Whitby/Filey/Scarborough/York with teen and dog

[Wittgen]

Looking at a family self-catering summer holiday to please a 14 year old who is not sporty but likes a beach (we live very inland) and is now quite gothy so would love Whitby, and I've always wanted to go. We also have a dog so some sort of enclosed garden/patio is necessary. Would quite like to stay centrally in a town so teen can access stuff by themselves, but we can't be doing with on-road, permit-parking stress on holiday and obviously some of these places aren't stuffed of centrally located accommodation with big drives . Would like to show them York, but it's really not very dog friendly in terms of 'attractions'. Any thoughts on best location for beaches/dogs/teens?

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Whitby is much nicer than Scarborough as a town, but the beach in Scarborough is much bigger if that's what you're into and has more arcades. Whitby is also much pricier for accommodation.

If your son likes mountain biking or Go Ape, there's Dalby Forest near Pickering. Robin Hood's Bay is very pretty and good for rock pools, although maybe your son is past that now.

York can be dog friendly- there's lots of space to walk by the river.

HTH

Filey would be a good base for exploring the area. Has a large, dog friendly beach, couple of parks, and lots of parking around the town. It’s central to all the other places you’ve mentioned for visiting.
I’d also add Beverley to your list of places to visit if you stop in Filey - you can get a train direct.

I agree with pp - Filey would make an excellent base. It's very dog-friendly in general, as well as most of the beach allowing dogs year-round. Less crowded and commercial than Scarborough.

Look at English Heritage for dog-friendly places to visit - they manage Whitby Abbey but there are lots of other sites around the York area.

Filey looks nice and the beach seems great - from what I can see it doesn't really have shops that a teenage girl would particularly want to wander around though?

No, Filey doesn't have many shops, I doubt a teenager could spend very long shopping there. There's train station so she could go elsewhere by herself fairly easily if she's confident to (not sure what 14 year olds are like with trains nowadays, probably different from my young day!).

humblebeefarm.co.uk/

We stayed at Humblebee Farm when my DCs were about 12 and 14. It was nice but the DCs felt a bit out of place as it was really geared up for younger families, they were the only teens there. Wifi was expensive too IIRC. We liked Filey but it is a traditional small seaside town, not many shops - my DCs don't like wandering round shops though so not a problem. We did days out in York, Scarborough beaches, an indoor waterpark in Scarborough, didn't make it to Whitby.

I would really recommend staying in whitby- lots of fun shops, beaches, walks and your teen could wander off.
I recommend shoreline-cottages.com/
They have some fab places.

There are plenty of trinket-y, quirky type shops in Whitby to keep you busy for an afternoon. The beach isn’t very large, but there’s a pier and the 199 steps up to the Abbey. Lovely place to visit.

Thanks everyone, we have plumped for Whitby and booked somewhere, let's hope things work out for the summer.

Just a small word of warning re the dog and beaches, many of the beaches here (I'm fairly local to Whitby) have bans on dogs from May to September/October or at certain times, there are quite a few 'out of the way' little beaches that don't have them but the more popular ones do. Might be worth looking into the local rules regarding that if you were planning on the popular places with the dog 😊