We are beginning to see a bit of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and are becoming increasingly optimistic that we will be able to restart our regular, public, Day Trips from York in March next year!
We are fully prepared and ready to operate our tours on a COVID-secure basis in accordance with the Visit England “We’re Good To Go” Industry Standard.
We use spacious 16-seat Minicoaches and will initially be operating with capacity limited to max 10 passengers to leave plenty of room for social-distancing, with the added benefit of all passengers having a window seat! Everyone will need to wear facemasks whilst inside the Minicoach but the journeys between stops are all quite short so this is a small price to pay to keep everyone safe. We have also fitted a Hand Sanitiser dispenser at the entrance to each vehicle for everyone to use each time they enter/exit and introduced regular enhanced interior cleaning measures for the touch-points.
Our public Day Trips from York are now available to book on our website here – Day Trips from York
All our Day Trips can also be booked as Private Tours, with pickup from anywhere in the York, Harrogate or Leeds areas, for groups of up to 4 or up to 8 people so these are ideal for family outings. We are also very happy to welcome dogs on our Private Tours but, unfortunately, cannot accept them on the public tours. Follow this link to see the Private Tour options – Private Tours of Yorkshire
We have decided to welcome dogs onto our Private Tours of Yorkshire, so they are now both Dog and Family-friendly! We recommend that you bring along a Dog Seat Belt and a Drinking Bowl for your dog.
Children aged 4+ can simply come along as we have booster cushions for younger children but, if your child is aged under 4, you should bring along your own Car Safety Seat – our vehicles have car-style seat belts so you should be able to secure your own standard Child Seat.
Half and Full-Day Private Guided Tours are available, with pick-up from York, Leeds or Harrogate:
HALF-DAY PRIVATE TOURS (from £195 per group):-
North York Moors National Park Tour – This Private Guided Tour provides the opportunity for you to get out into the countryside to enjoy the fresh air and scenic beauty of the North York Moors National Park. We will pick you up from your hotel (or other location of your choice) at 10.00am and head out of town for a circular tour of the National Park, with stops at Byland Abbey, Helmsley and the beautiful moorland village of Rosedale Abbey. There will also be photo stops along the way, including the highest point on the moors at the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge . You will be able to buy food and drinks en route, but feel free to bring your own food along and we will stop somewhere suitable for you to have a picnic away from any crowds. The itinerary for this tour is flexible, talk to your Guide when you set off and we can make adjustments to suit your personal preferences. Departs 10.00am and drops off 2.30pm.
Yorkshire Dales National Park Tour – This Private Guided Tour provides the opportunity for you to get out into the countryside to enjoy the fresh air and stunning landscape of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We will pick you up from your hotel (or other location of your choice) at 10.00am and head out of town for a circular tour of Wharfedale and Nidderdale, with alternative potential stops at Bolton Abbey, Burnsall, Pateley Bridge and Fountains Abbey to suit your preferences. There will also be scenic photo stops along the way. You will be able to buy food and drinks en route, but feel free to bring your own food along and we will stop somewhere suitable for you to have a picnic away from any crowds. The itinerary for this tour is flexible, talk to your Guide when you set off to decide how you want to spend your time, based upon your personal preferences. Departs 10.00am and drops off 2.30pm.
Whitby Trip – We will pick you up from your hotel (or other location of your choice) at 10.00am and take you on a scenic drive through the North York Moors National Park, following which you will have about two hours free time to enjoy the seaside town of Whitby, before the return journey. You can see Whitby Abbey (inspiration for the Dracula books), visit the Captain Cook Attractions, shop for some Whitby Jet or Gothic Fashion, sample Fish & Chips from the famous Magpie Café or just explore the beach, fishing port and waterfront – the choice is yours! Departs 10.00am and drops off 2.30pm.
Haworth Trip – We will pick you up from your hotel (or other location of your choice) at 10.00am and take you to Haworth, on the edge of the rugged Pennine Moors, where the Bronte family lived from 1820 and the sisters wrote their famous novels. You will have about two hours free time to visit the Bronte Parsonage Museum and the Bronte Memorial Chapel in the nearby Church where their father preached, or just explore the quaint shops on the cobbled main street and have a leisurely lunch in one of the traditional cafes – the choice is yours! We then head up Penistone Hill for a photo stop to admire the moorland views towards Top Withens, where the Bronte Sisters walked to gain inspiration, before making the return journey. Departs 10.00am and drops off 2.30pm.
FULL-DAY PRIVATE TOURS (from £295 per group):-
Whitby & The North York Moors – Spend three hours enjoying Whitby on this tour, as well as exploring the scenic and picturesque North York Moors National Park. You will have a full three hours of free time in the fishing port of Whitby on this trip, to see Whitby Abbey (inspiration for the Dracula books), visit the Captain Cook Attractions, shop for some Whitby Jet or Gothic Fashion, sample Fish & Chips from the famous Magpie Café or just enjoy the beach, bustling port and waterfront – the choice is yours! As well as photo stops on the moors, you will also stop at the famous Kilburn White Horse, the market town of Helmsley (with its quaint cafes, shops and medieval castle) and the beautiful, traditional English villages of Goathland (Heartbeat and Harry Potter filming location) and Lealholm (with its stepping stones across the River Esk). The itinerary for this tour is flexible, talk to your Guide when you set off and we can make adjustments to suit your personal preferences. Departs 9.00am and drops off 5.15pm.
