Help me plan 2 days in York with children

[calistaraines]

Children aged 10 & 8.

Any must see things???
Any hidden gems?

Best family style but non chain restaurants?

No one?

When are you coming and where are you staying?

October half term sun - tues

It will be crowded
Manic today with food festival on.... and bitter cold

So allow for crowds, hen and stag parties and bring lots of warm clothes

National Railway Museum
Jorvik Viking Centre

We went in may half term and loved:
Walking the walls
The castle
The big museum. Could spend days in here.

We didn't do jorvik as mine are only 5&3. We also looked at the attractions round the wall like the Richard 111. They looked fab but we didn't ah w time.

Ghost walk (evening), Jorvik viking centre ( good) , dungeons (brilliant) , boat trip, lots of little brilliant shops, the famous haunted pub, it's slanted! A walk along the city wall, lots of stuff on in York, you won't be bored.

Jorvik Viking museum
chocolate museum
The Minster
Cat trail
DIG
The shambles
Castle Museum
Museum gardens

A nice way to have a good wander around is the cat trail. Lots of the buildings have cats on them and the kids have to find them and make them off the map.

The railway museum is fab
Minster is beautiful (even in scaffold)
A walk around the wall is fun and you get to nose in people's gardens.

Betty's afternoon tea, book now if u want to do that, it's like an old cruise liner inside. The chocolate shop/ factory place.

The Railway Museum is fab.....and I'm not even a fan of trains! 😉

The castle museum, and The Shambles, there's a few Harry Potter shops there that might be of interest? And some amazing German Christmas shops (but early I know but so exciting 😂)

Jorvik Viking Centre,
York Chocolate Story-you get to eat lots of chocolate and make a chocolate lolly
York Castle Museum
The museum in the Museum Gardens (can't think what it's called)
The City Walls
Railway Museum (it's free so even if you just drop in briefly)
The Art Gallery often has activities for children during School holidays

Stonegate Yard is nice for lunch do sandwiches etc
Oscar's is also nice to eat at
Lo Spuntino is excellent for Italian food

Expect it to be busy, Saturday afternoons/evenings aren't the most pleasant in the centre of York due to stag and hens drunk everywhere so maybe stick with a museum if you're there on a Saturday afternoon and stay away from the main streets.

You should have a fish & chip meal in York, the best F&C in the country is invariably in Yorkshire. Drakes in Low Petergate or Wackers in Gillygate are worth a try.

Oh also October half-term has a trail to follow around York to find 'Ghosts' made out of bollards in shop windows, this will be a good way to be doing something whilst just exploring York. And also York Maze has lots of Halloween activities during the day.

Jorvik
Chocolate tour
The Shop Which Must Not Be Named

Will you have a car? If your boys like Lego, i’d Recommend The Brick Box in Knottingley, about 30 mins from York. Book at half term though!

Clifford’s Tower
City walls walk
Ghost walk
River boat trip
National Railway Museum

the Shambles is a must if you have Harry Potter fans, my 8 year old would spend hours looking at the shops there if he could! He also enjoys a run about in the museum gardens. There's often birds of prey there for handling & lots of squirrels too. Railway museum & Yorvik are also great, we haven't visited the dungeons yet as DS is quite timid & I think it would scare him til he's a bit older but if your kids are of a steely nature I'd definitely go for it!
There's always stuff happening in the centre - various food festivals/street performers etc. There's a shop called York Armoury on Stonegate that sells swords & othet weapons which ds also thinks is quite cool.

Places to eat - we like Lucia Bar & Grill (Italian restaurant) which has year round outdoor seating with patio heaters & blankets if cold but also often go to the Shambles Market (behind the Shambles) where they have loads of different street foods. hth

Castle Museum, Yorkshire Museum and the art gallery will all have kids activities on for half term and are worth seeing in their own right.

York cocoa house does chocolate lolly making every day.

Treasurers House has loads of spooky stuff on at half term, as does Barley Hall.

The staff at Dig are so knowledgeable, they're just fantastic.

For food I'd go to Delrios or la Vecchia Scuola for Italian. Theres a great Japanese Teahouse called Ippuku.

Fossgate is very foodie, the Hop is great for pizza and there's a nitrogen ice cream shop down there.

There have already been so many brilliant suggestions.

My favourite places are the Castle Museum, and the Yorkshire museum (current exhibition on Jurassic world was opened by David Attenborough in March).

Fairfax house and the Bar Convent museum are both off the regular tourist map and both really interesting (Bar Convent if you only have time for one).

My favourite little cafe is Cafe la Tazzina on blossomgate, just near Bar Convent. Family owned Italian cafe that probably hasn’t changed much for the last four decades. Reasonably priced, nice no frills place but the food is infinitely better than somewhere like Carluccios.

Burr on Lendall is really good for lunch, coffee or cake. I sometimes pop in twice in one day if I am in York in cold weather!

We came to York in the summer. Stayed in a tiny village about half an hour away. I haven't been since I was a child. It's a spectacular place. We went to yorvik, the minster, the railway museum. We did the open bus tour and went to the shambles which, is one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen! Have a good time!

Castle Museum is great - our fav York attraction for sure. Found Jorvik Viking Centre very underwhelming. Barbakan for amazing Polish food and Trinacria for great gelato.

We loved a walk around the walls, railway museum and the cold war bunker. Lots of good places to eat, we were spoilt for choice.

Railway museum is free and fantastic. Allow at least half a day, more if there are half term activities. JORVIK worth doing, combine with DIG for a hands on archaeology experience. As PP have said city walls and Cat tour great for getting a free overview of the city. Chocolate story finishes with making a chocolate lolly pop so fab for kids. Castle museum appeals to the full range of ages. Don’t bother with a boat tour. They are not bad but the main sites are away from the river so falls very flat with kids.

Do not do Jorvik, it's such a waste of money!

Sorry jorvik. It is expensive and it didn't take long but the ride is pretty amazing the way they have set the village up but then I'm fascinated by that stuff 😂