UK Travel Planning

Yorkshire Uncovered: Top 5 Must-Do Experiences with Andrew Ward from Expedition Yorkshire

• Tracy Collins • Episode 137

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Discover the wonders of Yorkshire with our special guest, Andrew Ward from Expedition Yorkshire, as he shares his insider knowledge and personal experiences of England's largest county. Venture through Yorkshire's diverse landscapes, from the breathtaking beauty of its three national parks to the charming cities brimming with history and culture. Andrew's genuine passion for his home region shines through as he unveils his top five must-see experiences, ensuring you won't miss a beat on your magical journey through Yorkshire.

Indulge your senses in Yorkshire's delightful culinary scene, where iconic dishes like Yorkshire puddings and the delicate forced rhubarb take centre stage. We'll guide you through the vibrant food festivals and Michelin-starred dining experiences that highlight the region's rich flavours and culinary talent. Whether you're a foodie eager to explore Bradford's famed curry houses or a history buff drawn to Yorkshire's agricultural heritage, our conversation with Andrew is packed with recommendations and insights that will leave you eager to experience it all firsthand.

Yorkshire offers the perfect backdrop with its picturesque landscapes and cosy retreats for those seeking romance or solitude. We'll explore the region's enchanting walking trails and highlight the best times to visit for a truly unforgettable experience. If navigating Yorkshire's roads seems daunting, fear not—Andrew discusses the benefits of guided tours, ensuring a stress-free and immersive trip. Join us for an episode brimming with valuable tips and stories that will inspire you to embrace the magic of Yorkshire.

⭐️ Guest - Andrew Ward from Expedition Yorkshire

📝 Show Notes - Episode 137

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Tracy Collins:

Welcome to episode 137 of the UK Travel Planner Podcast. Today we're diving into the top experiences to have in Yorkshire with Andrew Ward from Expedition Yorkshire. Whether you're a foodie, history buff or nature lover, this episode is packed with tips to help you explore the largest county in England like a local.

Intro:

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins. In this podcast, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Tracy Collins:

Hi, this week I'm thrilled to welcome Andrew Ward back to the podcast. Andrew previously joined us on episode 64 to talk about his incredible tour company, expedition Yorkshire, and today he's here to share his top five experiences for visitors to Yorkshire. For those who haven't listened to episode 64, andrew, could you start by introducing yourself and your company, expedition Yorkshire, for listeners who may not know you yet?

Andrew Ward:

Hello, yes, I'm Andrew and Tracy. I just want to say, first of all, very, very happy new year and thank you very, very much for inviting me back. You must be a glutton for punishment. I don't normally get invited back anywhere, so thank you very much. So I have been a tour guide in different parts of England and sometimes the world for lots and lots of years now, and three years ago I started Expedition Yorkshire, which basically we do exclusive private tours all over Yorkshire, the north of Englandland, up to southern scotland at the moment and a little bit beyond oh excited yes, uh, yeah, and if people harangue me hard enough, we kind of go anywhere wow, okay, well, yeah, and we, we.

Tracy Collins:

I will put a link to that episode of the podcast, because in that one you talk a lot about the company and how to book and everything like that. But we will include a link to that, thank you, because I would urge everybody to also listen to that episode, where Andrew talks in a lot of detail about Expedition Yorkshire and his love for Yorkshire, which brings me perfectly into the pivot, andrew, because you're not from Yorkshire.

Andrew Ward:

No, I'm not.

Tracy Collins:

Any British person listening is going to know that, because they're going to pick that up from your accent, but not necessarily everybody that listens to the podcast will know that. But you're not from Yorkshire. However, see, that for me, tells me the fact that you have moved to Yorkshire, tells me there's something special and lovely about that county, and I know that there is for sure.

Andrew Ward:

Sure, even though I don't live there but I want you to to share with our listeners what it is about york show, what is so special about it. Well, um, first of all, just um, if I may just meet you, your first part about not being from yorkshire, um, I think many of your listeners will know that converts are normally the most extreme right. So if you've converged, that you're really onto the thing that you're onto. And also, the other thing is one of the most famous people in recent times, particularly that many of your listeners will have heard of, that we tend to think is from Yorkshire, is James Herriot, and of course he wasn't Like me and we don't have a lot.

Andrew Ward:

I wouldn't compare myself to the great James Herriot and of course he wasn't Like me. We don't have a lot. I wouldn't compare myself to the great James Herriot, but we don't have tons of similarities. But the similarities we do have is that we're both from outside Yorkshire, both outsiders who he did live in Yorkshire, I now live in Yorkshire and we both hugely appreciate what Yorkshire is and how it is and it's also it's the largest county in England.

Tracy Collins:

I think that's a useful thing to say as well, because I think people don't necessarily realise just how big Yorkshire is.

