Latest / UK Travel Planning / Discovering the Magic of Yorkshire: An Interview with Andy Ward of Expedition Yorkshire

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Discovering the Magic of Yorkshire: An Interview with Andy Ward of Expedition Yorkshire · UK Travel Planning

• 0:01
  Intro: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:03
  Intro: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins.
• 0:08
  Intro: 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 of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation.
• 0:24
  Intro: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:38
  Tracy Collins: Hi and welcome to episode 64 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:41
  Tracy Collins: In this week's episode, I'm joined by guest Andy Ward, the founder and owner of Private Tour Company Expedition Yorkshire.
• 0:48
  Tracy Collins: Andy talks about the various tours he offers across Yorkshire and beyond, plus the benefits of taking a private driver guided tour.
• 0:55
  Tracy Collins: So if you're considering a visit to the beautiful English county of Yorkshire, this is the perfect episode for you.
• 1:00
  Tracy Collins: I began by asking Andy to introduce himself and share a little of his background and motivation for starting Expedition Yorkshire.
• 1:08
  Tracy Collins: Hi, Andy, it's lovely having you on the podcast.
• 1:11
  Tracy Collins: Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background and why you started Expedition Yorkshire?
• 1:17
  Andrew Ward: Yeah, sure, thanks very much, Tracy, for having me on this podcast.
• 1:21
  Andrew Ward: So I actually worked in literally maybe not every tour format there is, but many different tour formats.
• 1:30
  Andrew Ward: I've worked with a company that flew hot air balloons over Europe with guests on board and then I would do the ground-based tours.
• 1:39
  Andrew Ward: I've worked with a company that did tours in minis in London in classic 1960s minis, and I've worked with a company long-distance did tours in buses where I was giving the tour and I was driving the bus all at the same time and I did all of these different tour formats over about a decade and everything was going swimmingly well, probably, truth be told, you and I getting a little bit cocky.
• 2:07
  Andrew Ward: And then the pandemic and, like lots of people, pandemic had lots of effects and I never want to sound light about this because I know so many people suffered so badly.
• 2:17
  Andrew Ward: But, like a lot of people, it also made you think about what you're going to do next, and in my case I am my wife, Jo, who is American which has a big reason why I mentioned it, because it has a sort of big impact on things and our little boy.
• 2:32
  Andrew Ward: We decided to move up to the north of England to start again, at least to move up here, because we love it up here, and to start a tour company, because this time I wanted my own company, doing my own thing, with my own format and way of doing things.
• 2:51
  Andrew Ward: So we came up here and I started Expedition Yorkshire and it's small, high quality private tours.
• 3:00
  Andrew Ward: You get me for the day, which you might consider a good thing, and you get the Mercedes Benz V-Class, which is always a good thing.
• 3:07
  Andrew Ward: It's extremely comfortable and I show you the best bits of Yorkshire, the best bits of the north of England and going on up into Scotland as well, depending, of course, which tour you select.
• 3:22
  Tracy Collins: Okay.
• 3:22
  Tracy Collins: So I'm going to ask, because obviously I mean you've said that you moved up to Yorkshire so I can hear from your accent, being a Northern girl, that you aren't originally Northern.
• 3:31
  Tracy Collins: So would you like to tell me were you originally from London, andy?
• 3:35
  Andrew Ward: So actually, very originally, I'm from Glasgow, but you wouldn't necessarily guess it because that's where I was born.
• 3:42
  Andrew Ward: Can you see how come in?
• 3:44
  Andrew Ward: Did you knew?
• 3:45
  Tracy Collins: I did not.
• 3:46
  Andrew Ward: No very originally I was, yeah, no very originally, but I left there when I was three years old, not on my own, it was with my parents.
• 3:52
  Andrew Ward: Oh, that's a good job.
• 3:54
  Andrew Ward: My wonderlust is big, but it wasn't that big.
• 3:56
  Andrew Ward: So, yeah, most of my life I've spent in London and perhaps, maybe, when I first came up here, I felt just between you, me and all the listeners a horrible fraud, because I'm not a Yorkshireman, I'm absolutely not Yorkshireman, but I did do my first degree up in Yorkshire and my wife, joe, and I had taken many holidays up here because Yorkshire is amazing and Joe absolutely loved it.
• 4:28
  Tracy Collins: And when I came up here, I committed to know as much as possible and they do say that you know, convert to the most extreme on the absolutely and yes, and of course you, because you run your business in Yorkshire, find out everything about your shirt and sharing your love for the county is perfect when you do your tourism.
