Read this before you book North Yorkshire

Two days, one base, and roughly £250 to £400 for a couple including a decent room. Here is how to split a weekend between York, the coast and the Dales without spending it in the car.

Seven nights across three bases, covering the city, the Dales, the moors and the coast for roughly £900 to £1,400 for two including rooms. Here is the route that works.

Three days, two nights and a target of £180 per person all in, including a bed. The county has more free sights than almost anywhere in England if you know which doors not to pay at.

The same three days done properly: country house hotels from £220, tasting menus, a private moors drive and a spa afternoon. Budget £700 to £1,100 per person.

Every rail line in the county leads here, and one full day covers the Minster, the walls and the Shambles for around £45 a head. Here is the order that avoids the crowds.

The abbey, the 199 Steps, the best fish and chips in England and a jet industry that outlived Queen Victoria. Budget £50 to £70 a head, and go on a weekday.

Britain's original seaside resort has two bays, a Norman castle on the headland and a spa that predates Bath's fame. Fifty minutes from York and doable for £35 a head.

A Victorian spa town with 200 acres of common land at its centre, an 1897 Turkish bath still in use, and the county's best-known tea rooms. Thirty-five minutes from York for about £11.

The gateway to the Yorkshire Dales has a market four days a week, one of England's most complete medieval castles at £11.50, and canal boats moored in the middle of town.

North Yorkshire is bigger than Greater London, Merseyside and Tyne and Wear combined, so the base you pick decides your trip. Here are the eight areas worth your nights, with honest prices from £45 to £400.

The county has four genuinely different seasons and a room-rate swing of well over £100 a night between them. Here is what each month actually delivers, and the 12 dates that will cost you double.

Five railway lines, one motorway, and a lot of single-track walls. Here is how to move between York, the Dales, the Moors and the coast — with fares from £3 to £60 a day.

A pint is £4.20 to £5.60, a Dales B&B double is £85, and a York hotel in December is £200. Here is what things actually cost and when a tip is expected.

This is one of the safest counties in England — the genuine risks are weather, tides and single-track roads, not crime. Here are the 10 things that actually catch visitors out.

Yorkshire pudding, Whitby cod, Wensleydale cheese and Yorkshire curd tart — eight British classics that this county either invented or does better. With prices from £2 to £22.

Fourteen market towns, charters going back to 1310, and stalls where a wedge of Wensleydale costs £4. Here are the eight markets worth planning a day around, with days, times and what to buy.

Twenty meals for under £10 across York, the Dales, the Moors and the coast — from £2.50 pork pies to £9 curries and £4 bacon sandwiches that keep you walking until dinner.

More than 30 genuinely free things to do across York, the Dales, the Moors and the coast — plus which base towns put the most no-cost days within walking distance of your hotel.

An honest read on evenings across the county — from York's 350-odd licensed premises to Dales pubs that close the bar at 11pm sharp — plus the 6 areas worth booking a room in if you want to walk home.

Fourteen places to watch the light go, from a west-facing beach at Saltburn to the Dales' highest road — with the walk-in times, parking costs and the rooms that put you ten minutes from the view.