Andrew Ward:

That's right. So Yorkshire is larger than 5,200 square miles. Now, if you're one of our very, very lovely listeners in the United States or Canada or Australia, you might hear that and just stroke your chin a bit. You might be thinking, well, that's not very big, but here in England that's enormous. As Tracy correctly said, it's the largest county in in england. But even if you were stroking your chin, thinking, well, you know, that's, that's just. You know a country park in in our, in our, I don't know in ohio or something it's, you know, it's nothing, it's a very small um.

Andrew Ward:

The thing that will, uh, amaze you is the extraordinary variety of scenery in Yorkshire. There is so many different sceneries and landscapes within that 5,200 square miles. There are different accents as well. So there's different, huge differences in both human, uh, geography and and physical geography. And I think if you're visiting england, you're visiting uk, you're visiting great britain. They're not the same, by the way. We'll learn about that on the tour, um, but if you're coming to visit these islands in the northeast Atlantic on your next holiday and I sincerely hope you do If you're not visiting Yorkshire, you've got to ask yourself why?

Andrew Ward:

Because it's the largest county. And wouldn't it be weird to go on holiday somewhere and miss out the largest, most diverse in terms of scenery. That would be crazy, that would be certifiable. So make sure you come and see yorkshire. It's a very special place. It has three national parks it has the yorkshire dales, the north york moors and it has the peak district. Uh, cumulatively that means over 2 000 square miles of of national park, which is really quite quite something if you just think about that for a moment. Uh, it has um amazing cities. So it's got york.

Andrew Ward:

I'm very biased about york because I live here. It's very old and it's beautiful and it looks like sort of char Dickens and Harry Potter and all those things roll into one. But it's also got cities like Leeds which are not just commercially very important. Leeds is a fascinating place with a deep and wonderful soul to it. And then you've got Sheffield, which is another great city, a great industrial heritage, a fascinating place.

Andrew Ward:

You've got Hull by the sea, which I love. Hull by the Humber Estuary, very, very dramatic place, has a real charisma to it. And then you've got Bradford as well, and Bradford I can't leave out. And I won't leave out not just because originally I actually studied there at the university. People often overlook it. I've heard people say things which aren't entirely positive, but I don't understand why. It's a fascinating place, and this year it is England's city of culture and I've taken tourists there and they've absolutely loved it, for reasons we might talk about later, later on. And then the other thing that yorkshire has is just this commanding and stellar and beautiful and and beautiful and intoxicatingly lovely coastline over 100 miles of it, so you just can't miss this part of the world. Have I said that enough? Yes, I think I have.

Tracy Collins:

But you know I was waiting for the Yorkshire thing of it's God's own country.

Andrew Ward:

Oh yes, and it's God's own country. I can't forget that I need to tick the Yorkshire bingo cliche. I've got to get them out.

Tracy Collins:

But it is a stunning county, it is a beautiful county and it's so diverse, as you said. So let's dive into the different experiences because, canada, what I want to do is to talk about what are the best experiences you can have when you visit Yorkshire. So what would be the first experience and I know these questions can be quite difficult because it's hard to pick, I can imagine but what would be the first experience you recommend to truly immerse yourself in Yorkshire?

Andrew Ward:

right. Well, I had a little. I kind of like a really sort of ruminated about this for time, because I could imagine people who, from yorkshire, just screaming at the podcast, going, oh he's just a cliche peddler and and what have you. But if you will, can I give you three things I think that everyone might want to crack at, and not necessarily all these things or in quite the way that I say, but things that might really immerse you in the Yorkshire culture. And it's almost too simplistic saying Yorkshire culture, because you find actually quite a different culture between East Yorkshire or the East Ridings and South Yorkshire, north Yorkshire and the West Ridings. You find different culture. But these are a few of the things that I think you need to do to really immerse yourself here.

Andrew Ward:

The first one is you need to eat fish and chips. But when I say eat fish and chips, I mean you need to really eat fish and chips. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking sat there, oh, fish and chips. I don't eat fried food. Like you know, it's the new year, I'm trying to lose weight, or, and how can that immerse you in the culture? You eat fish and chips lots of places. No, what I mean is really eat fish and chips.

Andrew Ward:

Okay, so you need to go to whitby, which is the world capital of fish and chips. Uh, you need to either eat in one of there are several very, very famous restaurants there which are grand old establishments. They have ways of making fish and chips which are just sublime. Okay, you don't make fish and chips with sunflower oil. Okay, you use something called beef tallow, and if you're not using beef tallow, it ain't right.

