Yorkshire is rolling hills and stone fences as far as the eye can see. It is a beautiful part of England and well worth a trip to soak up the fresh air and Northern accents. The city of York is one of the main places to visit, this medieval city is every history buff’s dream come true. We loved walking the cobbled streets and drinking in the atmosphere of the place. From the old city walls still carving a path through it, to the stunning York Minster, it really does take your breath away. The Shambles is a good place to see some medieval buildings while doing a spot of shopping, and there are endless traditional pubs to stop at for a drink and a meal. A day or two is the perfect amount of time to get a taste of the place.

It was then time for us to hit the countryside in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We stayed at a lovely holiday home in the village of Hawes, which was the perfect base for our time in the area. Hawes is a gorgeous old market village filled with ‘farm to table’ stores to keep your tummy full. It is also home to the famous Wensleydale Creamery, so we obviously popped in to stock up on lots of cheese.

We spent a lot of our time going on walks that started right from our front door, the hiking trails around Hawes are both plentiful and beautiful. There are many hills to climb for some spectacular views and the nearby Hardraw Falls are worth a walk to as well.

The Yorkshire Dales are extensive so it was necessary for us to drive to a few spots to check them out. The nearby Aysgarth Falls was a good place for a short walk to look at the waterfalls, however it wasn’t as spectacular as we were anticipating. But is definitely worth a look in if you are nearby.

Another nice driving/walking loop is to head from Hawes to the ‘book town’ of Sedbergh, which is a good place for a coffee and stroll around the many book stores. There are also some nice hikes in the hills around Sedbergh where we even got caught in a snow blizzard! On your driving loop back to Hawes, a stunning spot to stop at is Pendragon Castle near Outghill. It was snowing and we were the only ones visiting, which made for a fantastically eerie atmosphere.

A good walk to do that takes in a lot of the most famous scenic spots in the Yorkshire Dales is the circular hike from Malham via Gordale Scar and Malham Cove. Here is a useful link that helped us navigate the route. The walk takes about 3 hours and is a lot of fun, if sometimes a bit busy at times. It starts by taking you through an area called Janet’s Foss, which reminded us of somewhere that fairies would live.

You then head towards the impressively rocky Gordale Scar, where we stopped for a rest and to soak up the scenery. We ideally wanted to scramble up the scar but had to abandon this plan due to the large amount of ice on the rocks. If the weather permits then I encourage you to do this.

It was then a bit of meandering the long way around Gordale Scar before making it to the limestone pavement above Malham Cove. When we arrived here it was really foggy so it gave us a unique view of the area. As we made our way down to Malham Cove the fog suddenly cleared and we were greeted with a most fantastic scene, a babbling stream leading to a sheer rock face. Malham Cove is really beautiful and the perfect place to stop and relax.

On the drive back from the Malham Cove hike, we stopped at Ribblehead Viaduct. It is massive and a really impressive engineering project. Walk down under the arches and admire mankind’s ability to create enormous infrastructure.

Overall our time in Yorkshire was wonderful. We loved the classic English countryside scenery with the many beautiful stone fences everywhere you looked. Cost wise, nowhere in England is particularly cheap to visit, but Yorkshire is one of those places you can make as expensive or reasonably priced as you like. Accommodation costs are by far the biggest cost, but we mainly did our own cooking, which helped a lot. 

Here is a breakdown of our costs for 2 people for 7 days:

Accommodation – £600 (NZ$1,160)
Food/Drink- £114 (NZ$220)
Car hire / Petrol – £266 (NZ$513)
Miscellaneous – £20 (NZ$39)
Total spent – £1,000 (NZ$1,932)