READY TO EXPLORE A LITTLE FURTHER?

ALTHOUGH LEEDS HAS MORE THAN ENOUGH TO KEEP YOU BUSY, A JOURNEY FURTHER AFIELD CAN MAKE FOR AN EXCITING NEW ADVENTURE

Yorkshire people like to boast that their county is endowed with everything you’d wish to see and experience – and it’s easily reachable from Leeds. Just 40 minutes down the road, or 30 minutes on a direct train, lies York, a jewel of a city nearly surrounded by its Roman walls and dominated by the Gothic Minster.

There are fine examples of architecture from every period, including the medieval Clifford’s Tower originally built by William the Conqueror and Fairfax House, a restored Georgian town house with a private collection of furniture, clocks, paintings and decorative arts.

A walk round the Roman walls helps get your bearings before you dip into the maze of quaint cobbled streets, which contains dozens of churches and is said by some to be the most haunted city in the UK. If ghosts are your thing, several companies offer ghost walks.

Experience Viking Life

Two museums stand out. The National Railway Museum is free to visit and celebrates 300 years of railway history with 100 locomotives on display, and the JORVIK Viking Centre explains Viking life in York. You can experience the city from the River Ouse on one of the many cruisers which offer everything from sightseeing to partying on board.

From York it’s a short hop up to the spectacular Yorkshire coast. North of Whitby there are a number of fishing villages like Staithes, Robin Hood’s Bay and Runswick Bay where you can have the old-fashioned seaside experience exploring rockpools and hunting for fossils.

Whitby is famous for the ruins of its medieval abbey high on the cliffs and its connection with Captain Cook which is celebrated at the Captain Cook Memorial Museum housed in a 17th-century house on the harbourside. Whitby jet, made fashionable as jewellery in the Victorian era, is available in many gift shops in the old town, and as you climb towards the abbey you can’t miss the smell of Fortune’s smokehouse where you can buy excellent kippers.

Further down the coast, Scarborough’s attractions include the award-winning SEA LIFE Scarborough, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Scarborough Art Gallery and the Rotunda Museum.

Music lovers can visit Scarborough’s Spa Complex, home of the only remaining seaside orchestra, or Peasholm Park, which offers open air concerts and a variety of family activities. Surfing is popular and the town’s Fluid Concept Surf Shop and School offers opportunities to both beginners and experienced surfers.

Two national parks – the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales – offer spectacular scenery and walking. You can find guided walks and walking maps in both areas or join a group like the Dalesbus Ramblers who put on walks every week which are reachable by public transport. Fancy something a little different? Nidderdale Llamas trek with their animals through the summer and also offer a range of activities at their farm.

North of Leeds lies the elegant spa town of Harrogate, surrounded by acres of common land and gardens known as the Stray. If you are a garden lover, then The Valley Gardens is a lovely place to stroll, but you can carry on through them on a well-marked trail for about 40 minutes through pinewoods to reach the Royal Horticultural Society’s Harlow Carr gardens.

Harlow Carr has year-round activities, and year-round colour in their planting schemes. It also has an outpost of Harrogate’s famous café, Bettys, which is often less crowded than the town centre branch.

Back in the centre, the Montpellier Quarter hosts a number of well-regarded antiques shops, and a short stroll further on the Royal Pump Room Museum provides you with the history behind the taking of the waters. The Turkish Baths have been refurbished and mixed, men-only or women-only sessions are available.

To the west of Yorkshire you have the rugged Pennines, celebrated in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and you can find all things Brontë in Haworth. The Brontë Parsonage Museum is in the former vicarage, and St Michael’s and All Angels Church was where the Brontë sisters’ father, Rev Patrick Brontë, was the vicar. The graveyard is said to contain the remains of 40,000 souls and Haworth Ghost Tours offers ghastly evening tours of this historic village in the summer months.

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway stops in Haworth so you can arrive by steam train. Train buffs are also well catered for by the North York Moors Railway through Pickering, the Wensleydale Railway and the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway.

Bradford is home to the National Media Museum which has changing exhibitions, an IMAX cinema and a permanent interactive collection celebrating film, television and more modern media.

Close by, Salts Mill and the model village Saltaire created by Victorian wool merchant Sir Titus Salt, have been beautifully restored. The Mill has shops, cafés, a performance space and on the ground floor you will find the 1853 Gallery, which houses a permanent collection of works by David Hockney.

Art lovers also have the Hepworth Wakefield, which celebrates contemporary art alongside works from Barbara Hepworth, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, a few miles away which is an open-air art gallery set in 500 acres showcasing work by Andy Goldsworthy and Henry Moore, with changing exhibitions.

Just east of Wakefield, Pontefract is famous for its cakes but visitors to the attractive market town should also explore Pontefract Castle. This once-mighty fortress was, in its heyday, so vast and powerful that it was known as the key to the North. Today the castle is a great place to visit. Experience history brought to life through spectacular free events and family activities and if you’re feeling brave, visit the dungeon to see where prisoners scratched their names into the rock.