York

Most travellers will arrive in York by road car or bus or rail from other parts of the UK or an airport.

By plane

Overview

Visitors to York arriving by air have a number of options. These are essentially:

Enter the UK at one of the London airports and travel onwards to York overland, either by road or by rail. If your itinerary includes other parts of the UK besides the north-east, this may be the best option, because the five London airports between them have a wider range of flight options and usually lower prices than are available for direct routings into an airport closer to York.

If Yorkshire and/or the north-east is the main destination of your visit to the UK, fly directly into the north-east using an airport with good road connections to York, if you will be renting a car and/or are being picked up from the airport.

If Yorkshire and/or the north-east is the main destination of your visit to the UK, fly directly into the north-east using an airport with good public transport connections to York, if you will not have access to a car.

If you are arriving in the UK at one of the London airports Heathrow (IATA: LHR, Gatwick IATA: LGW, London City IATA: LCY, Luton IATA: LTN or Stansted IATA: STN), your best bet is to travel to York either by road in a rental car or by train. If you take into account the time it takes to get from a London airport to King's Cross station, either way will normally take you between four and five hours from the arrivals hall to York city centre. The airports within a significantly shorter overland travelling time to York are as follows.

Note that no airport has a direct and fast public transport to York.

Leeds-Bradford International Airport IATA: LBA is the geographically closest airport to York, located 31 miles from the city by road, but it is also arguably the least convenient and most expensive for visitors to the city. The low-cost carriers LCCs Jet2 (http://www.jet2.com/) and Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.com/) operate extensive services throughout Europe. KLM is currently the only legacy airline offering hub-and-spoke connections worldwide, via its three daily flights to and from Amsterdam. In light traffic, it takes about an hour by road to York using the A658 and the A59, but often the journey timeis two hours. This route can get very congested around the outskirts of Harrogate during the rush hours, and there are several villages with 30 mph speed limits along the way. York residents collecting arriving passengers should note that it costs £12 an hour if you need to park and go into the terminal building like if the flight is delayed: you are allowed to wait at the pick-up and drop-off area for only 10 min. There is no direct public transport to York. The best way is to take the 757 bus outside the airport to Leeds and then the 743, 800, 840, 843, 844, 845, X40 or X45 to York.

Manchester Airport IATA: MAN, 84 mi by road from York, is the UK's largest airport outside London and offers a wider choice of LCC and legacy airline services worldwide. These include direct flights from the USA operated by American, Continental and Delta. By road, the journey using the M62 and the A64 takes about an hour and a half in average traffic, but if you get caught in the rush hours around Leeds and Bradford it can take a lot longer. Train services provide connections to York throughout the day and night see by train above, with a typical journey time of just under two hours. It is worth booking tickets for rail connections online in advance, because 'turn up and ride' tickets are often a lot more expensive and if you are travelling at peak times without a reserved seat, you may have to stand for most if not all of the journey these trains also serve commuters to Manchester and Leeds, and can get very crowded.

Doncaster-Sheffield IATA: DSA, 41 mi by road from York - mainly serving European holiday destinations. This airport is not easily accessible by public transport. You have to take a bus to the Doncaster station.

Humberside IATA: HUY, 48 mi - KLM from Amsterdam and thence worldwide. Using the A1079 and the A15, the journey time to and from York is around an hour in typical traffic. This route takes you across the Humber Bridge, which is a spectacular sight in itself, but it can get congested in the rush hours. This airport is not easily accessible by public transport. You can take a bus to Hull or Grimsby stations. If KLM is offering a particularly attractive deal to Humberside, you will have access to a car and you are staying in a southern part of York, Humberside is worth considering.

