Whitby

Fish and chips and ice cream; history and culture; vampires and Goths: it’s all on offer at Whitby, one of the North East coast’s best-loved seaside towns.

With Blue Flag beaches and many attractions, including the world-famous steam North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Whitby is the perfect base for a day out. But it doesn’t end there. Whitby wallows in history, including fishing, the jet industry (did you know that it’s still the best place in the world to find the gleaming black gemstone so beloved by the Victorians?), Captain Cook (who was born nearby, and whose famous ship the Endeavour was Whitby-built) and whaling. And its literary connections – Bram Stoker’s famous Dracula features the town, with the vampire first coming ashore here from Transylvania in the guise of a black dog – have inspired the world famous Goth Festival, which now takes place twice a year.