A Guide to York, England

With summer quickly approaching, we have been reminiscing last summer's European adventures. We have great news that we will be back in the UK this summer for a Scotland/Northern England expedition! Between now and the end of July, we will also be posting travel blogs on the lovely cities of Chester and Liverpool. So stay tuned for more awesome UK cities!

Last summer we spent a day in York wandering the historic Shambles and cobblestone streets. The weather was so very "British" that day and we were so cold (and wet) that we actually bought hats! Besides the typical English weather, York was completely charming. This was not our first trip to York as we have thoroughly enjoyed visiting a few times before! We put together some of the best places to stay, eat, drink, and play for you all to check out!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Post Updated in 2024!

Map of some of Yorks best from The Perky Peacock https://perkypeacock.co.uk/

Stay:

The Royal York Hotel - $$$$: This five-star hotel is the perfect place to enjoy a luxurious stay in York. Book a spa treatment for extra R&R time. 

Hotel du Vin & Bistro $$$: If you're looking for a great hotel, but not looking to completely splurge on a room, this is the place! Hotel du Vin is located down the street from the York train station and just out of the busy hustle and bustle of downtown York. We love the tasty smorgasbord breakfast buffet, beautiful bar, and in-room Nespresso machines!

The Trembling Madness Apartments $$-$$$: If you are looking for somewhere to stay in the city center and are up for a spooktacular night, we recommend trying one of the apartments at the Trembling Madness (not all rooms are claimed to be haunted). Bonus: they have a lovely pub and bottle shop attached to the building! See the Eat & Drink section below for more! 

Holiday Lets $-$$$$: There are some amazing deals for holiday rentals in York like this apartment with beautiful views of the Minster. These flats are perfect for families or groups traveling together. To get you started: Holiday Lettings, York Boutiquelets, Skyes Cottages, and Visit York.

Eat & Drink:

The Perky Peacock - $$: After our hour train ride from Manchester we wanted a little pick-me-up and stopped in this cute coffee shop. Situated right along the river in a tower, there are only a handful of cafe tables inside. If the weather is nice they have tables along the river to sip espresso and nibble on a toasted and buttered teacake (or more substantial breakfast items) before heading off for some York mayhem. They also have adorable logo mugs and totes available for sale!

Bettys Cafe Tea Room - $$$: Bettys is famous in York for your classic afternoon tea experience, however, you have to make reservations in advance so make sure to plan ahead! When we visited we just ordered a cream tea (this includes a pot of tea, a scone, and clotted cream) since we wanted to go grab lunch later and a full afternoon tea leaves you stuffed for hours. Tip: We find a full afternoon tea is simply too much food. We suggest ordering cream tea and bubbly for the fancy effect of the afternoon tea without feeling overly stuffed plus its much more affordable!

Trembling Madness $: For a late afternoon lunch, we stopped in this medieval pub. Also known as Delirium Tremens (DT's), this pub has been open since drinking became a thing, and it has seen its fair share of disaster and death within its walls. The rear end of the building was first built in 1180AD, people were drinking there 312 years before Columbus sailed over our way. We were pleasantly surprised with how cool this place was! On the first floor of the building is a bottle shop where they sell beer, scotch, cider, and more. On the second floor is the pub. We hunkered down in an alcove off to the side of the main dining area. The interior of the pub was fun with mounted animal heads mounted all over the place, and other hidden preserved animals (a baby alligator) were around the room. The beams of the pub are from an ancient ship that last set sail over 800 years ago! We ordered some hardy medieval-inspired fare of a classic cheese board (cheese, bread, and assorted accouterments), and a steak and ale pie, all washed down with real ale and some cider.

The Refectory - $$$$: Looking for the fanciest place to dine for dinner? Then look no further than the Refectory. They serve dishes made from delicious local ingredients and delightful cocktails made to order. They also serve a magical Champagne Afternoon Tea that includes a glass of our favorite bubbly...Lanson.

Love Cheese - $$: This cheese shop has a large selection of Yorkshire, British, and Continental cheeses for sale. In their shop, they also have cheese boards available to pair with a glass or two of wine. 

LICC (Luxury Ice Cream Company) - $$: For a bit of heaven, head to LICC for some divine "lux" ice cream. You won't be sorry!

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York Jorvik Viking Center -$$: This museum tells the story of York's rich Viking history. This is truly an immersive experience where you smell the odors (good and bad) of a Viking town, sample the food they ate, and even get to try your hand at blowing a Viking horn!

