GoMad Nomad Travel

Whitby is a picturesque seaside town in Yorkshire, in the northeast of England. There’s an old ruined abby on the top of the hill with great views of the brick row houses and out to the sea. But the best thing about Whitby is the fish and chips, claimed to be the world’s best.

Text and photo by Stephen Bugno

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Dear GoMad Nomad:

My husband and I are going to England in two weeks. We have four days planned in London, but for the rest of the trip (6 days), we don’t really have plans.  I’ve been reading books and trying to figure out what to do.  Ideally, we’d like to take the train out to the country, visit some sites, etc. I was just wondering if you knew or had visited some off the beaten path places in England. We probably wouldn’t want to camp out too much, but stay in little inns, etc. With that said, we’d be up for camping maybe 1-2 nights if there was a particularly unique place.

-Erika, Louisville, KY

Dear Erika,

in the Yorshire Dales

Yorkshire is a favorite of mine, whether you check out the city of York and its enormous minster and associated medieval history or the insanely delicious fish and chips and Abbey on the hill in the amiable seaside city of Whitby. It’s an especially good choice if you head out to the countryside.

It would probably be best to take the train up to York and then rent a car (a very small one, petrol is expensive) in order to drive around and see Yorkshire at your leisure, allowing you to stop at any random village in the countryside and enjoy a pint in the local pub or tea and scones at a café, or take a break to walk an inviting path along the famous stone walls on the edge of a sheep pasture. In the small market town of Masham you can taste the ales at two great breweries: Black Sheep and Theakston.

For National Parks, I would choose Yorkshire Dales over North Yorkshire Moors. I’m sure you could find plenty of camping in the area, although many will probably be private RV parks. I hear the Peak District is also worth visiting for some great hikes, but keep in mind it is the most visited park in England.

Further to the north from Yorkshire, are Durham and Newcastle, two cities that I’ve wanted to check out, but haven’t yet.

I might try and book your accommodation ahead because you will be traveling in high season. Of course you could take your chances and just show up in some random villages and hope somebody has an open room.

If you wanted to avoid renting a car I would suggest, (and I know I’m all over the place now, far from Yorkshire) the Heart of Wales train line, which hits a number of villages and spa towns for 121 miles between Swansea and Shrewsbury through the middle of picturesque rural Wales.

I will admit, these suggestions certainly aren’t hard-core off the beaten path, but they are great places to visit and exploring the countryside, either in Wales or England will allow you to find your own off the beaten path favorites.

Other ideas:

In terms of other cities in England, I’ve found Liverpool to be one of the most interesting because of its history, excellent (free) museums, and locals.

And if I were to return to England, I’d probably check out the Lakes District and Cornwall (the Eden Project might be your style or even volunteering at the Monkey Sanctuary if you had more time).

-Stephen

What are your favorite spots in England? Feel free to give Erica and her husband your own tips in the comments below.

By Stephen Bugno

Enough from the nay-sayers! British food is good!

It is time for the unfavorable reputation of English cuisine to end. In my 20 days in England, I didn’t have a bad meal. The most memorable were the home cooked meals I had in Yorkshire and pub food in the cities and across the countryside.

The full English breakfast

The Full English Breakfast

Baked beans for breakfast?! What a great idea. Add fried eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, mushrooms, a tomato, bread and butter, HP Sauce, and of course, tea with milk. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a gentleman, and supper like a pauper.

Yorkshire Pudding

Not an easy one to reproduce back home. I’m still trying to get the right amount of oil to the right temperature in the oven. But this is how it’s supposed to look. Best served with  a traditional Sunday roast.

A Yorkshire pudding out of the oven

Shepherd’s Pie

An English dish that needs no introduction. Traditionally put together with leftover lamb from the Sunday meal. The one I helped make was made with ground beef, so technically it was a cottage pie.

Cornish Pasties

Although I’ve never been to Cornwall, the Yorkshire version was quite delicious. These convenient, pocket-sized pasties were originally made by women for their menfolk to take down into the tin mine. Filled with beef, onions, and potato, they are perfect right out of the oven.

Cask Ale

Find the best in Yorkshire. Cask ale, or real ale, is unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned and served from a cask, usually without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. There was a movement started back in the 1970’s to promote and revitalize these real ales that continues today. The best I tasted was Black Sheep’s Best Bitter or those from Theakston Brewery

Toad in the hole

Enjoying a pint at the Black Sheep Brewery

This one I didn’t eat until I returned home and was served up by some Anglophile friends in North Carolina. It’s a simple dish: just sausages with Yorkshire pudding cooked around it…. What could be better than that? But no one seems to to know where the name comes from.

Fish and Chips. England has the best fish and chips in the world. Yorkshire has the best fish and chips in England. Whitby has the best fish and chips in Yorkshire. There you have it, the best fish and chips in the world. Go to Whitby.

Liverpool played a major part in the African slave trade, serving as one of the angles in the triangle. Tropical goods such as sugar, indigo, and cotton would arrive in Liverpool and much of its 18th century prosperity was a result of the slave trade.

Liverpool has been designated a 2008 European capital of culture. This gives the city a chance to showcase its cultural life and development. But on March 31st it was looking more like the European capital of construction. It seems like a quarter of the downtown is closed and under cranes.

The maritime museum had a floor dedicated to the slave trade and another just on the city’s history. Here I learned why the Liverpool dialect is so different compared with any other in England. The reason: thousands of Irish settled in Liverpool during the potato famine.

Even though the UK is one of the most expensive places to travel, the museums all have free entry. That afternoon I also checked out the Liverpool Tate.

Stephen Bugno, April 2008