Andrew Ward:

Okay, so this is real fish and chips. Right, this is, this is the real deal. The potatoes that come from yorkshire are very, very special. And then on the wall of that fish and chip establishment will be a picture of, or it will be a board showing the name of, the boat that landed that fish that you're eating. Um, so that's real fish and chips, and uh, uh. And then, if you want, if you want to be really extreme about it, you really want to immerse yourself, you're going to leave the restaurant I mean, after paying, right and you're going to go to the end of the pier, you're going to sit in the wind, you're going to dodge the seagulls and you're going to look out to the devastatingly beautiful North Sea coast and you eat those fish and chips and it's going to taste so good. Is that immersive?

Andrew Ward:

true, true, and I totally agree, 100 agree now, another way, a non-food way, is to go to a football match. Now you could say that for all over england, uh, but I, I think there are certain experiences here which are, which are really, which, which I think will really you get a flavor of of the folk, of the folk. You get a flavor of what's going on Because, again, there's different to many of what your listeners may know In a lot of parts of the world. I'm not going to say anywhere specific, but a sports team. You go to the sports team, you cheer them on. It's about the sport in front of you, it's about the team. England is different, about the team. England is different. A football match in England it's like a vehicle for a lot of the local society and social issues that are going on. The terraces are the vehicle for that as well as the sport, and it makes it a lot richer, a lot deeper and sometimes a lot more passionate, both good and bad. And I would suggest that you get tickets for either a leeds united match or a york city match or bradford city football match, and I'm sure there are loads of other teams in yorkshire which I've left out, not because I don't like them, just because there's only so much time on the podcast. Those you know. These are some of the big, famous teams. You know leeds, united york city, bradford city. You go to one of those matches and I think you'll have a very, no matter whether they win or lose, you'll have a real experience.

Andrew Ward:

And finally, yorkshire is a very, very agricultural county. A lot of it is green, pleasant, beautiful. It's the very things you think of as England being the bucolic landscapes. And a way to really absorb that and learn about the people, the real people, is to go to one of the great, uh, one of the agricultural shows where the farmers, the people of the land, come together and and show what they sweat blood and tears every day over to produce, to bring to your plate, to to rear the animals, to grow the crops. So all that goes into that, the foods that it produces and and the people and the personalities behind that and the agricultural shows that I would recommend.

Andrew Ward:

The most famous is the great yorkshire show, uh, which happens every july. I I strongly advise to book ahead. It very often sells out. I think they're getting about 100,000 people a day. Go to the Great Yorkshire Show and there's something for everybody, whether you want to look at rare sheep breeds or the latest tractor technology or incredible foods that are made with local produce. What a wonderful sort of slice of yorkshire humanity, uh. And then you've got um the wreath show, which is very, very famous up in north yorkshire, up in the dales, uh. And if you don't come back, you know knowing more about sheep than james herriot after that then there's something wrong with you. Quite frankly, you need to check yourself. And the Nidderdale show is also very, very famous, and that's also up in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Tracy Collins:

So I think if you do even one of those things, I think you'll have a good grounding in Yorkshire culture for your well-spent time here. Oh, I love that. Well, I'm going to put my hand up and say I've only done one of those. I've well I have.

Tracy Collins:

I've been to football matches, but not in yorkshire, but but fish and chips it would be best ever. So there you go, yeah, best ever. And and and we, we try different places every time I go, because I know there are some very particularly famous ones, and we, we just try to try different, different fish and chip shops. And I'll tell you what we've never, ever been disappointed and we'd be with with the fish and chips that we've had, right. So for those of you who listen and who love exploring, so, um, you want to get out and about and explore some of the great yorkshire countryside. What would be one outdoor or scenic experience that you would recommend, andrew, that people don't miss?

Andrew Ward:

so something that I think uh would be a magnificent thing to do is to spend a day getting out of the city and going down to a place called Flamborough Head. It sticks out into the sea. There's a huge amount of land there to walk around Vast chalk cliffs it's some of the most northerly chalk in England. It's very, very, very dramatic. There's an incredible lighthouse there and next to flamborough head, right next to it, is the rspb, which is a big charity that preserves birds and bird environments uh, the rspb reserve at Benton Cliffs, and it's one of the best nature reserves I've ever been to.

Andrew Ward:

One of the logistical problems of looking at a bird on a cliff is that the cliffs are down below and you're on top, so you can't really see them very well. Right, they've got round that. They've built these bridges across the gaps. Now, if you're scared of heights, you know, go with caution, but other than that, it's an incredible day out uh, and if you go at the right time of year, uh, you can spot puffins. There you get an enormous puffin colony, which, which is really spectacular in gannets. Uh, it's one of the largest seabird colonies in the world and it's quite fascinating and unlike most other seabird colonies in the UK. You don't need to go out on a boat, you don't need to go to an island. That's a spectacular thing to do as well, but here you don't. So, yeah, I'd go for Flamborough Head, the RSPB Reserve at Benton do it on the same day and the beach at Filey. Once you're done with that, which is the longest beach in Yorkshire, it's very dramatic, wonderful sweep of golden sand. Filey is a lovely place.

