Latest / UK Travel Planning / Discover York: A Local's Guide for an Unforgettable Visit

Transcript

Discover York: A Local's Guide for an Unforgettable Visit · UK Travel Planning

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracy Collins.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience at UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to great villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to episode three of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Today's episode is full of travel inspiration, practical tips, and insider information to help you plan your visit to the beautiful UK city of York.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm really pleased today that we've got Sineade who's joined us to talk all about living in York and what you can do and see when you visit York.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: So hi Sineade, thanks for joining us today.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like to tell us all about yourself and uh what you know, tell me us about your background?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: That'd be great.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and thank you very much for having me firstly, Tracy.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's lovely to see you.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um so my name is Sinead, and as you might guess already, I'm not Yorkshire born and bred.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was born and brought up in London.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: I moved to York uh 16 years ago.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: My husband studied up here, and when he was offered a job up here, we jumped at it because we love the city, we love the proximity to the countryside, so it was a great it was a great move for us.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so we moved up here, we've had three children up here, we're raising them in York.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we're keen travellers ourselves.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've been to over 72 countries.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: 72, that is amazing.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that that was the last time I counted.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I I do try to keep count.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: My kids are very good at keeping count, but I'm not quite so good at keeping count.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I I have a family travel website, and then during the pandemic, obviously, when there was no travel, I decided to pivot and set up a website specifically for people visiting York with children.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's called yorkwithkids.com, and I felt that as a travelling family we knew exactly what people, what families want to know.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: So families need to know you know things to do, where to stay, but also you know, where's the baby change, where's the nearest clean toilet?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I decided to set up this um specific website just for people visiting York with children.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's fantastic, and we will be linking to that in the show notes as well.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, don't worry anybody, we will be linking to that so you'll be able to um have a look at Schneid's website all about York.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you've been living in York for quite a while, but obviously you've done done a lot of travelling as well around the world before settling back into York.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: So was there a particular reason that you chose York?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know you said that your husband had spent time there before, studied there.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So was it just kind of somewhere that you thought was because it's in the middle of the country, that's always something that appeals to me about York as well.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Great transport route.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, initially we we just wanted to because we were living in London when we got married, we just wanted to live somewhere with access to easy access to the countryside.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And York is ideal for that because it's an hour from the Yorkshire Dales, it's an hour from the Yorkshire Moors, you know, it's half an hour to the Yorkshire Walls, it's an hour to the Yorkshire coast.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's just such a good location if you're an outdoorsy family.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it is it is a lovely place to live, it's a lovely place to bring up a family.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely uh it's a lovely city, and it's somewhere that when we are back in the UK that we always head to York, and it's somewhere I know uh when I talk about visiting the UK, it's one of the cities and one of the places that that always gets mentioned.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in our Facebook group as well, it's somewhere that is always mentioned, is that it's a really good place.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people when they're travelling from London up to Edinburgh and they're asking, oh, what should we do?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, stop in York, at least get off the train and go and explore York because it's such a lovely city.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, for people who are planning to visit York, what do you do say are the must-do places to visit and experiences that they should be including into their itinerary?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there's so many.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's just so much to see and do here.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've lived here 16 years and I still haven't done everything on my list that I want to do.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, I think the main thing to do is York Minster, it is beautiful inside and out.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: It is really Yorkies love Yorkminster.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'd advise everybody to take a free tour.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Once you get in, you have to pay to get in Yorkminster, but inside they run tours on the hour every hour, and the tours really will delve into the history, the architecture, the stories, the legends, they're really well worth taking.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the city walls are another must.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: York City Walls are about two miles long, they're the longest, complete, most complete city walls in England, and it's just a lovely, a lovely place to walk.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's quiet, you get to see people's back gardens, you get to see different views of York that you don't see from the city centre.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's really definitely well worth doing that.