Blog Budget & prices

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

Budget £6-£10 a day for parking in most of the county, double that in central York or at a paying estate, and plan for at least three different payment systems in a single week.

The short answer, and why it varies so much

For a self-drive trip, parking is a real line in the budget rather than a rounding error: £6-£10 a day is the honest planning figure for national park car parks and market-town centres, rising to £15-£20 for a full day in a central York multi-storey and to a similar figure per car at estates that charge for admission through the barrier. Two people walking Malham Cove, having lunch in Grassington and stopping at Aysgarth on the way back can easily spend £15 on tarmac alone. Over a week that is a decent dinner. All figures here are planning bands, and you should check the current tariff on the sign or with the operator.

The variation exists because at least five different landlords are involved. North Yorkshire Council runs most town car parks; the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national park authorities run the honeypot ones; Forestry England charges for its forest drives; the National Trust and English Heritage charge non-members at their sites; and private landowners and pubs run their own. Each sets its own tariff, its own enforcement and often its own app. Nothing is joined up, so the single most useful habit is to read the sign fully before you walk away — including the maximum stay, which is what actually catches people out.

National park car parks: the honeypots and the overflow

In the Yorkshire Dales, the car parks that matter are Malham, Grassington, Kettlewell, Buckden, Hawes, Aysgarth Falls, Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Reeth's green-side spaces. Expect roughly £2-£4 for a couple of hours and £5-£8 all day. Malham is the classic failure case: on a fine summer Saturday both car parks fill before 10am, the verges are double-yellowed and enforced, and latecomers end up in a field overflow or driving on to Kilnsey. Arrive by 9.30am or come after 4pm, when the Cove walk is emptier and the light is better anyway. Horton fills with Three Peaks walkers from dawn.

On the Moors, Sutton Bank's national park centre, Hutton-le-Hole, Danby, Goathland and the Hole of Horcum lay-bys are the pressure points, with similar tariffs. Dalby Forest is different again: Forestry England charges a toll per car for the forest drive, with higher rates in peak season and holidays, which is fair value if you are staying all day for the trails and playgrounds and poor value for a 40-minute stop. If you are visiting several forest sites in a year, check whether an annual pass pays for itself. Verify all current rates with the relevant authority before travelling.

York: park and ride beats everything

Do not drive into central York. The city ringed by walls has narrow streets, a footstreets scheme that closes core lanes to traffic during the day, and multi-storeys that charge a full-day rate comparable to a decent lunch. The six park and ride sites on the approach roads — Askham Bar, Poppleton Bar, Rawcliffe Bar, Monks Cross, Grimston Bar and the Designer Outlet — are the answer: leave the car free or near-free, pay a few pounds per person for a return bus, and get dropped in the centre in 10-15 minutes. Check current fares and first and last bus times with the operator, particularly on Sundays.

If you are staying overnight in the city, ask the hotel or guesthouse about parking before you book rather than after. Many small central properties have no parking at all and will point you at a nearby multi-storey at the full public rate; others have a handful of spaces released first-come. A useful compromise is to stay just outside the walls near Bishopthorpe Road, Bootham or Clifton, where on-street residents' schemes sometimes allow visitor permits, and walk in. On a two-night York stop, sorting this out in advance is worth £30 or more.

The coast: Whitby, Scarborough, Filey, Robin Hood's Bay

Whitby's harbourside spaces are the most contested tarmac in the county in July and August, with queues to enter car parks that are already full. The seasonal park and ride off the A171 on the town's southern edge is the sane approach; confirm its operating months and hours before you rely on it. Otherwise aim for the larger car parks above the harbour and accept a walk down. Scarborough is easier because it is bigger: the seafront and Marine Drive pay-and-display bays turn over reasonably, and the town-centre multi-storeys are cheaper per hour than the front.

Robin Hood's Bay is the strictest and the clearest. There is no visitor parking in the village — the bank down to the dock is a 1-in-3 lane with nowhere to turn — so everyone uses the pay-and-display at the top. Expect a stiff climb back up on the way out, and factor 15 minutes for it. Filey is the most relaxed of the four, with seafront and town car parks that rarely defeat you outside bank holidays. At all coastal sites, check whether the tariff runs into the evening; several do, and returning at 7pm to an expired ticket is a familiar Yorkshire holiday memory.

Market towns, market days and the free-parking myth

There is a persistent belief that North Yorkshire's market towns all have free parking. Some short-stay bays have historically been free or very cheap in places like Bedale, Thirsk and parts of Richmondshire, but charging has been rolled out unevenly and the picture keeps changing under a single unitary council. Read the sign; do not rely on advice from a previous visit or from a forum post. In Harrogate, Ripon, Skipton, Northallerton, Malton and Richmond, assume you are paying, and assume a maximum stay of two or three hours in the most central bays.

Market days reshape everything. Thirsk, Northallerton, Malton, Skipton, Masham, Leyburn, Bedale and Settle all hold regular markets, and the square you were planning to park in becomes stalls from early morning. That means displaced cars, full peripheral car parks and slow one-way systems until mid-afternoon. It is also the best day to visit, so the trade-off is arriving before 9.30am or parking on the edge of town and walking five minutes. Check the individual town's market day before setting your itinerary — it is the difference between a charming morning and twenty minutes of circling.

How to pay without a fight

Carry three payment options. Newer machines take contactless cards, older ones want coins and give no change, and an increasing number of car parks are app-first, typically through the common pay-by-phone platforms whose names are printed on the sign. Download whichever app the sign names before you need it, because that hillside car park is exactly where the signal disappears. Keep a bag of £1 and £2 coins in the glovebox as insurance; it has saved more Dales days out than any piece of technology. Where ANPR cameras are used, you enter your registration at the machine and there is no ticket to display.

Blue Badge holders get free parking in on-street disabled bays and, usually, in council off-street disabled bays, but time limits and local exceptions apply, and privately operated car parks — including some at attractions — set their own rules. Display the badge and clock correctly. Membership pays if you are touring: National Trust members park free at their properties, including the big draws around Ripon and Nidderdale, and English Heritage members generally park free at their sites on the coast and in Ryedale. If you are visiting three or four in a week, the sums start to work.

Five ways to cut the bill

First, choose accommodation with its own parking and use it as a base rather than driving somewhere new each morning; a village inn with a yard removes two paid stops a day. Second, park once and walk between things — Grassington to Linton Falls, Hawes to Hardraw, Aysgarth's three falls — instead of hopping car parks a mile apart. Third, use the bus for the honeypots: the seasonal and weekend services into the Dales and across the Moors deliver you to Malham or Goathland with no parking anxiety at all, though you must check the timetable rather than assume one exists.

Fourth, go early or late. Most tariffs are cheapest in the short-stay bands, and the honeypot car parks that are hopeless at 11am have spaces at 8.30am and again after 4pm. Fifth, be honest about which paying attractions you actually want. If a per-car estate charge of £15 or so buys you a full day of riverside walking, it is fine value; if you only want a photograph from the road, drive on. The car park you should never skimp on is York's park and ride — that one genuinely saves money and an hour of temper.

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