Tracy Collins:

You can't go wrong, excellent. Now, I know we've mentioned a bit about food and drink, as you mentioned the fish and chips. Now, doug and I were very lucky to go out with you a year past December it was, I can't remember, I can't believe it's that long ago, honestly and we did a visit over to the Yorkshire Moors and we had a fantastic visit to a gin distillery, which was amazing and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed that. So I know I'm hoping you're going to mention that, but what other kind of food and drink experiences would you recommend to have in Yorkshire? You know what everybody's I I just know people listen to this podcast to go yorkshire puddings. Shouldn't we have yorkshire puddings?

Andrew Ward:

so your, your listeners, are very, very well informed people. And, uh, I will definitely say yorkshire puddings, but I'm sure they already knew that, for those who don't know about yorkshire puddings, they are sent from sent from the gods, done well. Anyway, they're kind of like a 3D pancake, that's the way I describe them, yeah, and they are simply wonderful. And there's a company in York actually that wraps them up with a full Yorkshire dinner in one wrap of a Yorkshire pudding. And I mean, you know, your life is complete, right, but there's some other things in Yorkshire, yorkshire's food scene, because I don't think a lot of people don't like to go on places to holiday where there's not lots of delicious food, and yorkshire really has wonderful food. The ingredients here are very, very good because, because the nature of the farming here is very, very good, so we have excellent ingredients in yorkshire and one of the things that yorkshire's certainly, uh, I would say famous for, certainly amongst high-end chefs um, yorkshire actually has a particular ingredient which is, which really has to kind of come from yorkshire, which is something called, uh, forced rhubarb and rhubarb. Rhubarb is very famous from yorkshire and forced rhubarb is shipped all over the world in season. It's the finest form of rhubarb and you'll find it served up in some of the finest restaurants in the world. And most of the rhubarb in the world is grown in yorkshire and forced rhubarb is the rolls royce of rhubarb. Okay, now it doesn't sound very politically correct Forced rhubarb but luckily you're still allowed to.

Andrew Ward:

I can't say that Forced rhubarb, what's forced rhubarb? Forced rhubarb is rhubarb that's grown traditionally in sheds in the dark and it's picked by candlelight, which sounds so romantic and the reason why any light causes photosynthesis in the rhubarb. That makes bitter a flavor almost immediately. So the whole thing is harvested by candlelight in these sheds. The sheds are kept warm with coal traditionally and that's that's forced rhubarb, and it's particularly red on the outside, particularly white on the inside, has a particularly delicate and gorgeous flavor. If you're not familiar with rhubarb, it can be cooked and present in lots of different ways and makes the most exquisite dessert, and you can also have it as a savory dish as well. And it's such a celebrated thing that there is the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival and you won't find it anywhere else in the world and you'll find chefs coming from everywhere doing exquisite and extraordinary things with rhubarb. So look up the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival.

Tracy Collins:

I had no idea. I had literally no idea. That's in the spring.

Andrew Ward:

And then you've also got the Malton Food Festival, which isn't too far from York, which has become pretty famous. Malton is a hotbed of incredible restaurants doing incredible things and taking advantage of all the great food around, and I think it's worth mentioning that Yorkshire is home to some really special restaurants these days, and there are obviously some. I'm just giving you little clues and you can look them up after the show. There's a very, very famous chef in Yorkshire who's done a lot to put Yorkshire on the map and demonstrate the amazing ingredients that are grown or reared here. His name's Tommy Banks and he's got restaurants that hold Michelin stars in Yorkshire and in general he's just done a lot to enhance the image as Yorkshire is a place to come and eat. But then, like the other day, I was very, very lucky. I was invited. It sounds like I'm sort of hobnobbing the great and the good. It's not. I just got lucky on this occasion.

Andrew Ward:

You're on the podcast, Andrew I was invited to eat by the owners at a restaurant called Pranzo, which specializes in Calabrian cuisine from Italy, and the food was exceptional. It was like exceptional. And they have a restaurant in Harrogate, they're opening another one in York. They have a restaurant in harrogate, they're opening another one in york and, more to the point, it was just showing like the standard of food that you can now get in yorkshire. Their focus, in particular, was also on making pasta from the beginning, uh, and where possible, they use local ingredients. Where not, they bring them in from italy, but the point is, you can eat amazing food here.

Andrew Ward:

And finally, uh, I mentioned it briefly before bradford is city of culture this year and, uh, bradford, uh, has a very, very large, uh, asian community and the curry houses there are extraordinary. Some of the food that they're turning out uh is, yeah, is world class, there's no two ways about it. And a restaurant that I really love there and everyone's got their favorite restaurants. And, uh, there's a restaurant there called, uh, mum tats, uh, which is really, really great. They look after you very, very well and they've got a big letter up on the wall lit up. In fact, they they put it on a frame with lights behind it because, can you believe it?