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's quite a few walking tours in the city, some you have to pay for, some are free, and again, they are excellent just for helping you navigate the city, showing you hidden gems, explaining the diverse history we have, explaining the architecture, they're great for telling you to look up.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Did you see that on that building?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: All those hidden things you might miss.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's loads of historical sites to visit.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's um the Norman era Clifford's Tower, which is like an open tower sat on an artificial hill right in the middle of York, you can't miss it.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Roman baths are another great thing to visit, it's the remains of a Roman bathhouse, and it's actually in the basement of a pub.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: You go into the pub and then you go down the stairs into the basement, and there's a Roman bathhouse, and the pub is the same name, it's called the Roman Bath, so you can't miss it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: The Jorvik Viking Centre is a museum that showcases Viking artifacts that were found on that very site when they did a dig.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of the most popular tourist attractions in York, and it's well worth visiting.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then nearby, that is the Castle Museum, which is much more um sort of charting York's history and York's place in England, and that's excellent to visit, it's really good.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: You can see the cells where Dick Turpin was held, and there's there's loads to do there.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: They have a recreated Victorian street, and you can go in and out of the shops and meet people in the shops who you know live and work there, and the police station the school, it's fascinating.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: Day out.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's also because of the um history of York, there's lots of historic houses you can visit as well.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: There's the Barley Hall, which is all wood, and it's from the medieval era.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can visit the Victorian era mansion house, which is where the Lord Mayor of York lives, um, and that's fantastic in the basement.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: There's a fully working Victorian kitchen, and sometimes they do cooking demonstrations that you can join in with.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's um my favourite's probably the Georgian era Fairfax House.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big pink building, and the rooms are recreated, and it's just beautiful to walk around.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's there's just so many things to see and do.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: The National Railway Museum, I love because we're a big train-loving family.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say that that's the um that's the place that we tend we always go to when we go to York because of my husband's background in the rail industry.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know how many times I've been to York Railway Museum, and of course it's free as well.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and a lot of people don't realize that now.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've been asked how much is it?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's free.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's free to go into, and it's a brilliant place to to go and have a walk around.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can spend the whole day there.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's definitely brilliant.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: One thing you haven't mentioned, or one place that you haven't mentioned, is often mentioned uh by people that are you know asking about York is the shambles.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: The shambles you can definitely, I mean, it's it's a shopping street basically, so you will see it as you walk around York.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um it is it is gorgeous, the shambles.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: It literally feels like stepping back in time.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's um a very short, cobbled shopping street, and the houses sort of lopsided and squashed together, and they're overhanging, and it's just it's lovely.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: You would feel like you've stepped on some sort of Disney movie set.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it does get very, very busy, the shambles.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I would go either early in the morning or in the evening.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it can get quite clogged as you're walking along.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one thing I'd recommend on the shambles, which is what I call one of York's hidden gems, is um there's a shrine to St.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Margaret Clitheroe right in the middle of the shambles.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: The shambles is full of shops, and then there's this wooden door, and it's free to open, free to enter, and you go in.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's this tiny, tiny little chapel that holds about 20 people, and it's a shrine to a saint that was killed in York, but it's just it's a really peaceful little spot away from all the the crowds of people on the shambles, it's just lovely.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um the shambles has got a very interesting history.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was um in the medieval era, it was the location for all the butcher's shops in York.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: So all the shops along there would have been butcher's shops, and as you walk along the shambles today, all the shops have these sort of slab wooden ledges out the front, and they're the medieval ledges that the meat was once displayed, and some of the shops still have metal hooks hanging from them, and that's where the meat was hung.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it just looks like a film set, but it's not, it's all real and it's all authentic, it's fantastic.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a fabulous street to walk down as well.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of Harry Potter shops on that street these days as well.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's quite a few, but there's also some lovely cafes, and you know, there's a lovely glass shop that makes glass ornaments.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's there are a few sort of wizarding shops, but there are still and the the Yorkshire Pie Company, of course, is on the shampoo as well.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it is well worth visiting.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, definitely.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything anywhere else that you can think of?