As hard as i try i can not find a single thing to dislike about York, its the absolute business.
Every year in November me and the missus go to York and stay over night, leaving the three kids at home.
We look forward to that mini break for most of the year as its 24 hours of a propper treat.
We get all the kids pressies bought at the local designer shops and also shop around the market. There are a lot of shops in York that you dont see anywhere else in the country, one offs, such as Hucstables where you can find great street where for the kids at the right price.
We normally stay in one of three hotels, Lady Ann Middleton, Novotel or Travel-inn, fully recomend any of these but the Novotel is the best and a really classy place to relax and have a swim first thing in the morning before brekie, but its a little more expensive (approx £140.00 for a double room per night B&B) and also can be quite hard to reserve a room unless you book it a few months in advance.
The hotel as a great bar area inside and is also walking distance from the main city centre. just outside the city walls.
Once you have walked into the city, there is a massive choice of oldy worldy pubs such as the one at the side of the river that floods every so often to sample guest beers or wine bars such as The Living Room and Bar Ha Ha that are on the modern end of the scale.
When we go to york we always eat at night at the same restraunt called Willow. Its a chinese and its excellent and really cheap, i think its around the £7.00 per person to join the buffet and eat all you can eat, love it.
Walking round York at night is a great feeling looking at the sights such as the Minster with its spot lights lighting it up and the buskers on the street corners trying to make a quid or two. There is one thing that really need to be mentioned, this is not a great city for the kids at night. I am really family orientated having three boys, and in the past we have been asked to leave the likes of Yates Bar at 18.30 as we had our 8 year old with us. I live in Blackpool and have always been used to taking the kids out for tea to a pub at around that time and at around 20.30 gone back to the hotel and sat in the hotel bar. I must admit, last time i took the youngest boy, i was dissapointed that all the pubs are of the same mindset, just not kid friendly, but....when we go with the kids now, we tend to do the sightseeing thing in the day and spend more time in the restraunt at night before heading back to the hotel, so its not a major problem. Its just that, this city can be probably enjoyed more for a break on your own. I dont reccoment a stag party there, but i bet lots of people do.
In the day time apart from the great shops that line the crooked old street known as the Shambles and the large chain stores, there are also really good coffee bars such as Pret-a-Manga or Starbucks.
There are a lot of attractions to visit but some of them are not quite what they are made out to be, i htought the Yorvic Viking centre was the pits to be honest for the amount of money i paid, and the Q was hurrendous. The dungeon tour was much better and worth the money, lasted twice as long.
There is one MUST for anyone staying overnight and that is one of the Ghost Walks run by the students.
The students from York University do an organised walk around all the creapy ghost sights of the city, whilst dressed up as the ghost of Dick Turpin, real good stuff and fully recomended, but remember, have a few shreberts first.
Now heres a little tip for you, if you are going to stay overnight and you have got your next door neighbour to feed the cat for you and want to take her a thnk you back......there is a caffe come Bakery called Bettys that churns out the best hand made cakes you could wish for, real old craft bakers stuff, but be warned, the Q for this shop can be like the Yorvic centre.
So there you have it, its a great city and one i visit every year and will continue to do so as there isnt anything that quite compares to York.