THE WANDER OF YORK

Keeping it local is a great way to spend the weekend, even if it is a little rainy, Sue Greenwood discovers

York is a destination city, featured in all the ‘Best City Break’ articles. It is local to us, so we visit often and know it well, but we thought a couple of nights would be just the thing to keep the wheels turning on the campervan.

There are plenty of caravan and motorhome sites in and around York, so there’s lots of choice. We chose Beechwood Caravan Park, a small, private 40-pitch site (all hardstanding), to the north-east of York and close to the A64 for easy access.

York has limited central parking, particularly for a motorhome, so we intended to use public transport to get into the city.

There is a bus stop about 15 minutes’ walk from the site, near The Hopgrove pub, with buses abou every 30 minutes into York, but the weather was threatening, so we decided to take the ’van and use the Park & Ride instead.

Heading for the city

Monks Cross Park & Ride was close by, but has height barriers, so we drove for a few minutes along the ring road to the next junction and off at Grimston Bar Park & Ride. We were impressed to find a designated campervan parking area here complete with CCTV and a security barrier.

You just press a button and talk to a helpful person in the control room, who raises the barrier when you go in and come back. You pay £3.60 each for the return bus fare to York. Not bad for a full day of secure parking.

York is busy all year, so it’s a good idea to plan what you wish to see and where to go before visiting, to avoid the dreaded aimless wandering! Mind you, this is actually not such a bad place to wander aimlessly about in, as there’s plenty to see and do. The Visit York website is useful, because there are often events in the city that are worth a look.