Possible weekend Yorkshire trip ... itinerary review
 

I'm thinking of a quick Yorksire weekend trip from Oxford Friday-Sunday April 20-23. This would probably be via train, and I wanted to get people's thoughts. My biggest questions are just about the order of this itinerary and transportation issues.

Friday: early train from Oxford ... or London if it is much faster/cheaper?

All day in York. See cathedral, city art gallery, castle museum, maybe walking tour?

Saturday:

Train from York to two of:

Fountains Abbey
Castle Howard
Burton Agnes

Which ones should I visit?

Should I stay in York or Durham this night?

Sunday: Durham (castle, University, cathedral). Train to Barnard for Bowes Museum.

Back to Oxford ... from where?

ttt

Not sure abut transport for this but Fountains is an absolute must and Howard number 2

Looks like you are only visiting North Yorkshire so maybe look at another city in Yorkshire. Leeds can be good, try for the Henry Moore, the city museum and the west yorkshire sculpture park or the Armouries (all the stuff they have no room for in the tower of london) with a little shopping.

Surf out the government public transport web site. We all laughed when it came out and not perfect but it will let you link buses and trains.

www.traveline.org.uk

not bad then use www.thetrainline.com or one of the other local lines. they all seem to sell each others tickets

Thanks. I was thinking that Fountains Abbey and Castle Howard seemed the best to me.

Fountains Abbey is beautiful but check how easy it is to get to without a car - public transport isn't as good in Yorkshire as it is in London.
Harrogate and/or Knaresborough would make good side trips from York with good rail connections. Both are pretty market towns.
If you have a car, the North York moors are very easy to get to from York, its a nice drive over the moors to the coastal town of Whitby and surrounding villages like Sandsend, Runswick Bay and Robin Hoods Bay.
If you are reliant on public transport you should be able to get a bus from York to Whitby, or you could get a bus to Pickering and take the steam train to Whitby (the station is about a 10min drive out of town).
If you are familiar with British TV, this area is known as "Heartbeat" country where the longrunning 60's police series is filmed - the village of Goathland is the fictional village of Aidensfield as well as the location for Hogwarts station in the Harry Potter films.

Hi
I live in Yorkshire, near York.
I'm afraid there's no train to Fountains Abbey etc. Hope you don't mind me smiling at the thought of this! Fountains Abbey in particular is in a beautiful valley in the middle of the countryside - pretty remote. I believe there is a bus from York to Burton Agnes but it only runs a couple of times a day and takes 1.5 hours each way.
So, here's what I would do.
Friday in York as you suggest. Don't miss the free Railway Museum - fantastic place.
Then on Saturday pick up a rental car early on and visit Fountains Abbey first (I believe it opens at 10), and then Castle Howard. You could easily spend all day at Fountains or Castle Howard but if you are disciplined and really want to see both you could do so.
Fountains Abbey Estate covers a large area. As well as the Abbey ruins there's Studley Royal Watergardens, Fountains Hall etc. This website is good for helping you plan your visit and decide what parts you want to see.
www.fountainsabbey.org.uk I am not dismissing Burton Agnes as a 'don't bother' but it really isn't in the same league as the other 2.
Hope this helps.

Thanks. For a number of reasons I do not wish to rent a car, so I think I will have to rely on public transport. I realize this will make things much more difficult and maybe mean that I can only visit one place that day, but we will see.

I don't suppose there are any tours from York that go to Fountains Abbey and/or Castle Howard? I've looked but can't seem to find anything.

Hi again Joe
I'd contact the York tourist people about tours/trips to Castle Howard and Fountains.
www.visityork.org
I have always found them very helpful.

JoeTro: I know you don't rent cars on your different excursions. But to see Castle Howard and/or Fountains Abbey you really do need wheels. Have you considered hiring a driver for that day? It won't be as cheap as public transport of course - but you could easliy do both properties if you had a local driver.

Thanks. I've looked up some private bus companies but had not considered a driver. It would be expensive but could be worth it. I'll contact the York tourist people and see what they say. I can work out getting to Castle Howard from York and back via train/bus, but Fountains is more difficult and certainly both seems impossible in one day. I think I can also work out to Bowes from Durham, though on a Sunday maybe this is more difficult?

Yes - just Castle Howard is definitely doable w/o a car. But any "free lancing", Fountains/Studley Royal, photo ops/village stops, etc aren't.

we're considering a similar journey using as much public transportation as possible. it does look like the best way to fountains abbey is by rental car. their website tells how to get their by public transport, but it's comlicated.

i'm wondering, though, what any york "experts" think of helmsley and duncombe park as compared to (maybe instead of) castle howard. duncombe park is smaller than castle howard, but helmsley sounds like a nice town with other things to see and do as well. plus, it can be reached by bus from york.

thanks!

Melissa
Not sure if I am an expert, but I am a local!
In some respects you are comparing apples and pears.
And yet Castle Howard is absolutely magnificent - an English Treasure House of the first league.
Helmsley is indeed a nice town - but a day out to Castle Howard would get my recommendation every time.

Would it be possible to take a taxi from Castle Howard to Fountains Abbey or vice-versa? How long is this? Any ideas about a cost? I'm thinking this might be a good way to get between the two if I wanted to fit them both in, and perhaps then I could work out getting from York to one and back from the other to York via bus/train.

Hmmm, this would cost you a lot. What would you do after the taxi has dropped you off and you've been round Fountains? Maybe I didn't explain properly earlier - Fountains is in a valley in the middle of nowhere!!! There's not even a village. Ripon isn't that far away, but there's no train line there. And no public buses go near Fountains - the coaches have go go in and out a certain route as the lanes are so twisty and narrow. Is a rental car totally out of the question? It really would be the answer here - anything else is just a workaround costing you an awful lot of money and plenty of wasted time!

What about hiring a car and driver. I've done this several times and yes it is expensive but often worth the cost if you really want to see a particular place.

A couple of years ago while visiting Skye without a car, I hired a driver. He picked me up in his Mercedes and we spent the day touring the island. He provided considerable information regarding the local areas of interest. The cost was 100 GBP. IMO it was well worth it.

A half day would give you enough time to visit Fountains Abbey.If you can't locate a private hire at least check out the taxi fare. It might not be as bad as you think.

Do visit York, and take the walking tour that is offered free by volunteers, we had a delightful time. Castle Howard is memorable, the best country house I've visited. Do rent the series "Brideshead Revisited", as a lot of it was filmed in this beautiful property.

Would this trip be better transportation wise in May, say Satuday-Monday over the first May bank holiday?

Morgana being a local is more qualified than I am to answer the transportation question,but I'm not sure it would be any better and I certainly wouldn't want to do a weekend trip over a bank hoilday.