If you’re looking for a great UK city break, there are many reasons that York deserves to be high on your list! When the Visit York team got in touch to tell us all about what’s on in York in 2020, it coincided with a trip that we already had planned. Read on to find out how to make the most of a family break in the beautiful Viking city of York.

Our Grandson Ellis, has recently turned 10 years old. When we asked him to choose where he would like to go for a weekend away for his birthday, he chose York. We’d taken him with us last year and he thoroughly enjoyed it.  We were lucky enough to be gifted Visit York Passes from Visit York Information Centre. Which worked out well, as we were also taking my 10 year old Niece, Ruby along with us, we had to be mindful of our budget as a family of four.

When looking for accommodation in York, we had initially looked at hotels with family rooms. However, as we were visiting at the school half term (and as we later found out, at the same time as the Viking Festival) we found many of them were already fully booked. If you’re looking to visit the Viking Festival in York next time, be sure to book your hotel way in advance!

It was during our search for somewhere to stay, and realising how expensive some of the hotels were going to be, that we spotted Astor York Hostel. It was a Hostel with excellent reviews. And better yet, a room for 4 people with an En Suite bathroom cost us just £99 for 2-nights, with the bonus of free parking in York for the weekend!

We travelled up on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately due to bad weather and traffic, we arrived a little later than we were planning to. It was close to 6pm when we arrived at Astor House. There we were welcomed by a very friendly young man, who gave us a guided tour of this lovely York youth hostel. He then showed us to our room. We had booked a private room for 4 people, which had 2 sets of bunk beds, a wardrobe, a chair and a bathroom. It was very clean and warm.

After dropping our luggage off, we decided to go downstairs and explore. There was a beautiful, comfortable lounge, a dining room and kitchen. If you’re really trying to cut costs and save money on your city break, a youth hostel with kitchen facilities gives you the option to cook your own meals. Ours also offered free juice, water dispensers and a bar.

In the morning, before exploring the city, you can enjoy Astor York Hostel’s free breakfast of toast and croissants, for which you can make a donation to charity of £1 – or more, if you’re feeling particularly generous.

For dinner, we walked into York (a 10-15 minute walk from the hostel) and took the children to their choice, Pizza Hut. Afterwards, we came back and had a couple of drinks at the bar (very cheap!) whilst the children amused themselves by doing some drawing in the dining room, surrounded by other guests and families.

The next morning we decided to head out for breakfast, as along our route into York we had spotted The Long Boat pub, which was attached to The Premier Inn. It was offering an unlimited breakfast at £9.50 per adult and kids eat free deal. We had a choice of cereals, pastries, pancakes, crumpets, toast, bagels, muffins, fresh fruit, and a selection of yoghurts or a hot full English breakfast - bacon, eggs, (scrambled and fried) sausage, grilled tomato, hash browns, beans and mushrooms. You could help yourself to as much as you liked, along with tea, coffee, water and juice. It was excellent value for money, as it worked out at £19.00 for 4 of us for very well prepared, tasty food. A filling start to our day!

Visit York Pass

We then walked into York and to Museum Street where we went to pick up our Visit York Pass - York’s official sightseeing pass and key to the city! (Thank you to Visit York for your kind offer of gifting us the family passes for the trip.) York Passes can be purchased upon arrival in York at The Visitor Information Centre, 1 Museum Street, York YO1 7DT and at the Information Point in the ticket office at York Railway Station. It is an excellent place to visit to get information, which will help you to get the best out of your visit to York, either by speaking to the very helpful and knowledgeable staff or by picking up one of the many free leaflets and booklets available.

With our York passes in hand (FYI, these are normally available to purchase for 2,3 or 6 days, and are valid for over 45 attractions in York and beyond, you get a free guidebook with a map inside, informing you of all the things York has to offer.) Note: this will be my 5th visit to York now. My first was as a child on a school trip, but I still haven’t managed to visit all the wonderful attractions things in York yet.

These passes will save you money if you are planning to do lots of sightseeing.

What’s on in York in 2020?

• York Fashion Week (20-27 March)

• Bloom! Flower and Produce Show (20-28 June)

• York Food and Drink Festival (19-27 September)

• York Mediale, celebrating the city’s designation of a UNESCO City of Media Arts the first and only one in the U.K. (21-25 October)

• York Christmas Festival (12 November-20 December) and so much more!

Need more inspiration for your visit to York? Check out the Book of Ideas, which has details on some of York’s upcoming events.

