Guides ·Day trips

Getting there and what it costs

TransPennine Express runs York to Scarborough in 50 minutes, roughly hourly, with advance fares around £14 return and walk-up nearer £24. The line calls at Malton and Seamer, so Malton is only 30 minutes away. From Whitby, the X93 bus takes an hour along the coast road; from Filey it is 12 minutes by train. Driving from York is about 45 miles on the A64, an hour clear, 90 minutes on a summer Saturday.

Scarborough station puts you on Westborough, a ten-minute downhill walk to South Bay. Parking is easiest at the William Street or Northway multi-storeys at £1.50 to £2 an hour, or free on residential streets above the South Cliff if you arrive before 10:00 and read the signs. The two bays are separated by the castle headland and are a good 25-minute walk apart, so use the number 12 or 13 local bus, about £2.50, if you plan to do both.

South Bay: harbour, sands and funiculars

South Bay is the classic version: a working harbour with fishing boats and lobster pots, a sweep of sand, and an arcade-and-donut foreshore that is either cheerful or exhausting depending on your mood. Walk out along the West Pier for the lighthouse and the view back at the castle. The RNLI station and the Sea Life kiosks are on the same stretch. At low tide you can walk the sands the whole way round to the Spa without touching the road, which is the nicest approach.

Scarborough had seven cliff lifts and three survive. The Central Tramway, running since 1881 from the foreshore up to St Nicholas Cliff, costs about £1.80 single and saves a steep climb. The Spa Cliff Lift does the same job at the far end. The Spa Complex itself, built on the mineral spring discovered in 1626 that made Scarborough the first English seaside resort, hosts concerts and a Sunday orchestra; the terraces and the mile-long promenade below the South Cliff are free to walk.

The castle and the headland

Scarborough Castle sits on a headland occupied since the Iron Age, with a Roman signal station, a twelfth-century Henry II keep and shell damage from the German naval bombardment of December 1914. English Heritage charges about £9.50 adult, free to members, and it opens 10:00 to 18:00 in summer. The walk up Castle Road is steep for ten minutes and then you are on a huge grassy headland with both bays below you, which alone justifies the ticket.

Below the castle on the south side, St Mary's Church holds Anne Bronte's grave; she died in Scarborough in 1849 aged 29 and is the only Bronte sibling not buried at Haworth. The churchyard is free and open daily. From the headland, drop down the north side into North Bay for a completely different town: quieter sand, fewer arcades, and the Sea Life Centre at Scalby Mills, about £20 online, which is the priciest ticket in Scarborough and best skipped unless you have children.

North Bay, Peasholm Park and the North Bay Railway

Peasholm Park, opened 1912, is Japanese-themed, free to enter, and has a lake with a pagoda island, rowing boats at around £8 for half an hour, and the wonderfully odd Naval Warfare display, where model warships re-enact a battle on the lake several times a week in summer for about £4. It is completely daft and has been running since 1927. Next to it, the North Bay Railway is a miniature railway from 1931 running to Scalby Mills, roughly £4 return.

North Bay beach is broader, cleaner and far less crowded than South Bay, with the Sands development providing cafés and apartments. Alexandra Bowls and the open-air theatre sit between the two. Scarborough Open Air Theatre, reopened in 2010, is the largest in Europe and pulls major touring acts from June to September; tickets run £40 to £70 and it is worth planning a whole trip around a name you like, since the setting beats any indoor arena.

Eating, and the Ayckbourn connection

Fish and chips is the obvious lunch, and prices split sharply: £9 to £12 from a takeaway on Eastborough or Sandside, £16 to £22 sitting down on the harbourfront at the Golden Grid or similar. Crab and lobster from the harbour stalls are fresher and cheaper than most restaurant versions, £6 to £9 for a dressed crab sandwich. Away from the sea, the Ramshill and Falsgrave streets have decent independent kitchens with mains £13 to £20 and no tourist premium.

The Stephen Joseph Theatre on Westborough, in a converted Odeon cinema, is where Alan Ayckbourn premiered most of his plays as artistic director from 1972 to 2009, and it still stages new work with tickets around £15 to £30. The Rotunda Museum on Vernon Road, about £5, was built in 1829 to William Smith's design and is the world's first purpose-built geological museum; the circular gallery with its painted strata frieze takes half an hour and is a small marvel.

Practicalities and honest expectations

Scarborough is a real town of 60,000 people, not a preserved resort, and parts of the centre look tired. Set expectations accordingly: come for the two beaches, the castle headland, the Victorian cliff engineering and cheap fresh seafood, not for boutique shopping. It is the best-value coastal day in North Yorkshire, comfortably cheaper than Whitby, and the sands are far bigger.

Day costs: £14 return rail from York, £9.50 for the castle, £5 for the Rotunda, £12 for fish and chips, £2 for a cliff lift, £4 for Naval Warfare. That is roughly £35 to £50 per person for a full day. Staying over is cheap by county standards: South Cliff guesthouses run £55 to £75 out of season and £75 to £110 in July and August, and the grand Victorian hotels on the Esplanade sit around £110 to £160 with a sea view. Last trains to York leave about 22:20.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

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