Andrew Ward:

Our beloved late queen and prince philip ate there many, many years ago. Um, so if it's good enough for the monarchy, it's certainly good enough for you. And that's just some of the food highlights I think in in yorkshire and I know there's so many more and there'll be people screaming who are from Yorkshire going. What about this, what about that? I don't have time to mention, but those are the ones that occur to me right now.

Tracy Collins:

Ah, that's perfect. Now we can't talk about Yorkshire without talking about history and culture of that huge and beautiful county. So, and again, I know this is a really difficult question to put you on the spot, but what would you say was an experience that showcases that history and culture?

Andrew Ward:

So I think something that I think this is actually probably quite popular in America. Other parts of the world they'll think are you mad? But historical reenactment is incredibly popular in Yorkshire it really is, and there's a lot to reenact because the history here is both long and and tumultuous and involving many, many different peoples. I would go to either a Civil War reenactment so our Civil War is from the late 1600s, a Civil War reenactment and or you could go to a War of the Roses reenactment, and they normally take place at old castles.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, how amazing.

Andrew Ward:

So you know you go to, for example, a reenactment at Midland Castle. Well, midland Castle was where the young Richard III grew up when he was a teenager, and now it's a ruin and they have reenactments there. Look them up, they're really spectacular. And there's an old house called nunnington hall. Uh, in fact, nunnington hall is where the last wife of henry the eighth, catherine parr, grew up. Not that far from york, I always think, a little bit undervisited. Fantastic house.

Andrew Ward:

Uh, they, they have, uh, in the summer months they have some civil war reenactments that take place there and just the not only the characters that people play, but the characters that take part. You have to see it to believe it. If people go on our instagram, can I mention that on the x from a while back, uh, I met somebody on one of our tours from the medieval society who crafted his own bow and arrows in the exact way that they did in the 12th century, and that was his passion, was 12th century hours and making them and then dressing and all the clothes, and they take place in a medieval weekend up at bolton castle, which is incredible. So, and then we can focus on the more recent history in uh, grassington, famous for all creatures, great and small, of course. Uh, they have a 1940s, 1930, late 1930s, early 1940s weekend, a world war ii recreation which is really spectacular.

Tracy Collins:

Every year it was really spectacular well, I'll uh, I'll have to look up the dates of these and add them in the show notes, because they sound absolutely fascinating. So what about hidden gems? Because we always get asked about hidden gems. What would you say would be the lesser known experience or hidden gem that you would recommend in Yorkshire?

Andrew Ward:

So there's a couple. The first this really melds together both Yorkshire's fascinating social history and also its geological history is mining. Mining is a huge part of yorkshire's history, uh, both in the recent some of your listeners may know about the miners strikes of the 1980s and and all the social upheaval that brought, but it's just a big part of yorkshire's story and through the industrial revolution. So I would recommend the National Mining Museum, where you get to go underground as well. I think that's pretty amazing. Yeah, that would be my standout.

Tracy Collins:

Okay, cool and whereabouts is that?

Andrew Ward:

It's not too far away from Sheffield, it's in South Yorkshire.

Tracy Collins:

What about seasonal experiences in Yorkshire that visitors can plan for? And I'm kind of thinking here because we were up last time near Christmas. Obviously the Christmas market is something I was thinking about that if you're going to be in York, you can have a little stroll around the York Christmas market. But what are the seasonal things? Would you say, okay, this is, you're going to be here in summer, you're going to going to be in spring. These are the sort of things that you should think about experiencing so, um, a few things.

Andrew Ward:

Uh, one of the things that might really, really surprise you is yorkshire is an excellent place to come and do some whale watching. You can go on a whale watching tour. You can see minky whales swimming down the north sea. With quite high levels of chance that you do spot a whale. These things can't matter where you do it in the world. It can never be guaranteed. But there are some brilliant boat tours leaving from Steaths and from Whitby that go out, and even if you don't see whales, you go out in the early evening and you see the stunning coastline from the sea. So that's a really good thing to do.

Andrew Ward:

In later summer is the whale watching into the into the early autumn. The rhubarb we've we've already mentioned, which is in the spring. Uh, fountains abbey, which is spectacular, it's absolutely spectacular. Uh, you can go there. They have several nights just before um christmas, late nove, november, early December, where it's open at night, where they light it up and they play monastic music. Amongst the ruins. You can just wander around with a small torch. It's a truly wonderful, life-enhancing experience. It really is life-enhancing experience. It really is. Uh.

