Adventures around Yorkwith PlusBus
Walkable York with regular trains arriving from all over the country is perfect for car-free visitors. With a PlusBus ticket, you can explore the city cheaply by bus to see world-class museums and leafy gardens, take riverside walks or tea on an ancient cobbled street. Every era has left traces in York and these layers of history are part of the city’s appeal. Just ask for PlusBus when you buy your train ticket for unlimited bus travel across the city all day. Here are just three of the adventures you could have.
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1. Sightseeing bus ride to the city centre
It can take less than two hours to get to York from London. LNER and other companies run regular trains. Ask for PlusBus when you buy your train ticket (or show your train ticket at York railway station to buy a PlusBus ticket when you get there) and you can have cheap unlimited bus travel across York all day.
- York is quite easy to walk around, but the area round the station has main roads to negotiate and, in the centre, those cobbled lanes are hard on the feet after a while. With this route, you can take a whistle-stop bargain bus tour of some of the city’s main sights and save your energy for walking round the minster or one of the many museums.
- Bus 66 and 67 run every 15 minutes between them from York railway station to the university. Cross the road outside York railway station to stop RJ and you will probably find one of the buses waiting. If not, there’ll be one a long very soon.
- Show your PlusBus ticket, climb to the top floor for the best views and watch out for these landmarks. As they set off, they will take you quickly around the old city walls, which stand on the line of earlier Roman fortifications, on a mini sightseeing trip
- Keeping an eye on the wall to your left, you’ll soon see Micklegate Bar, one of York’s four main medieval bars or gateways, which once displayed severed heads of traitors.
- Going on around the walls, you’ll cross Skeldergate Bridge over the River Ouse with views along the water. Just beyond it, look out for Clifford’s Tower built by William the Conqueror.
- Look left again soon after for a great view along the River Foss with the evocative buildings of York’s Castle Museum on the banks to the left.
- The bus rolls on past Fishergate Postern Tower into the heart of the city. Get off at Merchantgate and it’s a very short walk to many of the city’s main attractions from Jorvik, the interactive ride-through Viking museum, to the taster-tastic Chocolate Story.
- You’ll see the timber-framed walls of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall ahead of you, a medieval mansion that now has a museum and cafe and nearby you will find the picturesque narrow cobbled lane known as The Shambles.
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2. Goddards - home of chocolate?
Some cities are built on steel or wool, but York is built on chocolate: Smarties, Chocolate Oranges, and other world-famous names were all invented in York and the city still produces millions of Kitkats every day. The sweet success of local pioneers, like the Rowntree and Terry families, is reflected in the city’s landmarks. Why not take a bus ride to the former village of Dringhouses, now a suburb near York’s Knavesmire racecourse, to visit the gardens around a former house of the Terry family?
- Goddards is a lovely warm-brick Arts and Crafts-style house with an elegant garden, where you can wander round the different areas or have a cup of tea in the sunshine. There’s a second-hand bookshop and a kiosk selling refreshments.
- From the orchard paddock, look out for the clock tower of the old Terry’s factory across the racecourse.
- How do I get to Goddards by bus? Cross the road outside York’s railway station to catch buses 4, 840, 843 from stops RG or RJ opposite York railway station and get off at the Marriott hotel. Between them, the buses run every few minutes and Goddards is very close to the bus stop.
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3. Visit an urban nature reserve at St Nicks
There are snowdrops and blossom here even in wintry February. Walking through the trees and grassy paths of St Nicholas Fields (“St Nicks” to its friends), you catch the odd glimpse of York minster’s towers or waft of chocolate from the Nestlé Rowntree factory and it’s startling to remember you’re just a mile from the city centre.
- These 24 acres of urban nature reserve, now alive with birdsong and wildflowers, were once York’s rubbish tip; people say the numerous apple trees grew from Rowntree waste. There’s a mini Stonehenge in the middle, made from stones dumped here when the area was a landfill site. The little environmental centre runs conservation afternoons, ecotherapy sessions and a kerbside recycling scheme using trikes.
- How do I get to St Nicks by bus? Bus 46 runs from Station Road (Stop CE) to the St Nicholas Fields bus stop near Hull Road Park. You’ll see a sign by the path over the road. Frequent bus 6 from Rougier Street near the station stops nearby on Alcuin Avenue.
- Is there anywhere to have lunch? The not-for-profit Choose 2 café in Hull Road Park down the river is open until 3pm.
- For more adventures around York check out Good Journey’s car-free guide.
