Beverley

Beverley's accommodation ranges from a five-star boutique inn on the doorstep of the Minster to Georgian townhouse B&Bs a few minutes' walk from the market square, with country house hotels in the surrounding villages for those wanting more space. The town centre itself is compact enough that almost anywhere within it puts guests within easy reach of the main sights, and several of the properties below occupy genuinely historic buildings, from a fifteenth-century coaching inn to Georgian mansions built when Beverley was at its Georgian peak as a fashionable inland town.

For a special occasion or a longer stay, the area's country house hotels in villages such as Tickton and Walkington offer gardens, restaurants with their own reputations, and a quieter pace than the town centre, usually a five to ten minute drive away. Food lovers are particularly well served, with one nearby option holding a Michelin star and several others recognised with AA rosettes, meaning a stay in or around Beverley can easily be built around a serious meal as much as sightseeing.

Budget and mid-range travellers are not overlooked either: a well-located branded hotel sits close to the railway station, while family-run guest houses offer bed and breakfast at more modest prices without sacrificing character, several with the kind of individual welcome and locally sourced breakfasts that chain hotels rarely match. Whichever budget or style suits, booking ahead is worth doing around race days at Beverley Racecourse and during the town's food festival in October, when rooms fill up well in advance.

Beverley rewards unhurried exploring, but a handful of sights and experiences should not be missed.

• Beverley Minster is one of the finest Gothic churches in Europe, larger than many English cathedrals, with medieval misericords, the famous Percy Tomb and a peal of bells visitors can often hear practising on weekday evenings.
• St Mary's Church, at the opposite end of the town, is a smaller but still remarkable building, reputedly the inspiration for Alice's White Rabbit through a carving on one of its pillars.
• Beverley Saturday Market fills Saturday Market Place with stalls selling local produce, flowers and bric-a-brac, a tradition recorded since the twelfth century and still the best time to feel the town at its busiest.
• Beverley Westwood is a wide common of grazed pasture and gorse on the edge of town, criss-crossed by paths, dotted with grazing cattle and home to the racecourse and the town's golf course.
• Beverley Racecourse, set within the Westwood, runs flat racing through the spring, summer and autumn and is one of the prettiest small racecourses in the north of England.
• North Bar, a fifteenth-century gatehouse still used by traffic today, is the last of the town's medieval bars and marks the start of the handsome North Bar Within and North Bar Without streets.
• Beverley Art Gallery, housed with the town's library and archive in the Treasure House, holds works by the local painter Fred Elwell alongside changing exhibitions.
• Beverley Beck, a quiet arm of the River Hull once used for barge traffic, makes for an easy waterside walk from the town centre out towards open country.

Beverley's food scene ranges from proper Yorkshire pub classics to some of the best cooking in the region. The town is within easy reach of the Michelin-starred Pipe and Glass Inn at nearby South Dalton, one of Yorkshire's most celebrated gastropubs, while in the town itself the Beverley Arms on North Bar Within offers a more formal restaurant alongside its afternoon teas.

For something more everyday, the Saturday Market and the smaller Wednesday Market both host food stalls alongside general produce, and the town's bakeries are known for Yorkshire specialities such as parkin and pork pies. Beverley also has a good spread of independent cafes around the Minster and Flemingate, along with traditional pubs such as those near North Bar serving cask ale from regional breweries including Yorkshire's own Wold Top and Great Newsome.

The Beverley Food Festival, held most years in October, brings together producers from across the East Riding and the Wolds, and is a good opportunity to sample local cheeses, smoked fish from the coast and produce from the surrounding farmland in one place.

Camping around Beverley makes the most of the flat, quiet farmland of Holderness and the Yorkshire Wolds, both easily reached from the town by bike or a short drive. Sites range from small working farms just a couple of miles from the Minster to larger touring parks set further out towards the coast, giving campers a choice between staying close to Beverley's shops and pubs or basing themselves in genuinely rural surroundings with racecourse, Wolds and coastal walks all within reach.

Facilities vary from simple grass pitches with electric hookup to fully serviced hardstanding designed for larger caravans and motorhomes, and several sites also offer glamping options such as wooden pods or fitted wagons for those without their own tent or van. Dogs are welcome at all three sites featured here, reflecting the strong walking culture of the area, with routes leading out across Beverley Westwood, along the old Beverley Beck towpath, or further afield into the Wolds.

Because Beverley Racecourse sits within walking distance of the town centre, sites within a few miles fill quickly around race meetings, and the same applies during the Beverley Food Festival each October. Booking ahead for summer weekends is advisable at all three of the sites below, particularly the adults-only park, which operates year-round and is popular with couples looking for a quieter touring base close to the coast.