• 4:47
  Tracy Collins: Great way to do it, great way to get that, share that love.
• 4:51
  Andrew Ward: One thousand percent.
• 4:52
  Tracy Collins: One thousand percent so would you like to talk about some of the tours that you offer, as I know that you've got some fantastic tours Include in an all great, great, small, which I'm excited to be going on a Christmas, which will be excellent, and I know a lot of american listeners in particular absolutely love all creatures, great, small, so they'll be very excited to hear about that.
• 5:12
  Tracy Collins: Talk to some of the most popular shows that you offer, andy.
• 5:16
  Andrew Ward: Yes.
• 5:16
  Andrew Ward: So we offer three off the shelf tours, three tours of already been Tested and tested and tested and different bits added and take away to give you the very, very best day possible.
• 5:30
  Andrew Ward: And the three tours that we currently offer the more coast and cliff tour, which goes out to wittby, and the North Sea coast.
• 5:41
  Andrew Ward: We also offer the fell valley and castle to, which goes to the Yorkshire dales national park.
• 5:47
  Andrew Ward: We also offer a transfer to.
• 5:51
  Andrew Ward: This is a tour that goes only in one direction, you don't come back from.
• 5:56
  Andrew Ward: It sounds very ominous, I know, but it's perfectly harmless because we go from York Through to Edinburgh.
• 6:03
  Andrew Ward: So the end of the day you find yourself in Edinburgh and you seen all the incredible Sights and landscapes between your can and which are many and you are yes, and you go through northumberland, which of course is my home county, so that's lovely to hear we do indeed.
• 6:21
  Andrew Ward: and and northumberland Is a hidden gift to the world is england's hidden secret certainly is.
• 6:27
  Tracy Collins: We need to not tell too many people about it.
• 6:29
  Tracy Collins: Andy, I know that's a very popular show.
• 6:34
  Andrew Ward: You said that I'm taking people from York to Edinburgh it's at the moment our most popular tour, although the All creatures, great and small tourists coming up on the inside.
• 6:45
  Andrew Ward: So, yes, really popular.
• 6:47
  Andrew Ward: The York Edinburgh turn you never know precisely why something is is love to is really popular?
• 6:53
  Andrew Ward: But I think I can take a guess, which is people often say to me but but, andrew, there's a train that goes between your can and that is absolutely correct and it's a very fast train, is a very good train.
• 7:06
  Andrew Ward: I love trains and my son, max five, loves them even more than I do.
• 7:12
  Andrew Ward: But the issue is that it's so fast that you don't see much.
• 7:15
  Andrew Ward: And also, if you're coming from your hotel, you get your bags packed and get out the hotel and get a taxi and then get on the train and go to train and do the reverse when you get up to Edinburgh.
• 7:29
  Andrew Ward: All vice versa.
• 7:31
  Andrew Ward: And what that means is is that one day of your holiday more really felt like transport, didn't really feel like a holiday.
• 7:39
  Andrew Ward: And when every day, every hour, every minute and every second of your beautiful holiday or in it, many of you call it very Count, that's not a good thing.
• 7:48
  Andrew Ward: And that's where expedition Yorkshire comes in.
• 7:50
  Andrew Ward: We pick you up from your hotel in the morning I load your cases on board, you sit on board, we talk about, you know, some of the stuff that you love and and kind of what interests you and all the rest of it, and then we make our way north or south, depending which direction the tours flowing in, and you see lots of Amazing things today.
• 8:16
  Andrew Ward: Don't just see them, you experience them because we're in these.
• 8:19
  Andrew Ward: You know vast, amazing landscapes.
• 8:21
  Andrew Ward: At the end of the day, you're at your destination, you just step out and you're there.
• 8:28
  Andrew Ward: We eliminate the hassle.
• 8:31
  Tracy Collins: That sounds perfect and I know lots of people would be very interested in that, and because it's a, it's a perfect way to To do the transfer but also to see parts of the country as well as you travel.
• 8:43
  Tracy Collins: So perfect, absolutely brilliant.
• 8:45
  Tracy Collins: And ask you to talk through One of your tours in Yorkshire and you know how would a day pan out for somebody who booked a tour with you.
• 8:54
  Andrew Ward: Yeah, sure, absolutely.
• 8:56
  Andrew Ward: The two that I'm going to pick for this question actually is the All Creatures, great and Small Tour, because we get so many inquiries now about it and we're doing quite a few of them.
