The 25 areas we cover in and around North Yorkshire

Medieval walls, the Minster, and the best rail connections in the county — busy, expensive at weekends, unbeatable as a base.

Victorian spa town with Turkish Baths, Betty's, and 200 acres of Stray — smart, walkable, and quiet by eleven.

Cliffside market town above the Nidd gorge — rowing boats, a ruined castle, and the best five-minute view in the county.

England's smallest cathedral city — a Saxon crypt, a nightly hornblower, and Fountains Abbey four miles down the road.

Broad market High Street, an intact medieval castle and a canal — the practical gateway to the southern Dales.

Britain's original seaside resort — two bays, a castle headland, cheap rooms, and a genuinely good theatre.

Ruined abbey, 199 steps, kippers and Dracula — the most atmospheric town on the Yorkshire coast, and the hardest to park in.

Five miles of flat sand, a Victorian crescent above it, and none of Scarborough's noise. Cheapest coastal base in the county.

Smugglers' village stacked down a one-in-three ravine near Whitby. Beautiful, steep, tiny, and completely full by 11am in August.

Steam railway terminus and the best-value gateway to the North York Moors, with a real market town underneath the tourism.

The prettiest and priciest market town on the Moors: castle, abbey, spa hotels, and the start of the Cleveland Way.

James Herriot's Darrowby: big cobbled square, racecourse, mainline station, and the cheapest springboard for Sutton Bank.

Small market town that eats above its weight, on the York-Scarborough line, ten minutes from Castle Howard.

County town with a broad market High Street, Bettys, and mainline trains — the practical, unglamorous base between Dales and Moors.

Norman keep above the Swale, one of England's largest cobbled market places, and Swaledale starting at the end of the road.

Plain, practical Wensleydale town with a huge market square, a limestone terrace walk, and Middleham's racehorses two miles away.

Small town, enormous market square, two independent breweries, and the best cluster of good eating between Ripon and Wensleydale.

Cheap, honest Georgian town on the edge of the Vale of Mowbray — a practical, low-cost base minutes from the A1.

Start of the Settle-Carlisle railway, ringed by limestone scars, and the only Dales town you can reach easily by train.

The prettiest square in Wharfedale, a National Park centre, and the television Darrowby — charming, capable and busy in summer.

England's cheesemaking capital at 850 feet, on the Pennine Way, with waterfalls, ropemakers and the road over Buttertubs.

Limestone village at the foot of Ingleborough, built around waterfalls, show caves and walkers with wet boots.

Working Ouse-side town with an eleventh-century abbey, cheap beds and a fourteen-minute train into York.

Three working breweries, a limestone bridge over the Wharfe and pubs that ban music, phones and swearing.

Handsome Georgian brick town thirteen miles north of York, and the quiet back door to the Howardian Hills.