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we've gone through quite a lot quite a few places.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: I I wrote down a few top experiences because I think York is definitely a city to sort of dive into.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of my favourite things is you can climb the Central Tower in York Minster.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's a long way up.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, it's closed at the moment because of COVID restrictions.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but once you get to the top, you have a 360-degree view of York.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's really well worth doing if you've got the legs for it.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'd recommend taking a ghost tour in the evenings.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: There's several on offer in York.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: They take about two hours, they're not scary or horrific, they're more entertaining.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: But I've done three or four ghost tours over the years, and every time I do one, I learn something new about the city, or I see something somewhere I've never been before.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: So they're well worth doing, they're very cheap.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's about five pounds an adult for two hours, it's well worth it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'd also recommend taking just a walk by the River Ruse.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: The River Ruse flows through York, it's a really lovely part of the city.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's quite tranquil.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: You can hire a little red boat and drive yourself up and down the River Ruse.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can take a boat cruise, you can go to the park, Round Trees Park.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and also York is gaining quite a reputation as a foodie destination, and it has a long chocolate history.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: We used to have three chocolate factories in York.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's still one today, and you can still smell when they're making Kit Kats.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so there's a lot, there's some cooking courses on offer in York.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: The um Grand Hotel, which is a five-star hotel, they have a big cookery school there, and you can do anything from meat to bread.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: They do parent and child cooking classes, they do Yorkshire specialties, um, and also because of the chocolate association in York, we we have a place called the York Cocoa House, and they run chocolate making courses, and they can run you know for several days, or you could just do a couple of hours to make a chocolate lollipop.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: There's just different things you can do to sort of get involved in York itself.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: They all sound really fun as well, I have to say, and that actually leads really well into the next question, which is uh recommendations for good places to eat and drink in York.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, loads, absolutely loads.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: You could go to a different pub every day, and probably over the course of a year you still wouldn't have covered all the pubs in York.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: There's loads.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have all the usual chains, so if you are looking for something you're familiar with, there'll be all the usual chain restaurants, but we also have some fantastic independent places.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Fossgate is a great area to go looking for a restaurant, as is Swine Gate.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um personal favourites, I love the Cozy Club, which is on Fossgate.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a two-story um, it's made out of like an art deco cinema, it's really lavish sort of furnishings, it's a beautiful place to eat.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I also like the Lamb and Lion pub on High Petergate, it's just really good pub food, but their garden courtyard has the most fantastic view of York Minster, so it's really worth going there.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: If if you would like other views of York Minster, um there's the Judges Lodgings, they have a great view of Yorkminster, um, the Market Cat in the Shambles Market, and um the cafe on the third floor of Marks and Spencer's department store.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: They have one of the best views of York Minster in York.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's just amazing.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: You see the complete Minster.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um so grab a coffee and just enjoy the view, it's fantastic.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my probably three must places to visit are uh Betty's Tea Rooms, the House of Trembling Madness, and the Yorkey Pud Rap.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, yes, you've mentioned two of my favourites there out of those three.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Betty's Tea Room is just an institution, isn't it?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Betty's is lovely, it's right in the city centre.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's a hundred-year-old tea room, it's beautifully done out inside, it's proper old-fashioned.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: You get served by bow tied waiters, there's a classical pianist playing the piano, you can go in just for tea and cake, or they do really good breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a it's a must-do when you come to York, is Betty's, and Yorkies love it as well, which is always a good sign, I think.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um is always the thing I would say for for Betty's.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can only you can only pre-book an afternoon tea if you just wanted to drop in for coffee, you just have to join the queue.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: There's always a queue for Betty's, it's so popular.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: The other place I really recommend going is the House of Trembling Madness.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's two branches in York, but I'd go to the original one on Stone Gate, and it's just it's like nothing you'd you'd visited before.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: The the House of Trembling Madness is a beer shop, a craft beer shop, and then at the back of the shop, you go up a narrow staircase and you're in a medieval alehouse, and it's not it's not um like a remake or a you know done up to look, it is an authentic medieval alehouse.