Yorkshire Dales National Park – Experience the stunning landscape of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, visiting Bolton Castle, Askrigg (filming location for Darrowby in the James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small TV series), Kettlewell (main filming location for the Calendar Girls movie), The Oldest Sweetshop in the World at Pateley Bridge and the traditional Dales Market Town of Hawes, where you will have the opportunity to sample the cheeses at the award winning Wensleydale Creamery, the home of Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese. The itinerary for this tour is flexible, talk to your Guide when you set off and we can make adjustments to suit your personal preferences. Departs 9.00am and drops off 5.15pm.
Haworth & The Yorkshire Dales – Explore Bronte Country and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, including the West Yorkshire Pennine Village of Haworth (home to the Bronte Parsonage Museum), Bingley Five Rise Locks (the most spectacular feature of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal), Bolton Abbey (where you will see the stunning setting of the ruins of the 12th Century Augustinian Monastery) and the picture postcard traditional Yorkshire Dales village of Linton with its stone bridges and limestone falls. The itinerary for this tour is flexible, talk to your Guide when you set off and we can make adjustments to suit your personal preferences. Departs 9.00am and drops off 5.15pm.
8th August 2020
As we exit the Coronavirus lock down, we recognise that customers may initially prefer the security of their own Private Tour, just for their own close family and friends. So, from the 1st August, we have introduced three sizes of Private Guided Tour and will pick your group up from any location in York, Leeds or Harrogate:-
SMALL GROUP – for up to 4 passengers
MEDIUM GROUP – for up to 8 passengers
LARGE GROUP – for up to 16 passengers (CURRENTLY LIMITED TO MAXIMUM 10 PASSENGERS THOUGH)
We have also introduced new HALF-DAY PRIVATE TOURS, departing at 10.00am and dropping off at 2.30pm, so you can now choose a Full or Half-Day Tour on any day/date of your choice.
Dogs are welcome on our Private Tours!
All our tours are operated on a “COVID-SECURE” basis in accordance with the “WE’RE GOOD TO GO” industry standard so you can join us with confidence, specifically:-
Numbers currently limited to maximum 10 passengers, all in window seats to provide 1m+ social distancing.
Driver/Guide will wear a face mask, all passengers should also bring face coverings to wear whilst inside the vehicle, in accordance with current Government Guidance for Public Transport.
Hand Sanitiser provided at entry/exit of vehicle.
Vehicle interior fully sanitised between tours.
Enhanced interior cleaning regime at stops during tours.
You should not commence a tour with us if any of your party have COVID-19 or are displaying symptoms – if this results in you having to cancel at the last minute, don’t worry, we will provide a full refund in that situation.
We are not currently operating our regular public Day Trips from York but hope to be able to re-start them later in the year.
20th July 2020
We are not planning to restart our tours of Yorkshire, following the Covid-19 crisis, until August, initially with Private Tours only, then our regular public Day Trips from York will start operating from the 1st September.
However, we have now made arrangements, exclusively with the Visit York Visitor Information Centre, to operate some small Private North York Moors & Whitby guided day tours from York for up to 4 people on any day throughout, July for only £250. These tours will include home or hotel pickups and will be operated in partnership with Sherwoods Minibuses, who have already been awarded the the ‘WE’RE GOOD TO GO’ industry standard for COVID-19 with The National Tourist Organisations of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for cleanliness and ensuring social distancing measures are in place in their workplace and vehicles.
These tours will generally follow our standard Whitby & The North York Moors day trip itinerary but can be adapted on the day to suit specific interests of the group and the current Covid-19 social distancing situation.
To book one of these tours, just call in to Visitor Information Centre in Museum Street, York, which has now reopened.
28th June 2020
That is the question we have been asking ourselves since entering lockdown after our Day Trip to the Yorkshire Dales from York on the 18th March! We were extremely busy for the first couple of months of lockdown (only processing cancellations and refunds though!) but we are now able to look forwards.
For the last seven years, our primary business has been “public” day trips around Yorkshire from York for up to 16 passengers, supplemented by a few Private Tours from York, Leeds and Harrogate, using the same 16-seat Minicoaches. Our customer split has been around 60/40 (International/Domestic) and the overwhelming majority have been overnight visitors to those three locations, with very few locals. We, therefore, clearly needed to have a rethink!
Keen as they probably are to get out into the countryside and explore Yorkshire after lockdown, we think people are likely to have an initial resistance to joining “Public” tours, so we have decided to change our main focus to “Private” tours. We have also introduced private tours for smaller groups of up to 4 and up to 8 passengers, which makes them much safer for both our driver/guides and passengers, in terms of potential virus transmission, and makes them more affordable for small family groups. We have also made all the options available to book online on our website and our private tours of Yorkshire from York now start from only £250.
It currently looks like accommodation and attractions in Yorkshire will be opening up in July, but we have decided to initially just offer private tours in August then aim to re-start our public tours from the 1st September, all with appropriate additional coronavirus precautions in place, of course!
So, that is our plan to start rebuilding our business and returning to having #morefuninyorkshire!
28th June 2020