The best places to visit in Yorkshire? We asked locals to decide

Yorkshire Day is the perfect excuse to celebrate everything that makes England’s largest historic county so special – but if you’re planning a trip, one question always sparks debate: which part of Yorkshire is the best? Since 2016, Yorkshire has been divided into four ceremonial counties – North, South, East and West – each with its own distinct landscapes, attractions and fiercely loyal locals. From dramatic national parks and sweeping coastlines to vibrant cities and charming market towns, every corner has a strong claim to the crown. So, which county should you visit during the summer holidays? We asked four writers – each representing one of Yorkshire’s ceremonial counties – to make the case for their home patch and explain why visitors should put it at the top of their list. East Riding: The best coastline in Britain Chris Speck, writer, musician and Hull resident I’m from a middle-of-nowhere village in East Riding, just before the gentle, rolling chalk hills of the Wolds. It’s the kind of place where you can leave your pushbike in a hedge untouched for six months. Nothing ever happens. Despite that, years abroad made me yearn for the deserted flatland with endless sky above the North Sea. The East Riding doesn’t have any of the swollen, angry towns you find elsewhere in this county. The roads are quiet. Even our biggest cities feel like villages and the landscape in between is dominated by great ornate houses of former landowners with estate hamlets to support them. There’s a sleepy quality, and the 4,000-year-old, prehistoric Rudston monolith watches over us still. My grandmother says there’s a dragon’s footprint halfway up the standing stone, and there is – if you look hard enough. The Wolds of East Yorkshire inspired much of artist David Hockney’s work (Photo: Andrew Bret Wallis/Getty Images) We’re from fishing ancestry, and that means superstitions run deep. You don’t whistle on a boat – it’ll bring a storm, and you don’t boast, because the sea will swallow you up if you do. You must hold your breath when you walk through the 15th-century North Bar gate in Beverley, or the Devil will get you. We only take the mickey out of people we love. We play the quiet, hard game of rugby league. On derby day between Hull KR and FC, there’s no fighting at all. There’s treasure here, too. You can walk the windswept cliffs of Flamborough along the best coastline in Britain. There’s Hull’s old town, which has cobbled streets and cosy pubs, but few tourists. You can sit at the wonky tables in Nelly’s coaching inn in Beverley after walking around the ancient Minster. You can soak up the faded charm of coastal towns like Withernsea and Bridlington, where Bradford-born David Hockney took up residence in the 1990s and early 2000s to paint his large-scale landscapes of East Yorkshire, showcased in his 2012 Royal Academy exhibition, A Bigger Picture. You can stand three feet away from a punk band guitarist at the New Adelphi Music Club on De Grey Street in Hull. You can walk right out into the North Sea on the shifting sandbanks at Spurn Point. You’re free. The North Burton Trilogy by Chris Speck is published by Fantastic Fiction West Yorkshire: It’s the cultural powerhouse Jenny Elliott, writer and Leeds resident I have lived in West Yorkshire for five years, but pinpointing the exact moment it won my heart is tricky. If I had to pick, though, I’d say it happened during a trip to Pontefract. Beside the town’s once-mighty fortress, immortalised by Shakespeare in Richard II, I found myself transfixed. It’s not every day you see a troupe dressed as Liquorice Allsorts dancing to The Archies’ “Sugar Sugar” on grounds once trodden by English kings. Pontefract may be known for its castle and coal mining, but it also gave us Britain’s first sweet: the sticky black Pontefract cake. This confection is gleefully celebrated each July at the town’s Liquorice Festival. So, sure, West Yorkshire might still conjure images of soot-blackened buildings and “hear all, see all, say nowt” types, but don’t be fooled. While its great towns and cities grew up during the Industrial Revolution, today, this is Yorkshire’s cultural powerhouse. A Jaume Plensa sculpture in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Photo: Andrea Pistolesi/Getty Images) Take its artistic pedigree, for instance. West Yorkshire is the birthplace of two of Britain’s greatest sculptors, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and all three corners of Yorkshire’s celebrated Sculpture Triangle fall within its borders. The route leads from the free galleries in Leeds (the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery) to The Hepworth in Wakefield, and finally, to the sprawling Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Admiring Moore’s towering works in this lush 18th-century estate – all while fending off picnic-thieving sheep – is a Yorkshire rite of passage. Then there’s Saltaire, just north of Bradford. Like the Taj Mahal and the Colosseum, this industrial village has earned Unesco status for its Outstanding Universal Value. But crowds are few, and the monumental mill showcases artworks by local lad David Hockney and contains a delightful bookshop. The Saltaire Brewery is perfect for a post-exploration pint. It is little wonder that the Bradford city region has been crowned this year’s UK City of Culture. Its programme showcases its brilliant venues and talent and includes a stint hosting the Turner Prize. Meanwhile, Opera North is creating an immersive sound walk across the heather-strewn moors above Haworth – the very landscape that inspired the Brontë sisters. And to get there? Hop aboard the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, a heritage line that runs through England’s smallest station. It’s less known than the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but that’s part of its charm. Don’t get me wrong – I love all of Yorkshire. But for me, West Yorkshire has the edge. Coming from someone born and bred in Lancashire, that’s praise indeed. South Yorkshire: None of the pretensions of the others Johny Pitts, writer, photographer, broadcaster