Magical Christmas Adventures In York

*Advertorial Feature With YHA*

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

Well, it certainly is for us. We have very limited time together during the festive period as poor Ollie normally only gets Christmas Day off and he goes back to work boxing day. This year however we had some amazing news and he is now able to take 3 days off for Christmas! 

To top it off we have started the festive period in style with a family break away in York. 

I have known about YHA for many years. My Mum actually worked in one locally to us when we were younger and I was fascinated at the concept and had planned to visit but life got in the way and I presumed that visiting and staying in a YHA was for single folks and didn’t actually realise that actually most YHA hostels have accommodation for families.

However YHA provide some amazing places to stay and unique opportunities to explore. Everyone who stays at a YHA hostels, cabins or campsites contributes to their work as a youth charity. That’s because the income generated is reinvested back into their buildings and programmes, enabling them to achieve greater reach and impact on young people with challenging lives.

On the Friday afternoon we visited the York Designer Outlet on the way into York and fitted in some lunch, shopping and even had chance to let the kids blow off some steam on their immense undercover children play area.

We arrived at YHA York mid afternoon ready for a weekend break with the boys and after putting our stuff in the private room with ensuite bathroom we left the car keys behind and headed off into York city centre on a bus that stops at the end of the road which was amazing at eliminating the need for expensive taxis and stressful parking! 

As we walked into the main shopping streets the boys were excited to see the pretty traditional shop windows with their sparkling christmassyness. With tinsel and glitter it was beautiful to see and it only ramped up the excitement further for the boys. 

Prior to our trip we had looked online and the York Christmas market was on and on Fridays in The Shambles there is even real snow! So after soaking up the Christmas spirit at the market and buying some festive goodies we headed to The Shambles for the snow! The town crier arrived and formally opened the snow and the 4 of us waited for the white stuff… and then its snowed.

After walking through The Shambles in the snow we headed back to YHA York to eat. Although there are many places to eat in York itself we wanted to have plenty of space and to take a breather from the busyness of town we knew that the hostel offered food until 9pm

The menu was not extensive but that was great there was plenty on offer without being over the top and with an offer of a free light bites meal for a child for every adult spending £6 (child needs to be under 10 years old) it made perfect financial sense and we were able to spend less than £20 on an evening meal for 4 including drinks! The food was well cooked and super tasty so much so we ate both our evening meals onsite at YHA York.

Breakfast was offered at an additional cost of approx £6 ish per adult and £3.50 for each child. There were fresh pastries and cereals on offer along with a range of juices and cooked breakfast items that you could select yourself and return to add more if you wanted.

After fuelling up on tasty breakfast we headed back into York for some memory making. We spent the day shopping and going on rides with the kids and for lunch we headed to a family friendly Italian that I fell in love with when my best friend introduced me to it a few years back. The pasta was lush and it was nice to get in from the rain.

After some further shopping and Joshua getting to dance with a Santa in York we decided to take the kids to the York Castle Museum to get in from the rain and learn some new things. With specific parts of the museum dedicated to certain things we visited and learnt about fashion through the years, the 60’s and about retro and vintage toys! 

The museum also had a mock victorian street with shops you could go into and people dressed up in the clothing of the era! Jacob totally loved a Punch and Judy show while there and as a surprise we paid extra in our entry fee to go to their ‘Audience With Father Christmas’ which was fanatic.

The Audience with Santa had ‘Dad’ sharing the story of the night before Christmas and Santa arrived. The kids were given a paper stocking on arrival and were asked to put on their name and what they wanted for Christmas. Each child got to tell Santa more about they were wanting and each got to go up and were given a magic key to use on Christmas Eve to allow Santa to get in! 

After having a chat with Santa we headed back into the evening and back to eat at YHA York. After our second evening meal on site the boys went to play pool with Ollie and we were planning on using the games room but with both  kids beyond exhausted we decided to call it a night. 

The private room we stayed in consisted of 3 single beds and a set of bunk beds. The kids loved the bunk beds and I loved stretching out in my own bed keeping the covers to myself! 

We have had the most magical Christmas adventure, making many many memories and filling out hearts with tinsel and glitter and we are now in full Christmas mode! 

Thank you YHA York for having us and allowing us to take some much needed family time and to enjoy the Christmas festivities York has on offer for families. Thank you also for allowing us to experience what YHA’s have to offer and I know this might have been our first trip but it certainly won’t be our last visit to a YHA! 

York has so much to offer and if you need some further ideas on what to do in York then check out this fantastic post from Colette from We’re Going On An Adventure who shares with us 16 Things To Do In York.