• 9:07
  Andrew Ward: For those who don't know, all Creatures Great and Small was a book written by a man who was known by his nom-cletor.
• 9:16
  Andrew Ward: Am I pronouncing that correctly?
• 9:17
  Andrew Ward: His written name is Penney.
• 9:18
  Tracy Collins: Yeah, yeah, nom de plume.
• 9:20
  Andrew Ward: Nom de plume.
• 9:20
  Andrew Ward: That's the one nom de plume, which was James Herriot, and James Herriot actually originates from Glasgow.
• 9:28
  Andrew Ward: I think that's where our similarity stops.
• 9:31
  Andrew Ward: I'm not going to hand that up too much.
• 9:32
  Andrew Ward: But James Herriot comes down to the Yorkshire Dales and he works for a vet for the bigger part of his life and he writes lots of stories, not just about the animals, of course fascinating but also the people that he met along the way as a vet and the extraordinary circumstances he often found himself in.
• 9:50
  Andrew Ward: And there was a big TV series that came out on ABC, I think, an American PBS.
• 9:56
  Andrew Ward: It's beautifully shot.
• 9:59
  Andrew Ward: I think the first of the new series came out in 2020.
• 10:02
  Andrew Ward: It's really stunning.
• 10:04
  Andrew Ward: You haven't seen it yet.
• 10:04
  Andrew Ward: It's incredible.
• 10:06
  Andrew Ward: Nicholas Ralph is wonderfully cast as James Herriot and it's really a gem of a show.
• 10:12
  Andrew Ward: And what we do is we drive up through the Yorkshire Dales National Park pointing out some of the locations, some of the best and most important locations used in the show.
• 10:26
  Andrew Ward: Now the chances are that if you book this tour, you might be really into your show, but your partner, your husband, your wife, your brother, sister, friends, they might never have seen the show.
• 10:37
  Andrew Ward: They might not actually be that into the show, it doesn't matter, because we go into the, into the world that James Herriot knew, which is the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which is absolutely stunning.
• 10:51
  Andrew Ward: I mean, of course I'm biased, but it is very, very beautiful.
• 10:55
  Andrew Ward: Lonely Planet called it, I think, Europe's number one national park a few years ago.
• 11:02
  Andrew Ward: It's a really a very, very special place and we spend the day exploring the Yorkshire Dales National Park and talking a bit about James Herriot and pointing out a few other things as well, so that everybody on that tour amongst your group is going to be happy, no matter whether they're all creatures, great and small, aficionados, or they're not that familiar or couldn't care that much.
• 11:24
  Andrew Ward: Whatever it is, you will be treated with great respect, love and honour.
• 11:29
  Tracy Collins: Perfect, that sounds wonderful.
• 11:30
  Tracy Collins: And is that?
• 11:31
  Tracy Collins: So you pick people up from their accommodation?
• 11:34
  Tracy Collins: And then, is that?
• 11:34
  Tracy Collins: What sort of time scales are we talking here, andy?
• 11:37
  Andrew Ward: Yeah, so I generally pick people up around 9am.
• 11:41
  Andrew Ward: If they wish to adjust that time within reason, they're most welcome.
• 11:44
  Andrew Ward: And then we generally go through to about one o'clock or so lunchtime and we're normally back anywhere between about six to seven o'clock.
• 11:58
  Andrew Ward: I never watch the clock.
• 11:59
  Andrew Ward: It often depends on how the depth of interest that people have.
• 12:03
  Andrew Ward: Some people want something in headlines, quick move on.
• 12:07
  Andrew Ward: Other people want to spend 20 minutes, half an hour, one key location.
• 12:11
  Andrew Ward: That's absolutely fine.
• 12:12
  Andrew Ward: Obviously, we're back a bit later so I never say exactly when we're back, but in the earlier past evening.
• 12:17
  Andrew Ward: So you're free to do other things in the evening if you want.
• 12:21
  Tracy Collins: Okay, that's great and also that's a beauty, isn't it, of having your own private tour is that you have that flexibility.
• 12:27
  Tracy Collins: And I've talked quite often about because we know, it's a little bit more expensive if you're going to book a private tour for yourself, but it comes with huge, huge advantages.
• 12:35
  Tracy Collins: And if you're, you know, if you're planning a vacation, travel around the UK and you can, you know, I would highly recommend that you look at doing a private tour.
• 12:44
  Tracy Collins: So the advantages, obviously, Andy, is that you do the driving.