We had discovered that it was the Jorvik Viking Festival while we were in York, which, as the two ten year olds had been studying Vikings at school, made them very excited!

The Jorvik Viking Festival is a week long Festival of all things Viking. It’s recognised as the largest event of its kind in Europe, with a very exciting programme of events including living history encampments, markets, workshops, talks, tours and dramatic combat performances. Ellis and Ruby were thrilled to see so many Vikings strolling around York - Men, Women, Children, old and young.

We went to the Viking Market where the children bought some replica Viking coins, and heard the stories behind them. Then it was time to watch the Strongest Viking performance, and observe the Best Beard competition. But the highlight of Saturday had to be the Viking Parade, where hundreds of people from Viking armies marched from York Minster to Coppergate. It was an amazing sight to behold! The shouts and war cries were both rousing and terrifying! The children are still talking about the Lady who was carrying a live fox!

Following this, the birthday boy and his cousin decided to spend their money in the wonderful shops at The Shambles. They went into ‘The Shop That Shalt Not Be Named’. It’s a shop selling every piece of Harry Potter collectible and toy that you can think of, along with other toy and gift shops. They also purchased sweets and fudge from other little shops along The Shambles, and watched fudge being made.

Following this, we went to The Cut and Craft Steak House where the adults had delicious rib eye steak and chips, and the children had chicken goujons and chips. All followed by the creamiest ice cream ever. I also treated myself to a Paradise in Yorkshire cocktail which was made up of Mango vodka, passion fruit liqueur, pomegranate juice, apple juice and passion fruit syrup - and certainly tasted like Paradise in Yorkshire!

Being February in England, it was still winter weather and felt icy cold outside by this time, so we headed back to Astor House. The children played Monopoly and Jenga in the lounge while we had a rest. One of the staff (who by the way, were all very helpful and really nice) came and asked the children if they would like to watch a film. He pulled down a large projector screen and the children, ourselves and a few other guests watched a film. 

A Visit to Jorvik Viking Centre

The next morning we checked out and went for breakfast at The Long Boat again, as it was such a great breakfast for the price, and then walked into York. We then used our passes to visit the Jorvik Viking Centre. There was a 45 minute queue, not sure if it is always so busy or if it was because it was Viking weekend, but you can pre book your visit beforehand, which is advisable. We went in and saw the excavations under the glass beneath our feet, while a lady told us about Jorvik and the Vikings. Then it was time to head on one of the rides! We were strapped into seats, which slowly moved us around a reproduction of a Viking settlement - complete with a running commentary (available in different languages) of each part of the settlement and day to day life of the Vikings.

This was the highlight of the childrens’ weekend, probably the adults too! We were given a receipt from Jorvik that we can use to come back and visit for free and it is valid for a year, so we will definitely be using it. 

From there we went to the York Minster. The children were amazed at the size of it! We had a short walk around the city walls too, but it was very cold and windy, so we decided to save doing that for a warmer day. 

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend. The children have some great, new memories that will hopefully stay with them for life, and both want to return to York ASAP! 

The Viking Festival means that there is a lot that you can do as a family without a York Pass (but they are still great value anyway!) We will definitely return for next year’s Viking Festival, and also at another time of year, as there are so many other attractions and events that we’d still love to visit! 

How much does a family city break to York cost?

• Accommodation: Astor Hostel for 2 nights for 2 adults + 2 children = £99 ( We had initially looked at a family room in another Hotel for 4 which was £440 and £15 parking. The hostel saved us £356, enabling us to spend this money on eating out in York.

• Cost of York passes: 1 day - Adult (16+) £45, Child (5-15) £30, under 5’s free / 2 days - Adult £60, Child £35 / 3 days - Adult £70, Child £40 / 6 days - Adult £130 Child £70 - ours were kindly gifted, for the purposes of this blog review.

• Money spent on food and drink: Approx. £150 - 200 (Pizza Hut - £56 for 2 adults + 2 children for food, soft drinks and desserts / Meal at Cut and Craft - £81 for 2 adults steak meals, 2 children’s meals (which cost £8.95 each for a main course, dessert and drink) 2 x Aspall ciders and 1 cocktail / 2 days All you can eat breakfasts (kids eat free) - £39). We could have saved more money by having the free breakfast at the Hostel, and cooking our own food in the hostel kitchen.

For more information you can also go online to @visityork, #onlyinyork or Visityork.org to purchase the Visit York passes or to find out what’s on in York. Thanks again to Visit York for kindly gifting us our York Passes.

Words and photos ~ Joanne Lloyd