Blog Comparisons & rankings

2026-08-265 min readThe North Yorkshire Destinations editorial team

Nine options for travellers who want a hob, a fridge and no restaurant bill, ranked from York's serviced apartments to Dales farm conversions, with the nightly maths that shows when self-catering actually saves money.

When a kitchenette pays for itself, and when it does not

The break-even is simpler than people assume. A family of four eating out twice a day in York or Scarborough spends roughly £90 to £140 daily. A serviced apartment costs perhaps £30 to £60 a night more than an equivalent hotel room, so if you cook two breakfasts and three dinners across a week you are ahead by a comfortable margin. Add a washing machine, which most apartments have and almost no hotel room does, and a week's holiday stops generating a laundry crisis. For two people staying two nights, the maths flips and a hotel with breakfast wins.

The trap is what a kitchenette actually contains. In this county the spectrum runs from a full kitchen with a four-ring hob, oven and dishwasher, through a two-ring induction plate with a microwave and undercounter fridge, to a kettle, a toaster and a fridge the size of a shoebox described online as a kitchenette. Ask for a photograph and an inventory. Ask also about housekeeping, since serviced apartments often clean only on changeover, and about minimum stays, which commonly run to two or three nights and up to seven in high summer at the coast.

1 and 2: York's serviced apartments, in the centre and on the edge

First is York's central serviced-apartment stock, concentrated in converted offices and new blocks around Piccadilly, Foss Islands Road and the streets behind Coppergate. These give you a proper kitchen, a washer-dryer and a lift, at £110 to £200 a night for a one-bedroom and £150 to £260 for two bedrooms, with better rates from four nights. The location is excellent, five to ten minutes' walk from the Minster and the Shambles. The catch is parking: expect to pay £15 to £25 a day in a nearby multi-storey, or none at all, so check before you drive in.

Second, the apartment blocks and aparthotels on York's outer ring near Clifton Moor and along the Tadcaster Road corridor toward the racecourse. Rates fall to £85 to £150 and parking is usually free and on site. You trade the walk to the Minster for a park-and-ride bus from Askham Bar or Rawcliffe Bar, which is frankly a fair deal on a longer stay. The honest catch is that these are residential and retail-park settings with nowhere to walk for dinner if you decide not to cook, so keep the fridge stocked.

3 and 4: Harrogate townhouse apartments and Ripon's quieter option

Third, Harrogate's townhouse apartments off Cold Bath Road, Kings Road and the streets around Valley Gardens. Georgian and Victorian houses split into one and two-bedroom flats, often with the original fireplaces and a modern kitchen bolted into the back room. Expect £110 to £190. Harrogate is the best town in the county for self-catering because the food shopping is genuinely good, with a Saturday market and independent butchers and delis within walking distance. Parking is the usual town-centre problem: resident permit zones, so confirm whether the flat comes with a permit or a private space.

Fourth, Ripon. Apartments around the Market Square and the streets toward the cathedral run £90 to £150 and represent the best value of any town in the county for a kitchen and a central position. Ripon is small, so you are five minutes from the cathedral, ten from the river, and 25 minutes' drive from both Harrogate and Fountains Abbey. The catch is that Ripon quietens sharply in the evening and the restaurant choice is thin, which is fine if you were going to cook anyway. The Thursday market is the reason to be there on a Thursday.

5 and 6: Scarborough and Whitby self-catering

Fifth, Scarborough's apartment conversions, mostly in the big Victorian houses on the South Cliff and behind North Bay. Weekly summer rates for a two-bedroom flat run roughly £700 to £1,100, which is £100 to £160 a night, and out of season they drop below £80. This is the coast's best self-catering value, and the town has full-size supermarkets, a fish market and a Thursday and Saturday market so you can cook properly. The catch is stairs: many of these flats are on the second or third floor of houses with no lift, and parking is street-side with permits.

Sixth, Whitby's cottages and yard conversions off Church Street and Flowergate. Charming, tiny, and priced at £120 to £220 a night in summer for two bedrooms. Everything you would want to cook is available, particularly the fish, and eating in with a bag of just-landed crab is arguably better than any restaurant meal in the town. The catch is unavoidable and always the same in Whitby: no parking, cobbles, steep steps and a wheelie case that will hate you. Book only if you are prepared to unload at a drop-off point and then park several minutes away.

7 and 8: Dales farm conversions and Skipton canal-side flats

Seventh, the barn and farm conversions across Wharfedale, Wensleydale and Swaledale. These are the county's best self-catering in absolute terms: stone buildings with woodburners, big kitchens, drying space for boots and a field of sheep out the window. Weekly rates £600 to £1,400 depending on size and season, with three-night breaks available outside July and August. The catch is provisioning. The nearest full supermarket may be 20 minutes away in Skipton, Leyburn or Hawes, village shops close early, and mobile signal is patchy, so arrive with a stocked car rather than a plan.

Eighth, Skipton. Canal-side apartments and flats above the High Street run £100 to £170 and sit within a five-minute walk of a large supermarket, the Saturday market and one of the best pork pie counters in the north. For a Dales week where you want a kitchen but not a rural provisioning exercise, this is the sensible base, with Malham, Bolton Abbey and Grassington all inside half an hour. The catch is traffic and noise: the High Street is a through route and market days pack the town from mid-morning until late afternoon.

9: coastal and countryside lodge parks

Ninth, the lodge and cabin parks, concentrated on the coast between Filey, Cayton and Whitby and scattered inland around Pickering and the Vale of York. Modern two and three-bedroom lodges come with full kitchens, decking, parking at the door and often a hot tub, at £120 to £220 a night in summer and under £100 in November. For families with young children this beats an apartment because you get outdoor space and no shared staircase, and site facilities usually run to a shop and a bar for the night you cannot face cooking.

The trade-offs are worth naming. Sites vary wildly in density and atmosphere, changeover days are often fixed to Monday and Friday, and some parks charge extra for the hot tub or for a second car. Ask for the unit number and photographs, check whether the site is open all year, and confirm what is provided in the kitchen, since a surprising number supply crockery for six and one saucepan. Skip anywhere that will not confirm the specific pitch before you pay a deposit.

Which to book, and how to shop once you are here

For a city break of four nights or more, book a central York serviced apartment and use the park-and-ride if you have driven. For a week with children on the coast, take a Scarborough apartment out of high summer, or a lodge near Filey if outdoor space matters more than being able to walk to a beach. For the Dales, Skipton for convenience and a barn conversion for beauty. For value in a proper town centre, Ripon is the surprise pick at £90 to £150.

Shopping is easy in York, Harrogate, Scarborough, Skipton and Northallerton, all of which have large supermarkets within reach of the centre. It gets harder fast in the upper dales and on the moors, where village shops keep short hours and Sunday closing is real. Buy your first two days' food before you leave the last market town on the route in, use the farm shops for meat and the Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes for cheese, and check opening hours with the shop rather than assuming, particularly on bank holidays.

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