Malton

Malton's hotels and inns cluster around its Georgian market place and along the roads leading out to Norton and the surrounding villages, putting most guests within a short walk of the food market, independent shops and Talbot Yard's restaurants and producers. Options range from historic coaching inns with real ale and hearty menus to smaller, family-run B&Bs offering a quieter, more personal stay, many of them proud to showcase the same local produce the town is famous for at breakfast.

Because Malton is compact, staying centrally means you can leave the car behind for a weekend of eating and browsing, while the York to Scarborough railway line offers an easy, car-free way to arrive in the first place. For those wanting more space or a rural outlook, farmhouse B&Bs and small hotels in the villages around the Howardian Hills and Vale of Pickering put Castle Howard, Eden Camp and the southern edge of the North York Moors within easy driving distance, while still being close enough to Malton for dinner in town.

Whichever type of stay suits best, booking ahead is sensible around the Food Lovers Festival in May and on the weekends of the monthly food market, when the town's limited number of rooms fill up quickly with visitors drawn by Malton's reputation as Yorkshire's Food Capital.

Malton rewards a slow visit. Beyond its food credentials, there's Roman and wartime history, a grand stately home on the doorstep, and plenty of green space along the river.

• Malton Monthly Food Market — held on the second Saturday of every month in the Market Place, with more than 35 specialist food and drink producers, chef demonstrations and live music.
• Malton Museum — a small archaeological museum on Yorkersgate housing Roman finds unearthed locally, a reminder that Malton began life as a Roman fort and civilian settlement.
• Eden Camp Modern History Museum — a former Second World War prisoner-of-war camp just outside town, now a museum with more than 30 huts covering the Blitz, rationing, the Home Guard and wartime life on the home front.
• Castle Howard — the vast Baroque stately home designed by Vanbrugh, around seven miles west of Malton, famous as the setting for Brideshead Revisited and set in sweeping gardens and parkland open all year.
• Malton Cookery School — classes covering game, seafood, baking and Yorkshire produce, run from the heart of the food-capital town it calls home.
• The Food Lovers Festival — a three-day celebration each May of everything Malton does best, drawing producers and visitors from across Yorkshire and beyond.
• Riverside walks along the Derwent — gentle, well-used paths along the river between Malton and Norton, good for a stretch of the legs after lunch in town.

This is, after all, Yorkshire's Food Capital, and Malton backs up the claim. The town is home to Florian, chef Andrew Pern's Talbot Yard-based restaurant, alongside other independent producers clustered in the same Talbot Yard Food Court, including Roost Coffee, Bluebird Bakery, Groovy Moo ice cream and Rare Bird Distillers. The Wednesday and Saturday street markets bring farm produce, cheese and baked goods into the Market Place, while pubs such as The New Malton and The Wentworth Arms serve food built on the same local ingredients the town is known for. For something to take home, Yorkshire-made cheeses, charcuterie and baked goods from Malton's specialist shops make the trip worthwhile on their own.

Camping around Malton means the gentle, farmed landscape of the Vale of Pickering and the wooded slopes of the Howardian Hills, rather than the wilder moorland further north. Wild camping without the landowner's permission is illegal in England, so pitching up on open farmland or riverside meadows around the Derwent isn't an option — instead, the area has a good spread of licensed campsites and small farm-based sites within easy reach of both Malton and the wider North York Moors National Park, many run by working farms happy to point campers towards local walks and the nearest pub.

The terrain is mostly flat to gently rolling around Malton itself, giving easy, family-friendly pitches, while sites further towards Pickering and the moors edge start to climb into more sheltered, wooded ground. Facilities range from simple, low-key fields with basic amenities to fuller-service caravan and camping parks with electric hook-ups, showers and on-site shops, so it's worth checking what a site offers before booking if you're travelling with young children or need power for equipment.

Late spring through to early autumn is the best window for camping here, broadly April to September, when the Vale of Pickering's farmland is at its greenest and the days are long enough for evening walks along the Derwent or drives out to Castle Howard and the moors. May is a particularly good month to combine a camping trip with Malton's Food Lovers Festival, while September brings the harvest food festival and the first hints of autumn colour in the Howardian Hills. Winter camping is possible at sites that stay open year-round, but many smaller farm sites close over the colder months, so it pays to check ahead.

For those who'd rather skip the tent, glamping has taken root in the countryside around Malton, with shepherd's huts, safari tents and wooden pods offering a more comfortable way to stay close to the town's food scene without sacrificing the feeling of being out in the Yorkshire countryside. Many glamping sites here are set on working farms, giving a genuine taste of rural Vale of Pickering life alongside easy access to Malton's markets, restaurants and Castle Howard.