York

The largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe, and the Great East Window is the biggest area of medieval stained glass anywhere. Tickets run £13 to £28, are valid for a full year and admit four children free. Open from 09.30 with last admission at 16.00, but it is a working church and closes for services.

The most complete circuit in England, free, entered at Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar, Micklegate Bar, Fishergate Bar and Victoria Bar. The stretch past the Minster is the one to do if you only do one.

A fourteenth-century butchers' street with overhangs that nearly meet above your head. Photographed to death by ten in the morning and empty by nine at night.

Free, 10.00-17.00 daily on Leeman Road, with Mallard, a Japanese bullet train and a royal train collection. Book a free ticket before you go.

Built over the Coppergate dig on Coppergate, YO1 9WT, with the finds and a ride through a reconstruction of tenth-century York. All visits must be pre-booked online or by phone; there is no walk-up.

York is on the East Coast Main Line, with fast LNER services from King's Cross and direct trains on north into Scotland. The station is just outside the walls, five minutes' walk from the centre.

Direct trains to Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle mean York works as a stop on a longer route rather than an out-and-back from London.

The medieval core is largely pedestrianised, the streets predate carts let alone cars, and the Park & Ride sites on the ring road are the sane option.

May, June and September: dry enough for the walls, and the Minster gets direct evening light on the east window.

January and February, when the city is cheap, empty and at its most atmospheric in fog.

December, when the Christmas market fills every street and hotel, and any race meeting at York Racecourse.

The Shambles before nine, then breakfast, then the Minster when it opens at 09.30.

Onto the walls at Bootham Bar and round to Monk Bar with the Minster on your shoulder.

The covered market off the Shambles, or one of the snickelways pubs behind it.

National Railway Museum, free, ten minutes behind the station and worth two hours even if you do not like trains.

Dinner near Fossgate, then a ghost walk, which in York is a real local industry rather than a gimmick.

Heather moorland and the Esk valley an hour north-east, with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway running steam from Pickering to Whitby.

A baroque house in a landscaped park fifteen miles north-east of York, with a dome you can see from the road.