Durham-Tees Valley IATA: MME, 47 mi - LCCs to UK and European destinations, plus KLM to Amsterdam and thence worldwide. The airport was formally called Teesside International until it was renamed in 2004, and the name "Teesside", "Tees-side" or "Teesside Airport" still appears on many local road signs, and on tickets and boarding passes issued outside the UK. Although air fares to Durham-Tees Valley can be on the pricey side, it is well worth considering as a starting point for visiting north-east England: as an underused regional airport, waiting and queuing times are very low. However, to recoup the lost revenue from falling passenger numbers in recent years, the airport introduced a "facility fee" of £6 per departing passenger which must be paid before you are allowed through the security check in December 2010. If you take the A67 eastbound from the airport through Yarm and Kirklevington and then join the A19 southbound to York, this route is hardly ever congested, even during weekday rush hours. Using public transport, a bus goes to Darlington station. From there, York is a 30 min train ride on the East Coast Main Line, with frequent services throughout the day.

Newcastle IATA: NCL, 79 mi, offers a wider range of legacy services than LBA, HUY or MME, with British Airways and Emirates providing long-haul connections as well as KLM. Air Transat also operate direct flights from Toronto during the summer months. The journey to York by road using the A1 and the A59 takes just under two hours. Using public transport, a Newcastle Metro (http://www.nexus.org.uk/) train takes about 45 mi from NCL to Central Station, from where York is a 70 mi ride on the East Coast Main Line.

The major car rental chains are available at all of these airports except Doncaster-Sheffield.

By train

Wikitravel has a guide to Rail travel in the United Kingdom.

York is one of the main hubs of the UK rail network, with a large range of services and destinations to choose from. The station itself is an attraction and was voted the 'nicest' station in the UK in 2007. Because of the number of lines that pass through, services tend to be frequent. Indeed it was the largest train station in the world when first built. While intercity trains can be expensive, regional services are relatively affordable. Buying tickets online a few weeks in advance can provide substantial savings on long distance tickets.

National Rail (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/) operates several services from York. York is situated halfway between Edinburgh and London on the East Coast Main Line. East Coast Trains run services along this route approximately every half hour between King's Cross station in London and Edinburgh Waverley. The journey time from London is typically about 2 hours and 15 minutes, while Edinburgh is 2 hours and 30 minutes away.

Grand Central Rail (http://www.grandcentralra...) operates 4 trains per day in each direction between York and London.Arriva Cross Country (http://www.crosscountrytr...) operates trains between York and Scotland, and across the country to Birmingham, Oxford, Reading, Bristol and the South-West.

First Transpennine Express (http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/) operates service to and from Manchester, Manchester Airport, Leeds, and Huddersfield. The service runs 24 hours a day, making it possible to have a late night out elsewhere in North England, while still being able to get back to York. It runs more or less hourly during the daytime and early evening, but less frequently in the late evenings and through the night.

Other regional trains run to Sheffield, Doncaster, Hull, Harrogate and Scarborough, Durham and Newcastle.

Train times can be found on the National Rail Planner (http://www.nationalrail.c...) or by calling 08457 48 49 50 from anywhere in the UK.

By car

Although York is not directly on any of the main north-south motorways, the connections are reasonably good. From the south, the quickest route is probably to take the M1 northbound to junction 32, then the M18 eastbound to junction 2, the A1M northbound to junction 44 and finally the A64 eastbound to the York Outer Ring Road A1237. Alternatively, you can take the M1 all the way to the A64, but the upper reaches of the M1 around Sheffield and Leeds can get very congested, especially in the rush hours. From the west, the A59 and the M62 provide connections from Liverpool and Manchester, and from the north the A1 and the A19 link York with Tyneside, Northumberland and south-eastern Scotland.

Driving into the city centre itself is something to avoid. Traffic congestion on the main arterial roads serving the city especially the A19 on Bootham and the Inner Ring Road can get very bad, especially during the rush hours and on Saturday mornings. The remodelling of some roads near bottleneck junctions to accommodate bicycle lanes has made traffic jams even worse still in recent years, and parking in the city centre is very expensive.

If you are just visiting York for the day, using a Park and Ride (http://www.york.gov.uk/pa...) costs a lot less than trying to park in or near the city centre, and there are five sites dotted around the Outer Ring Road. However, the last buses from the city centre leave at around 8pm in the evenings and you are not allowed to leave your car in a Park and Ride overnight. Therefore, if you are staying overnight in York and arriving by car, make sure that your hotel offers parking before you book. If you are only visiting for the day but staying until late evening, you will need to use a city centre car park.