Riverdale House
Riverdale House is a well-rated 4-star hotel in Grassington, North Yorkshire, popular with guests who want comfort and a strong location near Skipton Castle.
The surrounding Grassington district is one of the most convenient parts of North Yorkshire to stay in, with restaurants, cafés and transport links close by.
Because pricing is set live by the hotel and its suppliers, the figure shown here is a recent snapshot; check the current rate for your exact dates before booking.
Key facts
What’s included
Around Grassington
Getting around North Yorkshire: car, train and bus
A car is genuinely needed for the Yorkshire Dales and most of the North York Moors, and optional-to-unhelpful in York itself. The A1(M) runs north–south past Bedale, Northallerton and Boroughbridge; the A64 links York to Malton, Scarborough and Filey; the A170 crosses from Thirsk over Sutton Bank — a 1-in-4 climb where caravans are banned — through Helmsley to Pickering; the A171 joins Whitby and Scarborough in about 20 miles; the A65 threads Skipton, Settle and Ingleton; and the A684 runs Northallerton–Bedale–Leyburn–Hawes. Rosedale Chimney Bank on the moors is 1-in-3, so trust a road atlas over a shortcut. Central York hotel parking typically costs £15–£25 a night, which is why Park & Ride from Askham Bar or Grimston Bar is worth using instead.
Rail covers more than people expect. The East Coast Main Line stops at York, Thirsk and Northallerton with London King's Cross to York in about 1 hour 50 minutes; the York–Scarborough line calls at Malton and Seamer in roughly 50 minutes end to end; the Harrogate line links Leeds, Harrogate, Knaresborough and York; the Airedale line reaches Skipton from Leeds in 45 minutes; and the Settle–Carlisle line serves Settle, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Ribblehead and Garsdale. Whitby has the Esk Valley line from Middlesbrough and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway up from Pickering and Grosmont. For buses, the Coastliner 840 and 843 run Leeds–York–Malton–Pickering to Whitby and Scarborough, and DalesBus services cover Grassington and Wharfedale mainly at weekends. Distances are short but slow: York to Whitby is 45 miles and takes about 1 hour 20 minutes, Harrogate to Skipton 22 miles on the A59, Leyburn to Hawes 16 miles.
How many nights in North Yorkshire, and a first-timer's route
Three nights is the workable minimum and gets you one base; five to seven nights lets you split between the city, the coast and one national park without spending every afternoon driving. A common mistake is trying to do York, Whitby, the Dales and Richmond from a single hotel — Skipton to Whitby is 90 miles across the county and takes well over two hours each way. Two bases beat one for anything longer than four nights, and three bases suit a full week. Sunday to Thursday arrivals are cheaper and quieter almost everywhere except Harrogate in a conference week.
A sound first week: two nights in York for the Minster, the walls, Jorvik and an afternoon at Castle Howard, 15 miles out past Malton; then two nights on the coast at Whitby or Scarborough, using the North Yorkshire Moors Railway or the A169 over the moor via the Hole of Horcum; then two or three nights in the Dales at Skipton, Grassington, Leyburn or Hawes for Bolton Abbey, Aysgarth Falls, Middleham Castle and the Wensleydale Creamery. If castles and abbeys are the point, swap the coast leg for Helmsley or Thirsk and take in Rievaulx, Byland, Mount Grace Priory and Fountains Abbey, then finish at Richmond with its Norman keep above the Swale. Add a night if you want the Yorkshire Three Peaks or the 24 arches of Ribblehead Viaduct, since Ingleton and Horton-in-Ribblesdale are a long way from anywhere else on the list.
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.