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: They have a tiny bar, they only have a few beers on offer, they have a very limited menu, but the menu is really good, we get loads of food.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: But it's just you know, you're sitting under this bean ceiling, all the tables are long communal tables, so you just sort of budge up to next to somebody and you strike up a conversation.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: You can't pre-book there again, you just turn up, and if there's a if there's a space for you to sit down, you just sit down and join other people.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a really great place to go, and it's very, very different experience.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think you would find in many other places at all.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's amazing, and it's actually somewhere that I haven't been to, so that's somewhere that's we're definitely going to be visiting later on this year.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: It is well worth it.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the other one is the Yorkie Pud Wrap from the York Roast Company.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this is a takeaway.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: So the York the York Roast Company uh came up with the idea of because everybody who comes to York has to have a Yorkshire pudding.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: So you get a giant Yorkshire pudding and they fill it with roast dinner, so stuffing, potatoes, carrots, part, whatever you can fit in it, and then they roll it up and wrap it in paper, and you eat it like a vehicle.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: But it is, I mean, it's dripping, dripping in calories, but it is fantastic.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's well worth it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it has to be it has to be done in York, I have to say.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's that's my definite uh place I I go to to have one of those when I go to York because they're just delicious, absolutely delicious.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: They really are.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody's planning to visit York, what would you say would be how long they should visit?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: What would be the minimum you would say?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean I would say days, but obviously, what would you say the minimum to be able to just get a flavour of the city, I guess?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think if you're just doing the city, I'd say two to three days.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: There it there is loads to do in the city, but because it's so small, you can get everywhere very quickly.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: It takes 10 minutes to walk between attractions, so you can fit a lot into each day.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say two to three days, but I would always recommend staying longer because there's so many fantastic things to do on the doorstep, and York is a really good base for exploring the rest of Yorkshire.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping that soon you'll be able to come back on and talk about all those fantastic places that you can visit from York because Yorkshire is the largest county in England, and it's got there's just so much to see.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is a it's a beautiful county, that's for sure.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, is there a best hammer to visit York?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I would visit it every time of year personally.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's I mean it is a fantastic city.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um personally, I love spring and summer in the city.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the city walls are built on slopes, and in March and April they are covered in daffodils, it really looks amazing.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then when the daffodils go, the cherry blossom comes, it's a really beautiful time in the city, and with the better temperatures, you know, people come out onto the streets, the pubs put tables outside, the river bank is lined with tables and chairs.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's spring and summer is a is a lovely time to visit, but then it is at any time of year.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Christmas is lovely, they have a big Christmas fair in the city centre, it runs for six weeks.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: The city is really nicely illuminated, there's big Christmas trees, it's it's quite magical at Christmas.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds absolutely lovely.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I know we're talking a little bit about we're going to talk more in another podcast about Yorkshire.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're spending a few days in York and you think, oh, actually, I'd like to take a day trip, where would be your top places that you'd recommend for anybody wanting to do that?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um everywhere is pretty close, really, quite close to York.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's several stately homes you can visit within a 20-minute drive.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's Beninborough Stately Home, there's Castle Howard, of course, which is quite famous.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's only 20 minutes' drive away.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's lots of monastic ruins around York.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: The largest monastic ruins in England are at Fountains Abbey, which is about 45 minutes north of York.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Bolton Abbey is one of our family favourites, that's about an hour away.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then of course you've got the Yorkshire Dales.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: The edge of the dales is about an hour, the half of the dales is an hour and a half.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: You can do caving, climbing, hiking.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's loads of waterfalls, there's Asgarth Falls, there's Hardraw Force, which is England's highest single drop waterfall.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's Malam Cove, which is one of my favourite places in the world to be.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's a 250-foot high stone amphitheatre.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Harry Potter was one of the Harry Potter movies was filmed on the top.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's just the Dales is beautiful and it's so close.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then in the other direction to the east of York, you've got the Yorkshire Moors that can be reached in less than an hour.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: You can take a steam train across the Yorkshire Moors.