• 12:48
  Andrew Ward: Absolutely I do the driving.
• 12:50
  Andrew Ward: The advantages is really are and thank you for stating that numerous.
• 12:53
  Andrew Ward: I do the driving.
• 12:54
  Andrew Ward: A lot of the areas we visit.
• 12:56
  Andrew Ward: The driving is very complicated because the roads are extremely narrow and steep.
• 13:01
  Andrew Ward: Then the other thing is okay, you might have that advantage on a public tour as well.
• 13:06
  Andrew Ward: But where the advantage is really stack up, you have to think.
• 13:09
  Andrew Ward: When you're booking a tour or booking your activities on any holiday, you're planning that just being there, just waking up and having your breakfast, is extremely expensive.
• 13:18
  Andrew Ward: Once you divide the flight, you know in the hotel, between the number of days you have, that gives your base cost of a day.
• 13:25
  Andrew Ward: So if you have a tour where you have to share it with 52 other people, you don't really like half those people and you know maybe you like them, maybe they're great, but you know kind of you've got to follow their stick and what have you?
• 13:40
  Andrew Ward: Maybe it's the two you don't like, then that is the whole wasted day of your holiday expedition.
• 13:47
  Andrew Ward: Yorkshire.
• 13:48
  Andrew Ward: We treat the fact that you've chosen to come to the UK with unbelievable respect and love and you know that's a huge thing that you're doing and I always try and works hard I can to give you the very, very best To possible, and it's just you and your friends on board, or your family and that is self is special.
• 14:09
  Tracy Collins: That's fantastic.
• 14:10
  Tracy Collins: So I'm gonna ask you in a bit about how people can book with you.
• 14:13
  Tracy Collins: But I know you mentioned earlier that you've got some new tours coming out in the new year, so I think it would be useful to actually share some of those, because I think you're doing a bit more of the kind of York Edinburgh type of transfer, which I think listeners will be very interested here about.
• 14:28
  Andrew Ward: Absolutely so.
• 14:29
  Andrew Ward: In the new year will almost certainly be offering a southbound transfer, so that will take you to London via.
• 14:38
  Andrew Ward: It doesn't have to be via some way we're not actually fixed yet but probably via chats were, because that's a stately home that many, many want to see.
• 14:47
  Andrew Ward: For those of you who are not really into stately homes, that more action we can do, a southbound by a silverstone and the British racing, british motorsport museum, if that's your, if that's your thing.
• 15:00
  Andrew Ward: So we'll really be mixing up.
• 15:02
  Andrew Ward: In the new year will be offering tours that just aren't offered at the moment really by that's brilliant and you know what you can come back on.
• 15:20
  Tracy Collins: And then you're new year when you've when you've got those kind of finalised and we can, we can do that.
• 15:24
  Tracy Collins: We can talk about that in the podcast, because that's brilliant.
• 15:27
  Tracy Collins: I mean, I'm Very excited about the fact that you can be doing a York London trip, because we are often asked about getting to chat with and it is difficult to get to chat with.
• 15:36
  Tracy Collins: So if that you know, this is a brilliant way to do it so that you can incorporate that trip down to York, from York to London, and also visit some of that chats with us, what you want to do, or silverstone, if you're interested in that as well.
• 15:48
  Tracy Collins: So this is some some perfect opportunity, is a great opportunity.
• 15:51
  Tracy Collins: I'm glad that you actually am offering that.
• 15:53
  Tracy Collins: Andy can see a lot of interest in that, so just wanted to ask as well.
• 15:57
  Tracy Collins: So if somebody wants to book with you, obviously I'm gonna put a link in the show notes for this episode, which episode 64 will be in the show notes on our website.
• 16:05
  Tracy Collins: So if anybody wants to book, they can go via that link, but obviously the other way is that they can go direct with you.
• 16:11
  Tracy Collins: Is that correct?
• 16:12
  Andrew Ward: yes, so you can put you know direct offer website.
• 16:17
  Andrew Ward: Although you know you might have questions, you might just wanna chat to me To check that I am real.
• 16:22
  Andrew Ward: I am real and you can get in contact through the website.
• 16:28
  Andrew Ward: You can ring me up, you can email me whatever you feel comfortable with.
• 16:31
  Andrew Ward: We pride ourselves on being an extremely personal company.
• 16:36
  Andrew Ward: You will never, ever ever, have with us a chat bot Okay, because or any of those automated, because I can't stand them, so I don't want my customers having to face up to that nonsense.
