pleasantly quiet.
What to pack: Waterproof jacket, fleece or mid-layer, sturdy walking boots, quick-dry trousers, thermal base layer for early mornings, sun protection, compact umbrella, daypack.
☀️ Summer — June to August
The finest all-round season for outdoor activity. Days are long, the countryside is lush, and the coast comes alive. June and early July offer the best balance of good weather and manageable crowds; August brings school holidays and busier roads. The Great Yorkshire Show in July and the Tour de Yorkshire cycling event require accommodation booked well in advance.
What to pack: Lightweight clothing, reliable waterproof jacket, walking shoes, sun hat, sunglasses, factor 30+ sun cream, light fleece for evenings, insect repellent for moorland walks, swimwear, reusable water bottle.
🍂 Autumn — September to November
Arguably the most spectacular time on the North York Moors, when heather blazes purple from mid-August through September. October turns the woodland valleys gold and amber. Temperatures remain comfortable into early October and visitor numbers drop sharply after the summer holidays end. November brings shorter days but atmospheric abbeys, quieter villages, and excellent value accommodation.
What to pack: Fleece or light down jacket, waterproof outer layer, walking boots with good grip for muddy paths, warm hat and gloves for later in the season, thermal base layers, scarf.
❄️ Winter — December to February
Yorkshire at its quietest and most atmospheric. York’s Christmas markets and medieval streets are magical in December, and Rievaulx and Whitby abbeys are dramatic under frost or snow. Higher dales roads can close in severe weather — check conditions before heading out. Accommodation is at its cheapest and most available throughout January and February.
What to pack: Warm waterproof coat, thermal base layers, heavy fleece or down mid-layer, warm hat, gloves, scarf, insulated waterproof boots, thick walking socks.
🗓️ Overall Best Time to Visit
For most visitors, late spring (May) and early autumn (September) are the standout choices. May offers a fresh, vivid landscape, comfortable walking weather, and none of the summer crowds. September brings the spectacular heather bloom, golden light, and pleasant temperatures once the holiday rush has passed. Both months combine natural beauty with practicality and value — though Yorkshire has something to offer in every season, whatever draws you there.
Where to stay
1. YHA York Hostel
Sitting along the banks of the River Ouse at Water End in Clifton, YHA York is one of those rare hostels that genuinely surprises you. Far from the spartan, no-frills image that “youth hostel” might conjure, this is a warm, welcoming space with a café, bar, and comfortable rooms that cater equally well to solo travellers, couples, and families. The riverside setting gives the whole place a peaceful, almost countryside feel, despite being a short walk from the city centre. Guests regularly rave about the friendly atmosphere, the hearty breakfasts, and the good-value evening meals. Whether you’re here to explore the Viking heritage of York or simply need a comfortable, affordable base, YHA York delivers in spades.
2. The Jorvik House
On the tranquil stretch of Marygate, opposite the ancient ruins of St Mary’s Priory and just moments from the River Ouse, Jorvik House has quietly built a reputation as one of York’s most characterful boutique hotels. The Scandinavian-influenced décor gives the interiors a cool, distinctive edge — think clean lines and considered styling — while the staff are known for going above and beyond, including round-the-clock reception cover. Rooms range from cosy doubles to impressive junior suites, and breakfast delivered to your room is a touch that elevates the experience further. Centrally located yet away from the bustle of the main tourist drag, Jorvik House strikes an enviable balance between accessibility and calm. It’s a genuine local gem.
3. Galtres Lodge Hotel
Right in the beating heart of historic York, Galtres Lodge Hotel on Low Petergate offers something that larger chain hotels simply cannot replicate: genuine character. With rooms featuring open fireplaces, exposed beams, and deep roll-top baths, the hotel wears its heritage with real style. Several rooms enjoy jaw-dropping views directly across to York Minster, which is the kind of morning sight that makes you want to linger over breakfast. And what a breakfast it is — the Full Yorkshire is a proper affair, and the dining area downstairs has the cosy, relaxed atmosphere of a place that takes hospitality seriously. Under the watchful eye of general manager David and even the resident dog Toby, guests leave feeling genuinely looked after. Highly recommended.
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