Shambles Market - Free: Wander York's most famous street- the Shambles, and visit its market full of local produce, goods, and souvenirs. 

York Minster - $$: Visit the largest Gothic cathedral of Northern Europe. This place is visible from many points in the city, seemingly popping out from around each corner.

Antique Shopping - Free: There are a bunch of lovely shops to fix your antique needs. We really like the Red House Antique Center  right across from the Minster. 

W. Hamond - $$$-$$$$: If you're looking for a pretty souvenir, we suggest heading to W. Hamond. This jewelry shop on the Shambles is tiny but packed with lovely treasures. Whitby Jet is one of the local stones of Yorkshire (found on the coast) and W. Hamond has a great selection of the slightly Gothic yet completely chic stone jewelry. 

York Museum Gardens - free: If you like English gardens, then the York Museum Garden is the perfect place to visit. Surrounded by St. Mary's Abbey, these gardens are filled with botanical wonders and over 30 species of birds. Be sure to stop in the York Museum as well which is rich with some of England's most precious archaeological treasures. 

The Original Ghost Walk of York - $: This tour claims to be the first of its kind in the world! Held nightly, this tour will surely satisfy anyone's appetite for scary stories as York has been named the most haunted city in England, and possibly Europe! 

York Pass - $$-$$$: If you are planning to visit more than two of York's attractions in a day, then the York Pass is a great bang for your buck. With this pass, you have complete access to over 30 fantastic attractions in York (York Minster, Clifford's Tower, Castle Museum, York Brewery, York Art Museum, and York Dungeon to name a few) and includes some great discounts on a number of other places. 

Seemingly, all roads lead to York Minster

One of the Gatehouses of York

Exploring one of the many tiny passages

Part of the Roman Wall surrounding York City

Exploring Manchester, England

For the last leg of our England trip we called Sale home. Sale is a little canal-side town in Greater Manchester. Since we were stationed at P-mans comfortable abode, most mornings we ate in at P-mans house. We munched on Marks & Spencers crumpets, yogurts, scones (with clotted cream and jam of course) and a big cup of tea. After breakfast, we would head to the center of Manchester to do shopping, sight seeing, and more eating. The metro from Sale to Manchester is only about 15 minutes long, and its extremely easy to navigate. 

Manchester is one of the biggest metropolitan cities in England, nicknamed "Cottonopolis" for its involvement in the cotton trade in the 19th century. Now Manchester is a city filled with tons of shops, restaurants, bars, and a plethora of cultural institutions. Over our week stay we discovered a lot about this city such as its unabashed obsession with tapas bars and so much more!!

This post will dive into all of Manchester, and Greater Manchester's secret gems. We are excited to share them with you!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Eat:

Sugar Junction-$$ This place has a charming atmosphere and a yummy cream tea! We stumbled upon this place and Ivy couldn't resist stopping when she saw "Cream Tea" listed on the menu outside. They had a great selection of lunch items and tasty cocktails we sipped on happily. They have a cocktail and cake deal which is to die for!

Moose Coffee- $ This place reminded us of an American-style diner with a hipster feel. Their coffees are to die for and you can buy beans to brew up at home! Ivy had great fresh mint tea, and ordered a tasty cheesy hash brown with eggs on top.  Eve had their tasty Moose Macchiato, milky coffee with an extra double-shot of espresso, caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. For Eve's meal, Eve ordered the double Dutch, a giant platter of pancakes with bacon and hotdogs inside (actually pretty tasty) topped with fried eggs and loaded with butter and maple syrup!

Lunya Catalonia Deli- Restaurant & Bar inside the Barton Arcade- $$ This is one of the many tapas bars in Manchester. We think it is one of the best! Upstairs is the main restaurant space, while downstairs has a more casual bar and a deli/market where you can buy tons of Spanish delicacies to enjoy at home! We ordered a delicious cheese and meat plate with a side of olives and three different olive oils to dip our bread in. We sipped on some crisp rosé from Catalonia, which was lovely! 

Pot Kettle Black- $ Also inside the Barton Arcade, this coffee shop is the perfect place to grab a quick bite and recharge before heading out on the town once more.

Bakchich- $ This is a Lebanese street food restaurant. It was in the University district, and the portions were huge- to satisfy the starving & poor students. We liked it for casual dining as it had lots of flavor and a lively interior decor which helped lift our spirits on the cold and rainy day.

