Hotels and things to do in York for precious night away from DCs!!

[twinmam]

My lovely PILs are staying with us at the mo (live abroad) and have suggested DH and I go away for a night for some much-needed relaxation after some very stressful times over the past year.

We've decided on York as it's fairly close to where we live and we've not been for ages but remember it being lovely.

Can anyone recommend a lovely hotel and nice places to visit/ eat in York.

Am thinking of the kind of things we wouldn't usually get to do with two 2 year-olds, i.e. a bit of culture, city-based things, etc!

Central York would be best as we quite often do countryside things with DDs around Yorkshire and want this to be a bit different.

TIA

[Pootles2010]

I think Hotel du Vin is meant to be pretty nice, and food good too - its where we always send any visiting attorneys, they tend to be used to the high life...

When are you visiting? If you want to avoid children don't come in the holidays - we always get bombarded with tourists.

High end restaurants would be Meltons, or the Blue Bicycle. I really like Ate o clock as well - very small, if you're on a budget on a weeknight they do set menu for £15 i think, or if you go on a weekend it gets a bit pricier - have a look at their website though. Its quite hard to find - down a little alleyway next to Nandos i think, should be map on their website though.

If you have a nice day weather-wise, its quite nice to walk the city walls, don't know if that would be a more child-centric thing though! Let me know if you want any advice about any particular places.

[twinmam]

Thanks Pootles!

We're going a week on Friday so not during holidays (phew) and have booked into a hotel called Marmadukes which looks v nice on their website although has, apparently, gone into administration so we shall see!

In fact we almost went for Hotel du Vin but DH preferred the look of this one so at least I can blame him if it's rubbish

TBH I'm not too worried as long as it's not dreadful as we intend to be out and about most of the time.

I'll have a look at the restaurants you suggested. Is it worth booking one of them do you think for a Fri night?

The city walls sounds lovely; hopefully we'll get some nice weather.

Was also thinking the castle museum as went years ago and not the sort of thing we'd do with DCs just yet (they're only two). We'll prob pop into the Minster too.

DH wants to go to the railway museum but I think I've persuaded him that's something we'll do with DCs next year and the same goes for Yorvik!!

Am loving the idea of just mooching about and sitting having coffees etc - sounds blissful

[Pootles2010]

Yes i would definitely book at all three of those, they are quite popular. Don't know about the castle museum - lived here for years, never been! Also never been to railway museum or yorvik, but i believe you can now let your kids have a go at 'driving' one of the trains, so i'm sure they'd love that! And i believe they normally have Thomas the tank engine there at half term too, but be prepared for it to be rather busy.

The minster is lovely, if its not too windy you can climb up to the top of the tower for some good views.

Yes i think thats your best bet - just wandering around shops and not doing much of anything! If you do get a nice weekend, its nice to get a picnic and go to the gardens by the minster - just to the left of the minster as you look at it from the front.

If its not too busy, its rather nice to go to betty's for afternoon tea - definitely a non-child friendly activity!