York, Whitby & The North Yorkshire Moors

Three nights in North Yorkshire, self-guided from a single base at Pickering, in the guest’s own car.

One hotel for three nights and two days entirely free is the shape of it, with the road book supplying routes rather than a timetable, which suits the moors: the good driving up there is in the long empty roads between the villages rather than at any particular destination.

The Best Western Forest and Vale at Pickering is the base, on the edge of the North York Moors, with a welcome dinner on the first night. Whitby is the obvious first run, reached over the moor road, a working harbour town of fishermen’s cottages and Georgian houses with the abbey ruins on the cliff above, which is where Bram Stoker set part of Dracula after a holiday there. York lies the other way, inside its walls, with the Minster and its medieval glass, the Roman foundations underneath the city and the walk round the ramparts. Between the two sit Rosedale, Hole of Horcum and the steam railway through Goathland.

Three nights at the hotel, three breakfasts, the welcome dinner, a road book with maps, drives and local attractions and hotel parking are all included; lunches, other dinners and fuel are not. Four days at this price is the cheapest thing the operator sells. Late spring to early autumn gives the best of the weather, and the moors are at their most striking in August and early September, when the heather is out and the whole plateau turns purple.