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can visit all the little villages, and then on the other side of the moors, there's the Yorkshire coast with Whitby, which I know you love.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I do, yeah.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: Robin Hood Bay, which is a beautiful half-free village.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's it's there's just so many things to do, and they're not you know, the longest you would ever drive is an hour and a half.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: So all these things can easily be done as a day trip.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's perfect, and of course, you can jump on the train because the the yeah, train station's in just a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes outside York City Centre, so it's easy to be able to jump on the train as well to go to any of these a lot of destinations.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: We're very lucky because the the train station is only about a 10-minute walk from Yorkminster.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's so easy to visit York by train, and then you can get local trains to Scarborough on the coast, you can go the other way to go to Harrigat and the Dales.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can also get buses, public buses all all around.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: You can get the coastliner bus that runs from York across to uh Whitby was voted the most scenic bus ride in Britain.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that there's without hiring a car, you can still get around.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Which is really good.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that's excellent as well for those people who don't particularly want to drive when they when if they're taking a vacation in the UK and they go, don't really want to drive, prefer the public transport.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to know that it's actually going to be easy to see quite a few of the you know popular destinations and easy to get to from York itself.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that's fantastic.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna ask a general question to end really.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So basically, what is your top tip or piece of advice for someone planning their first visit to the UK?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would say much as I love London, having lived there for 30 odd years, I my top piece of advice would be to get outside of London.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: See what you need to see in London and then get out of London.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because you will see such a totally different experience.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: I would definitely visit somewhere historic like Bath, York or Oxford.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'd highly recommend visiting a rural location like um the Ape District, the Yorkshire Dales, the Yorkshire Moors, of course.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: I would really advise trying to stay small, stay in a small market town, stay in a village, eat in a local pub, have a pint of ale, have a full English breakfast at a greasy spoon, um, and try as much as you can maybe to attend or time your visit for for one of the weird and wacky festivals we have in in England.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: There it is just you'd get such a different viewpoint of our culture and our history.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, in Yorkshire, for example, in May, we have lots of May festivals and May Day celebrations, and involves Morris dancing, um kids doing may pole dancing, welly wanging, which has seen how thry Fi can throw a welly.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um in Derbyshire, you can see well dressing, which is when um individual villages compete to have the best floral display around their village well or spring.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one thing on my list to do is to go to the cheese rolling competition in Gloucestershire where they they roll a big cheese down the hill and then everybody has to chase it down this really steep hill.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to see that.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: That must be so much fun.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: There's just these weird and wonderful things going on all year round.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I would just London is great, but I just get out into the countryside, stay rural, stay local, eat and drink local, and do some local, weird and wonderful things.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I absolutely agree, and that's something that I do say to couples like go to London, fine, you know, experience London, spend two, three days there, but then get out of London and go and actually experience a bit more of the UK because there's so much to see and do.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, we're covering all the things to do in England, we've got information about Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, we're kind of cover it all because there is so much that you can see and do.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the big thing is if you are planning as well, not to put too much in, just to kind of when you plan your training, not to try and think that you can see the whole of the UK in a couple of weeks because you can't.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's kind of picking out those places that you and experiences that you really want to have, yeah, and planning around that.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I would definitely say if you have the time, go to Northern Ireland, go to Wales, and go to Scotland, because I think sometimes people are surprised about how different they are to England, you know, different music, different language, even different road signs, and it it just it will give you a very different experience of the UK.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, and I definitely agree 100%.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Shade, thanks so much for joining us today.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's been absolutely brilliant to talk about York, and I'm sure our listeners are going to be absolutely uh thrilled to hear all the tips and all that insider information and knowledge that you shared today.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's absolutely brilliant.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks very much for joining us.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: You're more than welcome.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm sure you, like me, can't wait to visit York and explore some of the amazing places Sinead recommended today.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: You can find links to everything Sinead discussed in the show notes, which can be found at uktravelplanning.com forward slash episode three visiting York.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's all from me for this episode.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening, and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Bye for now and happy UK travel planning!