Andrew Ward:

And the other thing which a lot of people are not familiar with. If you look at a map of europe and if you look, this is a really weird thing to do. I do weird things, I, I, I'm, I mean not that weird, but but if you, if you look at a map of light pollution across Europe, yorkshire, north Yorkshire, is one of the least light-polluted places in Western Europe and in fact NASA have come to recognize this. Because NASA and an institute connected with NASA have authenticated certain parts of the world as dark sky reserves and that puts a lot of responsibility on that place. For example, street lights have to be cowled and soft lighting be used wherever possible to keep that status. There's a lot of other things they have to do to keep that status. Yorkshire, north Yorkshire, has the dark sky status and therefore stargazing here is really really spectacular.

Andrew Ward:

And the time to come and do that is um late autumn through to march. That's the time to do it. The reason why that's the time if you come after that time, the darkness comes very late. Because the very long days in summer, very short days in winter, daylight hours in winter because it's a pretty northerly latitude here uh, about 50 doing off top of my head, 53 degrees north I think around about. So so big extremes in the in the daylight.

Andrew Ward:

So summer is not an amazing time to come do that, but the amazing time to come do that is the off season and everywhere is quiet as well. So what a great thing to do to come and see the stars here. And you don't just have to come and see the stars with your naked eyes. There are amazing places to go and see the stars. For example, up at Sutton Bank they've got an observation center there. Uh, in Dolby Forest they've got an observatory with big telescopes that the public on specific nights can actually use and, and you know, uh, we can also come and help you see the stars, literally well, that sounds amazing.

Tracy Collins:

So what kind of travelers do you think yorkshire is suited for?

Andrew Ward:

so I thought about this long and hard, and I came up with an answer that none of you are going to expect. Are you ready? Three, two, one everybody yep, absolutely 100.

Tracy Collins:

Agree, it really is. It has a county that that has something for everybody. It really really does. Just thinking about families visiting Yorkshire, what would you recommend? Uh, if you're, if you're traveling to the UK and you're traveling through and you've got a few, you've got your kids with you, which is something that Doug and I don't have to do these days because our daughter's grown up. But obviously a lot of our listeners have got their families and they're travelling through. What would you recommend for families? What should they do?

Andrew Ward:

So as a general point, I mean I think a great day out for a family, particularly if you've got young children. I have very, very young children, so I you know everyone's looking at like the famous old church. I'm not, I'm looking at the playground, the best of the playground, the best of the day that I'm gonna have. So if that sounds flippant, but it's pretty important when you've got no, that is that is really important.

Tracy Collins:

I was going to ask you which, because I'm thinking about if you go, obviously, uh, to some of the the kind of famous or well-known places, like some of the houses, and I guess a lot of these places now have really good playgrounds They've kind of realized that they need to include something for the little kids so they can have a bit of a run around in the day.

Andrew Ward:

As a general point, if you go to a property that is run by the National Trust, look up the national trust. That is britain's gift to the world the national trust. It's an amazing, amazing institution. If you go to a property that's looked after by the national trust, there will always be an amazing playground and a great cafe. Yeah, good toilet facilities. All of your children needs are taken care of right there. Uh, also, if the weather's even halfway reasonable and kind of even if it's not a day out at the seaside, and that doesn't have to be whitby whitby's amazing. But other ideas are, for example, uh, bridlington bridlington's not talked about as much great beach, um, and if you go at the right time of year, there's a kite festival there which overlooks the sea. We took our children there last year and it was really one of the most special days that we had as a family in 2024 wow, that's lovely.

Tracy Collins:

So what about solo travelers or couples visiting yorkshire? What would you recommend?

Andrew Ward:

um, I think, solo traveling, um, I think, if, if you're physically fit, um, and you're looking for that, that isolation, that time to think. Yorkshire has some extraordinarily wonderful long distance walks. These are walks where you can do a few miles each day, stay in a hotel or an inn like it's like a pub with bedrooms in the evening. There's like the cleveland way, which is a very well marked walk. Uh would be a good example, uh, and again it gives you a real sense of the of the county, or the yorkshire wolds way. Again. You could pick one of those walks. You don't need to walk all of it. You know you, you get. You get like the, the, the tough guys are doing that. You know 110 miles. You might just pick out a 15 mile pretty stretch that goes through.

Andrew Ward:

If you look at your maps at home where it says a o n? B area of outstanding natural beauty which I think has just been rebranded as uh, national landscapes they now called uh, but on your map I mean the maps are still printed a or n? B. You pick out a 10 or 20 mile or whatever you're capable of. Maybe you just want to do it for a day, but that that the paths are very well marked for those of you coming from parts of the world where you're not just allowed to walk across land. England is amazing for that. You, you can walk for miles here uninterrupted. Uh, nobody's going to shout at you or anything like that. If you get it slightly wrong golf, golf course a bit, you're absolutely free to walk in in many spots here, um, you know, and there are well marked rights of way and you can have a wonderful, peaceful day to yourself and and it's a really nice way to pass life.

Tracy Collins:

I love, I love that yeah, good time to reflect and enjoy. Yeah, yeah, be in the moment yeah.

