Where to stay in York

See

There's plenty to see in York, but if you leave without visiting the Minster and either the Jorvik Viking Centre or the National Railway Museum, you're doing it wrong. If you only have a day, prioritise two of these. Aside from these three standout attractions, the joy of York is in wandering the ancient streets and coming across surprising buildings and beautiful views all by yourself. You might find old churches, timber-framed shops, the ruins of an abbey, or the leftovers of medieval defences.

• York Minster
• Clifford's Tower
• Fairfax House
• Guildhall
• King's Manor
• Merchant Adventurers' Hall
• National Railway Museum
• Snickelways
• Treasurer's House
• York Army Museum
• York Mansion House
• Jorvik Viking Centre

Do

• GR8escape
• Horse racing
• Jorvik DIG
• Rowntree Park
• York Dungeon
• York Maze
• Hallowscream
• York's Chocolate Story
• City walls walk
• Lucky Cat Trail
• Walking tours: history, culture and ghost walks
• The Original Ghost Walk of York

Eat

As capital of Yorkshire, the county's cuisine is front and centre on many of York's menus. This is honest and rustic fare, in which generous portions are the norm, and large tasting platters are common. Yorkshire puddings, pies, local game, lamb and beef are all prized by restaurateurs, as are the local cheeses: wensleydale from the Dales, shepherd's purse blues from north of Thirsk and St Helen's Farm hard goat's cheese, produced in the Vale of York. The fish and crab in restaurants is often landed at East Coast ports such as Grimsby and Whitby, while the county's Norse connections are maintained by the serving of Yorkshire-made gravadlax.

Drink

The city of York is the site of three breweries, one combined with a vineyard, and one distillery. Beer, that is ale, has been brewed within the city walls for centuries, and the latest iteration of this tradition is York Brewery, which brews a range of three pale ales, the award-winning dark ruby ale Centurion's Ghost, and their signature golden ale Yorkshire Terrier. There is also a constantly changing selection of limited-edition creations, which adds a touch of FOMO-fuelled uniqueness to any beer-lover's visit to York. You can also visit the brewery; see the 'Do' section for details. The new kid on the block is Brew York, which eschews tradition by selling its brews by can.

Stay safe

York is a safe city with no significant crime problem. It is consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the whole UK, and high safety levels help to influence this. Unlike certain other European cities popular with tourists, visitors to York are not a particular target for scams and crimes. Terrorism is locally unheard of, though the nationwide threat level remains high. There are, however, some precautions worth taking. Take care on weekend evenings in York. Plenty of local youngsters overestimate their capacity for alcohol and the city centre can seem to be awash with lager louts, mainly in the Micklegate area.