Zizzi- $ We love this place so much! It's another budget friendly restaurant we visited, mainly because it is a chain restaurant. Eve and P-man used to go to Zizzi's all the time in grad school and it became a comforting favorite. We always order a Zizzi Anitpasti, Primavera Rustica Pizza, and wash it down with a bottle of the Montepulciano Abruzzo wine. Perfecto!

Cottonopolis- $$$ This is an über hip restaurant bar in the trendy North Quarter of Manchester. They serve up Asian Fusion food, tapas style and a creative cocktail menu that will make you want to order one of each! 

Amphora Cafe in Sale- $ This little cafe has the most delicious breakfast for next to nothing! We all had coffee or tea, and a breakfast entree for under 15 pounds! The star of the meal was the Amphora breakfast which consists of eggs baked in tomato sauce, béchamel, and parmesan baked in a little lidded pot. They served it with yummy fresh baked seeded bread. It was to die for!

Drink:

Wash House- $$$ MUST GO! If there is one place you cannot miss its Wash House. This place is super cool and has out of this world cocktails. Ivy is super picky with mixed drinks...if she tastes basically any hard alcohol she spits it out. But the bartender & owner helped her pick two drinks; the Glazed and Confused with strawberry liquor and balsamic glaze complete with a lolly pop included & the Bevis' Cherry Pop Daiquiri with spiced rum, sour cherry syrup and pop rocks! Ivy ended up loving both of these drinks. P-man ordered a Top Shelf Sour and Melville's Corpse, two very strong, grow-hair-on-your-chest, yet tasty drinks. Eve's first drink was Fear & Loathing which was a frozen blended mango drink with a touch of coriander and jalapeño for a bit of heat. Her second choice was Let Them Eat Cake, a creamy gin based cocktail served with a mini battenburg cake slice! The atmosphere and decor is perfect and moody, with a DJ turning out hip beats that you were able to enjoy as well as hear your own conversations. We wont tell you too much because it is a 'Secret Bar'. We will say its definitely worth wandering around a few minutes to locate. Remember though, its reservation only! You can either call ahead or direct message them on Instagram which is what we did. 

Cork of The North in Sale- $$ Cork of The North was one of our favorite places. We ended up going three times while we were in Sale! The friendly staff, the amazing and large wine selection, along with the fun and casual atmosphere kept us coming back for more. They also had a great cheese plate. Its a perfect place to buy a bottle with friends and relax. 

The Kings Ransom in Sale- $ This is a classic pub but has a great view of the canal beside it and a patio to sit at when there is a break in the rain. 

Trof- $ This bourbon bar serves up a mean happy hour every day from 4-8pm. You can get 2 cocktails for 10 pounds and lets just say, we had several...

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Walkden Gardens in Sale- FREE This garden is beautiful and has all kinds of flora. As you walk from garden to garden you feel as though you are entering new worlds. Our favorite garden was the traditional Japanese garden.

Brewery tour at Robinsons Brewery in Stockport- $$ We have been to quite a few brewery tours in the states and we definitely think this one is worth a visit. The facility has recently upgraded most of their machinery but left the original equipment on site so you can compare the old next to the fancy new ones. The tour was about an hour long and ended in the brewery pub, where you can sample their beers. They also have two Shire horses on site which Eve became friends with. 

The Spa at the Midland- $$$ Book during the week for spa deals. They have amazing hanging pods in their relaxation room. Escape the busy city above and spend a morning here instead! 

Manchester Museum- FREE This is a wonderful natural history museum. It has exhibits of local flora and fauna all the way to exhibits on the ice age. The museum is very diverse so there is an exhibit for everyone to enjoy. We loved wandering the galleries on a cold and rainy afternoon. 

Manchester Cathedral- FREE This church has some of the most intricate wood carvings we have ever seen. The church itself is pretty small for a cathedral but it is a beautiful place to reflect in tranquility among the bustle of downtown Manchester.

John Rylands Library- FREE This library feels like you have stepped into the library at Hogwarts! Built in 1900, this library holds the University of Manchester's special collections. They have wonderful temporary exhibitions and the carved sandstone gargoyles throughout the building are amazing. Each of them are completely unique! The entry has a little cafe and a great gift shop with bookish gifts for everyone. 

Overall, Manchester is a wonderful city with something for everyone. There is so much more we couldn't fit into this post so we suggest you go and explore for yourself! 

xxx Ivy & Eve