The Dante Arms
Looking for a straightforward base in North Yorkshire? The Dante Arms in Leyburn covers the essentials and sits near central Leyburn.
From here, North Yorkshire's main attractions — including central Leyburn — are an easy walk or short ride away, so you spend less time in transit and more time exploring.
Key facts
What’s included
Around Leyburn
What hotels actually cost in North Yorkshire
Budget rooms — simple pub rooms, small guesthouses, 2-star hotels in Selby, Northallerton, Bedale, Thirsk or the Scarborough side streets — run about £55–£85 a night for two, usually with a cooked breakfast included and often without parking. Mid-range 3- and 4-star doubles sit around £95–£150 across most of the county, rising to £110–£180 inside York's walls and in central Harrogate. The top end — country-house hotels around Ripon and Wensleydale, sea-view rooms on Scarborough's Esplanade, the better York townhouse hotels — generally runs £180–£350, with suites above that. Village inns in Grassington, Hawes, Masham and Robin Hood's Bay cluster at £100–£140 and have very few rooms each, which is why they vanish first.
Spikes are predictable rather than random. York Racecourse holds around 15 fixtures between May and October, and a Saturday meeting or the August Ebor Festival can double central York rates overnight; York's St Nicholas Fair weekends from mid-November do something similar. Harrogate jumps for the Great Yorkshire Show in the second week of July and for large Convention Centre events, when even Knaresborough and Ripon fill. On the coast, July and August Saturdays in Whitby, Filey and Robin Hood's Bay often carry a two-night minimum, and both Whitby Goth Weekends in April and around Halloween sell the town out. Mid-week in late January, March or November is where the real savings are — the same room that costs £160 in August is often £70.
The North Yorkshire booking traps worth knowing before you pay
Read the address, not the town name. Plenty of hotels advertised as "York" are actually 5–10 miles out at Escrick, Copmanthorpe, Bilbrough Top or on the A19 towards Selby, which is fine if you are driving and awkward if you assumed you could walk back from the Shambles after dinner. The same applies on the coast, where a "Whitby" address can mean Sleights or Ruswarp, and in the Dales, where a "Skipton" hotel may sit out on the A59 towards Bolton Abbey. Check parking separately: Whitby's West Cliff streets are permit-controlled, Robin Hood's Bay bans visitor cars from the bank down to the Dock, so you leave the car in the pay-and-display at the top and walk a steep half-mile, and central York hotels frequently charge £15–£25 a night on top of the room.
The other trap is the events calendar, because this county's price surges have almost nothing to do with school holidays. Check York's race fixtures, the Great Yorkshire Show dates in July, both Whitby Goth Weekends and the Harrogate Convention Centre diary before you fix a date, since a midweek trade exhibition can put Harrogate rooms above a summer Saturday. Finally, do not skip the flat market-town belt — Northallerton, Bedale, Easingwold, Thirsk and Tadcaster are 20–40 minutes from York, Ripon and the moors, cost £40–£60 less a night, and Thirsk and Northallerton both sit on the East Coast Main Line. Late September and early October are the underrated weeks: Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx and Bolton Castle are near-empty, the moorland heather has just gone over, and prices have already dropped.
Where to stay in North Yorkshire: which area suits which trip
York is the default first base — the Minster, the city walls (about two miles of walkable rampart), the Shambles and Clifford's Tower are all within fifteen minutes on foot of each other, and you can reach Castle Howard, Ripon or Scarborough on a day trip. It is also the most expensive place to sleep in the county alongside Harrogate, with mid-range central doubles usually £110–£180 and race Saturdays far higher. Harrogate suits spa-and-shopping trips and the Turkish Baths on Parliament Street, and its rates swing with the Convention Centre diary rather than with the weather. Knaresborough, four miles east with its castle above the Nidd gorge and the railway viaduct, is the obvious cheaper alternative at roughly £75–£110, and Ripon — cathedral crypt from 672 AD, the hornblower setting the watch at 9pm in the Market Place, Fountains Abbey four miles west — is cheaper again.
For the coast, Whitby gives you the abbey, the 199 steps and the harbour but the tightest parking and the steepest summer premiums; Scarborough has more rooms and more range across South Bay and North Bay; Filey and Robin Hood's Bay are quieter and smaller, and beds in the Bay sell out months ahead. Inland, Helmsley, Pickering, Thirsk and Malton put you inside or on the edge of the North York Moors, with Rievaulx Abbey, Pickering Castle and Sutton Bank close by. In the Dales, Skipton and Settle sit on the A65 with train stations, while Grassington, Hawes, Leyburn, Masham and Richmond are village-and-market-town stays where the pub with rooms is often the only option. Northallerton, Bedale, Easingwold, Selby and Tadcaster are the value bases most visitors overlook, frequently £65–£95 for the same standard that costs £140 inside York's walls.