Andrew Ward:

And then for couples, is that yeah, for couples, yeah, yeah. So I I think yorkshire is intrinsically romantic. Okay, there's loads of places here with no crowds that are kind of you can just hide away. You know there are 26, I think, dales or valleys, and in the yorkshire dales national park you've got over 900 square miles of the park. Um, that's a lot of places to be romantic and hide away. And there are a good number of exquisite hotels and I mean exquisite which either you can go for simple, exquisite, you know the rustic charm, or ones which have, you know, the full spa and the swimming pool and and all the, all the lovely bells and whistles. And some of those hotels I kind of divide hotels into two halves. There are like luxury hotels, where you stay there but you're going to go out and explore, and there are others where designed to just not leave, and yorkshire has both wow.

Tracy Collins:

So what practical tips do you have for visitors planning to experience all of these highlights, I'd like to say, but it's going to be impossible unless you move to yorkshire, but to experience some of these highlights, I'd like to say, but it's going to be impossible unless you move to yorkshire.

Andrew Ward:

But to experience some of these highlights. My first practical tip would be I think, don't fixate on the same old months. Okay, one of the really weird things. It's counterintuitive. People generally don't think to themselves I want stunning weather, I'm going to take a holiday in england or a holiday in great britain, that's that, that that doesn't happen. But, weirdly, what that means is that's so liberating. You're not coming here for the weather, which means you can come here at any time of year, and by coming here at different times, you you get different benefits. Of course, if you come in the very popular different times, you get different benefits. Of course, if you come in the very popular months like May, you get the spring and you get everything green and the lambs are jumping around. But remember, if you come in autumn and winter, you can see those exquisite dark skies. This is still one of the few places in Western Europe where you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye. I come across lots of people from around the world who've never seen their own galaxy, the galaxy that we live in. You can see it in Yorkshire. Okay, so come at different times of year. There is no bad time of year to visit Yorkshire.

Andrew Ward:

The other thing I would say is now, this is a real, slightly hidden agenda, but it's so obvious it's not hidden To most of the listeners out there. There will be a few people this doesn't apply to. This will not apply to you if you are wait for it. If you are a professional stunt driver, this doesn't apply to you. If you are a former NASCAR driver, it doesn't apply to you. Okay, if you are a pro driver, great, great for you.

Andrew Ward:

But I personally wouldn't hire a car and drive. Now I do run a company that drives you around. So there's my agenda. Right, it's there. Don't come in the comments, nasty comments. He's only saying that because I've told you that that's what I do. But I genuinely think if you come from a part of the world that drives on the other side of the road and many of our road signs are codified, meaning you can't read them to understand them, you will not know what they mean, and they're very, very important. Not reading them can get you in a lot of trouble, correctly. On top of that, many parts of Yorkshire very, very narrow roads, they have stone walls which are completely unforgiving, and you really don't want to be in a stress with your rental car and then we have many different types of fuel here. You might be putting the wrong fuel in that rental car.

Tracy Collins:

So I would personally say, if you can, let us take the strain and also, I'm also going to say that if, if you are, if you're doing the driving, andrew, andrew, if you're doing the driving, andrew, you can sit back and enjoy the drive, because that's the thing, if one of you is driving I don't know it with with doug and I doug tends to do the driving and I'm doing the navigating. So, even though he's doing the driving, I'm doing the navigating, you're concentrating and you do the driving.

Andrew Ward:

I'm doing the navigating, you're concentrating, and you'd miss a lot of the beautiful things that you're driving past Exactly, and I would also say that your holiday sometimes and again I'll say it again and again your listeners are incredibly intelligent, but sometimes it's not appreciated that just to wake up in the morning is expensive. You've had to get the flight over and the hotel, et cetera. So then when you start to hire a car, it becomes a very false economy, because most of that day is then just spent looking at the road ahead. Well, at least one person in that car can only look at the road ahead. They can't drink, they have to do all the rest, and so, yeah, more reasons to not drive when you're in the uk yeah.

Tracy Collins:

So I do want to ask you um and obviously I sent you some questions before we did the podcast, but I think it's a perfect opportunity, andrew, for you to talk about how you do your tours. So you can, they can be bespoke, so anybody, if you're listening and going I I really fancy some of these experiences then you need to contact andrew. He can, he can design that.

Andrew Ward:

We so right, Just to explain, we do do bespoke tours, right. There's there's no two ways about that, and if someone comes to me and they want to do this mad thing, we'll always consider it. But here's the great thing, and this is where we're a little bit different than other entities out there. You don't need to know anything, because that's kind of stressful as well, you know. You have to kind of know these things that you don't need to. On our website we have pre-designed tours, okay. So all you need to do is look at those pre-designed tours. Does it take your fancy? And if it does, then we do do the rest of the hard work. We've designed these tours to show you the very, very best.

