Whitby Itineraries
Half a day or a full weekend. Here are the best ways to spend your time in Whitby, planned step by step.
Whether you have a few hours or a full weekend to explore, these itineraries give you a local’s route through Whitby. Each one links directly to the restaurants and activities along the way.
Half a Day in Whitby
The version for anyone off a morning train or a coach with four hours to spend. It crosses the river once, climbs once, and comes back down for lunch, which is the correct shape for a first visit. Everything here is within a twenty-minute walk of the swing bridge.
- 110:00·20 minutes
Cross the swing bridge into the old town
Start on the West Side, cross the bridge, and take the first ten minutes slowly. If the bridge opens for a boat while you are waiting, that is the introduction rather than the delay.
View Whitby Swing Bridge - 210:30·1 hour
Church Street and the Captain Cook Memorial Museum
Walk the length of Church Street, then turn into Grape Lane for the house where Cook lodged as an apprentice. Half an hour inside is enough for the attic and the Endeavour story. Check the season first: the museum closes from December until February half term and runs shorter hours in early spring and November.
View Captain Cook Memorial Museum - 311:30·45 minutes
Up the 199 steps to St Mary's
Take it slowly and use the coffin-rest platforms for what they were built for. Look into St Mary's at the top for the box pews before going on to the abbey.
View The 199 Steps - 412:15·1 hour
Whitby Abbey
The ruin and the English Heritage museum beside it. Members go free; everyone else gets the best price by having booked online the day before.
View Whitby Abbey - 513:30·1 hour
Back down for fish and chips
Down the steps, over the bridge and along Pier Road. If the Magpie queue has got away from you, Quayside a few doors along takes bookings and Hadley's is back on the East Side with a shorter wait.
View Magpie Café
A Full Day in Whitby
A full day that uses both sides of the river and gets out on the water. It front-loads the climbing so the afternoon is flat, and it ends on the West Cliff, which is where the light is at the end of the day.
- 109:00·1 hour
The fish quay and the smokehouse
Start early on Pier Road while the quay is still working, then cross the bridge and walk Henrietta Street to Fortune's. Buy kippers now; they sell out and it is a small smokehouse.
View Whitby Swing Bridge - 210:00·2.5 hours
The 199 steps, St Mary's and the abbey
The full clifftop: the steps, the box-pew interior, Caedmon's cross, and the abbey ruin with its museum. Allow more time than you think for the museum.
View Whitby Abbey - 312:45·1 hour
Lunch in the walled garden
Back down and over to the West Side for Rusty Shears, which is out of the wind and not about fish. It is small, so early is better than late.
View Rusty Shears - 414:00·45 minutes
Twenty minutes on the water
Board at Brewery Steps for the short coastal trip towards Sandsend. Five pounds, no booking, and the only way to see the piers and the abbey from the angle they were built for.
View Whitby Coastal Cruises - 515:00·2 hours
The West Cliff, the Whale Bone Arch and the sands
Up onto the West Cliff for the Cook statue and the whalebones framing the abbey across the harbour, then down to the beach for as long as the weather allows.
View Whitby Sands & the West Cliff - 618:00·1.5 hours
Dinner in the old town
Back over the bridge to Abbey Wharf on Market Place, which keeps the latest kitchen hours on the East Side. If you would rather stay on the West Cliff, the Fisherman's Wife at the foot of Khyber Pass has the sea view instead.
View Abbey Wharf
Ready to plan your visit?
Check the weather forecast before you head out.