and Sheffield resident John Ruskin once described my hometown as “the dirty picture in a golden frame” and although things have changed since the Victorian era, when Sheffield was the city of industry, the statement still rings true. Bombed heavily during the Second World War, it was called a “Blitz city” by writer Owen Hatherley. Now, rising out of the noble scars of war, are some of the best modernist buildings in the country, including Park Hill – a concrete, Utopian vision of 1,000 flats, built in 1961. South Yorkshire’s town centres are not all pretty, but they are interesting. During the 80s, under Thatcher, pieces of underfunded, socialist-leaning architecture became canvasses for one of the best graffiti scenes in Europe. The county was second only to Berlin for graff, producing artists who were known and respected by Banksy such as Fista, Mist1, Des, SB2 and Crome. Graffiti by artist bubba2000 in Sheffield. Jarvis Cocker is a proud export of the ‘gritty not pretty’ city (Photo: Ioannis Alexpoulos/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Since the postmodern Meadowhall Shopping Complex was built in 1990 – known locally as Meadowhell – the city centre has been in a constant state of precarity – but it saw something of a boom during the New Labour years. Following years of Tory austerity measures and the Covid pandemic, it is starting to feel a little down on its luck again, though this is mitigated somewhat by new Chinese investment. Incredible Chinese restaurants are a newish addition, matching our established Indian restaurants for quality – London Road’s variety of places to eat rivals any street in the capital. The thriving student scene and the city’s inherent multiculturalism ensure it is ever-evolving. I’m focusing on my city, the capital of South Yorkshire, but let’s not forget about that golden frame Ruskin mentioned – beautiful old industrial hamlets in Barnsley, the lovely little market towns surrounding Doncaster, like Bawtry and Conisbrough. Plus, perhaps ironically, one of the best things about South Yorkshire is its proximity to Derbyshire – the Peak District, English heritage towns such as Castleton, Hathersage, Bakewell and Buxton, and estates including Elvaston Castle and Chatsworth House. Sheffield, meanwhile, has more trees per capita than other British city, two thriving universities, and two (perhaps slightly less thriving) football teams. In a recent survey of the UK’s favourite accents, carried out by online language learning platform Preply, Sheffield came first. Sean Bean and Jarvis Cocker, you see, present the friendly, down-to-earth mood of all of Yorkshire, but don’t pronounce the number “one” weirdly, as they do in other Yorkshire counties, where they say “wun”. South Yorkshire has none of the pretensions of West or North Yorkshire, and though we may have had to struggle with the devastating fact we don’t have a Harvey Nichols, think of the creativity produced in our lovely dirty picture. The county created Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Def Leppard, Warp Records, The Human League and even lesser-known, though perhaps even more influential, musicians such as James Poyser, who moved to the US and redefined the sound of Black music through his work with Questlove, J Dilla, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo. What has Leeds, the most populous city in Yorkshire, ever produced? Kaiser Chiefs and Chumbawamba? Afropean: A Journal by Johny Pitts is out published by Mörel North Yorkshire: The best of the four counties Sarah Banks, writer, photographer and resident of Low Hutton near Malton I have to confess, I wasn’t born in North Yorkshire. My birthplace is across the border in the West Riding. However, when I returned to God’s Own Country 20 years ago, the Howardian Hills in North Yorkshire (the largest county in England) was the place I made home. As I travelled around it, I realised that this county possesses every scene Yorkshire is known for. For its natural beauty, and variety of landscapes, North Yorkshire is the best of the four counties. First, it has both of the national parks. The Yorkshire Dales are cherished for their glacial valleys, riven with cascading waterfalls and meandering rivers; the sweet-scented hay meadows of Swaledale and Yorkshire’s Three Peaks. The Shambles is a tourist-magnet in the ancient city of York (Photo: TJ Blackwell/Getty Images) No less beguiling are the purple-hued uplands of the North York Moors, one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in England and Wales. Sprinkled with stone crosses and Neolithic standing stones, like those at Simon Howe, near Goathland, North Yorkshire’s sacred treasures are a tangible connection to our past. Low light pollution levels mean new perspectives emerge after the sun goes down – both parks are designated International Dark Skies Reserves. Look skyward to marvel at the Milky Way, the planets and the Northern Lights. As for the coastline, it is magnificent. Landlocked West and South Yorkshire just can’t compete. I will give East Yorkshire its due; the Flamborough headland is stunning and Spurn Point is unique, but the stretch of coastline from Saltburn to Filey is unrivalled. Soaring cliffs and sandy beaches are fringed with picturesque fishing villages such as Staithes and Robin Hood’s Bay and the jolly seaside resorts of Whitby and Scarborough – just ask the West Yorkshire folk who beat a path to them on sunny, summer weekends. Interwoven with this scenery is a riveting history told through the abbey ruins of Rievaulx, Jervaulx and Whitby, and castles including Scarborough and Skipton. Its oldest city, York, was the site of Roman and Viking rule. Then there are the pubs, not just the gastro ones, but cosy hostelries such as the remote Tan Hill Inn near Richmond, the highest pub in England, and towns including Malton, hailed as Yorkshire’s food capital. Each of Yorkshire’s counties has plenty to boast about. But if you are looking for a landscape to make your heart soar, the only place to go is North Yorkshire. Wild Swimming Walks Yorkshire by Sarah Banks was published by Wild Things Publishing in April 2025.