Andrew Ward:

We work very hard to make sure that you're not missing out on things. So if you are like me, I suffer terribly from was it FOMO, fear of missing out you won't have FOMO, because you'll know that when I founded the company, I actually drove more than 5,400 miles of research, okay. Now, if you want to know how far 5,400 miles is, then my lovely wife, joe, is American. She comes from Ohio. That means I drove from my front door If it was a straight line all the way to Ohio and then a bit bit further. Okay, and I did that in research so that you don't have to know those things all you need to do is pick out the tours. Now, if there is something very specific that I've mentioned today that you want to do, get in contact us we. We may be able to coordinate it. Okay, we may be able to put it together for you as well perfect.

Tracy Collins:

That's great, andrew. Andrew, we'll put a link to Expedition Yorkshire in the show notes, as always anyway. So, andrew, one thing I did want to talk to you about. One type of tour that you offer which is incredibly popular is all your transfer tours, and I know that you do the York Edinburgh. We'll chat about that. And also you've now doing a London York vice versa, so would you like to just chat about that? And also you do you've now doing a london york vice versa.

Andrew Ward:

So would you like to just chat about those transfer tours, because I just know that they will be of huge interest thank you, yes, so our transfer tours are proven to be pretty popular and we've already now for a couple of years run uh y, edinburgh or Edinburgh York. We run all our transfer tours in both directions and it's a tour, but it's one way, so we see lots of interesting places on the way. We use some lovely back roads, but we also use some main roads, because if we only used back roads we're covering a big distance. It would be too much, but we basically see lots of things on the way. So what's the advantage to you, the guest, you the traveler, you the explorer? The advantage to you is that you make the absolute best time of your very, very valuable holiday or vacation time. Time of your very, very valuable holiday or vacation time. Okay, and that's because if you use public transport, you've got to haul your cases to the station, get the, the, the, the, get a taxi at either end, and really what's happened then is you've seen two different places, but your travel day between those places is largely not part of the holiday. It feels removed and kind of like hassle. We take all that away. We come and meet you at your hotel in the morning, we take your cases, we put them in the back of the Mercedes-Benz V-Class and we go up country, looking at lots of interesting things on the way, getting out lots and on and, or as much or as little as you want to do, right, when we go from york up to edinburgh, we see really famous places like hadrian's wall and, uh, we also see the stunning northumberland coastline, for example, or we see the, the high hills in the middle of the country that you can't really see any other way. Uh, we do things that you could never, ever do on public transport.

Andrew Ward:

Then we are just introducing a new transfer tour and this one goes from london up to york. Uh, we'll be going via, principally via, cambridge and lincoln, uh, which is some of the most beautiful cities in england, and we're going up through Lincolnshire, through Cambridgeshire. It will be a really, really lovely day leaving London and then getting up to York. So you could put two of those tours together so we could take you from London up to York. You could have three days in York you don't see us, relief and then at the end of those three days, uh, we come and pick you up and take you from york up to edinburgh. So we cover the whole country, or the whole, not the whole country, but we cover big countries, of course, because we're crossing the border into scotland, let's make that very clear. Uh, but then the wider united kingdom country. This is very complicated, but we can take you the full length. Put it that way the full length.

Tracy Collins:

That's brilliant, that's great to know really and, as I say, we'll put a link in to the show notes to the website. Thank, you. But people can email you and chat about those as well.

Andrew Ward:

Yeah, absolutely, and they're very open to making little twists and changes. So, for example, on the London to York run or the York to London run, it may be that for you the most important thing is to see Cambridge and have a little walk around Cambridge, but it also may be that, actually, what you'd much prefer to do is swap out Cambridge for the Duxford Air Museum and all the World War II history. We can do that, it's not a problem.

Tracy Collins:

Perfect, I love that flexibility. Okay, so I always ask this one question at the end of every podcast episode. So, andrew, this is your turn. What is the one tip you would share with someone who wants to experience Yorkshire for the first time?

Andrew Ward:

the first time. My tip would be spend more days here. Don't be that person that just comes up on the fast train, gets out. I mean, it's a very fine building, the Minster, it's amazing, right. I mean, do go and see the Minster, it's not like the Minster's incredible, right, but don't just see the Minster. Get back on the train and go to Edinburgh. What a shame. You have just missed 5,200 square miles of the fillet steak of England. So make sure you spend more days in Yorkshire. That's my parting tip.

Tracy Collins:

Perfect. Thanks so much, Andrew, for coming on the podcast again. It's always a joy to chat with you and hopefully if I get down to Yorkshire this year I will definitely pop in and say hi, it's always good to catch up.

Andrew Ward:

It's been an absolute pleasure, Tracey. Thank you very much.

Tracy Collins:

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know. You may receive a shout out in a future episode, but, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week. Happy UK travel planning.