• 16:49
  Andrew Ward: Okay, so you can get in contact with me if there's something that you're concerned about or something special that you had in mind and let me know.
• 16:58
  Andrew Ward: That's the other thing.
• 16:59
  Andrew Ward: If you've got imagination and a way you wish to use the Mercedes V-Class which and myself, which is legal, then please get in contact because we can probably do it.
• 17:07
  Andrew Ward: We already do things like location scouting for films and that kind of thing.
• 17:11
  Tracy Collins: so oh, that's really excited.
• 17:13
  Tracy Collins: So how many people can you fit in your van?
• 17:14
  Tracy Collins: That's also worth knowing how many.
• 17:15
  Tracy Collins: What's the largest size group that you can take?
• 17:18
  Andrew Ward: Yeah, so we're licensed by the very venerable and wonderful city of York Council.
• 17:22
  Andrew Ward: We're licensed by the city of York Council to take up to seven people.
• 17:27
  Tracy Collins: Okay, that's perfect, and so obviously, expeditionyorkshirecom is your.
• 17:32
  Andrew Ward: URL Correct, thank you.
• 17:33
  Tracy Collins: Yeah, so people can pop over there and check that.
• 17:35
  Tracy Collins: But, as I say, I will put the link in the show notes as well, so people can pop over that way.
• 17:40
  Andrew Ward: You can also follow us if you're quite shy, you just want to follow us.
• 17:44
  Andrew Ward: You can follow us on expedition underscore Yorkshire or at expedition underscore Yorkshire on Instagram.
• 17:53
  Andrew Ward: Oh perfect, and you'll see some of the stuff that we do.
• 17:55
  Andrew Ward: We try and put photos up when we're out and about.
• 17:59
  Tracy Collins: Yeah, and I follow you.
• 18:00
  Tracy Collins: I have to say, do check out what you've been doing.
• 18:02
  Tracy Collins: So it looks excellent.
• 18:03
  Tracy Collins: So I can't wait.
• 18:04
  Tracy Collins: I'm really looking forward to joining you in December.
• 18:07
  Tracy Collins: I'm going to end the podcast.
• 18:09
  Tracy Collins: I'm really I'm so happy that you came on to chat about expedition Yorkshire.
• 18:13
  Tracy Collins: We're very careful about who we take on board as our preferred partners and I know you're at a perfect fit for us, so it's very exciting.
• 18:20
  Tracy Collins: But I want to ask the one tip that I ask everybody to share at the end of the podcast, which is the one tip that you would share with anybody visiting Yorkshire for the first time.
• 18:29
  Andrew Ward: I don't think that you can come to Yorkshire without not visiting Castle Howard.
• 18:34
  Andrew Ward: At the very minimum, you need to find out that it's not actually a castle.
• 18:38
  Tracy Collins: Okay.
• 18:39
  Andrew Ward: But at the same time, it won't leave you disappointed.
• 18:41
  Andrew Ward: It's amazing.
• 18:42
  Tracy Collins: Excellent.
• 18:43
  Tracy Collins: We should relieve listeners with that, and then they can.
• 18:45
  Tracy Collins: I can share a little bit of information about Castle Howard in the show notes, but obviously on your tours of Incorporate Castle Howard.
• 18:54
  Andrew Ward: Yeah, we can very much incorporate it, even if it's just some people will ask us to actually stop and they want to look around, and that's fine.
• 19:00
  Andrew Ward: Or some people just want to drive by on the way to Whitby, and we can do that as well.
• 19:05
  Andrew Ward: But yeah, I try and incorporate on the tours where the geography makes sense.
• 19:10
  Andrew Ward: I try and incorporate Castle Howard.
• 19:12
  Tracy Collins: Okay, that's brilliant.
• 19:12
  Tracy Collins: So thanks very much, andy, for coming onto the podcast and I'm sure we'll chat again in the year.
• 19:18
  Tracy Collins: We'll find out about all your new tours and share those with listeners, but it's been great chatting with you today.
• 19:25
  Andrew Ward: It's been a pleasure.
• 19:25
  Andrew Ward: Thank you for having me.
• 19:28
  Tracy Collins: Once again, thanks to Andy for coming onto the podcast.
• 19:31
  Tracy Collins: You can find details of the places and tours Andy mentioned, plus a link to the Expedition Yorkshire website in the episode show notes at uktravelplanningcom.
• 19:39
  Tracy Collins: Forward slash episode 64.
• 19:42
  Tracy Collins: That just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.