Frequently Asked Questions

Our tours all begin in York and we offer a hotel pick-up service across York city centre. When you book the tour you’ll be asked where you are staying so that we can arrange to collect you from your accommodation on the morning of the tour.

We will confirm your pick-up time with you approximately 48 hours prior to the tour

Yes!

We offer a hotel pick-up and drop-off service across York city centre*, so we will arrange to collect you from your accommodation in York on the morning of the tour. Our tours are limited to just 6 or 7 people per group (usually 3 or 4 pick-up locations), so you won’t need to worry about spending too long travelling from hotel to hotel.

We will aim to confirm a pick-up time with you 48 hours before the tour.

*The pick-up area in York city centre is approximately limited to the area within, or close to, the city walls of York. If you are unsure if your chosen hotel is within the pick-up area, please get in touch.

You are visiting Yorkshire, so we think it is important that your guide is local to the area. All of our guides are born and bred in Yorkshire – true locals with a genuine connection to the region. You won’t find that with other tour companies in York, so make sure you book with Grand Yorkshire to guarantee a truly Yorkshire experience with a truly local guide.

Dress in comfortable clothing appropriate for the weather forecast. Layers are best – you can always leave extra layers of clothing in the touring vehicle. We’re in Yorkshire, so almost any weather is possible; a waterproof jacket or umbrella is worth bringing if there is a possibility of rain.

We never leave you anywhere exposed in bad weather but being prepared for a bit of bad weather means you can still enjoy sightseeing if it starts to rain.

Comfortable shoes are all you will need. You won’t need heavy duty walking boots – unless you are planning to do some countryside walking during your leisure time on the tour. On all of our tours, there are paths and places to walk in normal shoes/trainers – we won’t be asking you to hike across fields and farmland (but you can if you want to!).

There is always space on board for everyone to bring a small bag or backpack. There is also space for two or three suitcases. However, please make sure you let us know in advance if you want to bring a suitcase; if everyone turns up with a suitcase then there simply won’t be space. Pre-notified suitcases will be given first priority over those with suitcases who haven’t informed us in advance.

Some of our customers bring collapsible wheelchairs / mobility scooters on the tour with them. These will be given priority over luggage unless you have pre-notified us that you intend to bring a suitcase.

No – we don’t take seat reservations.

Our tours are limited to just 5 people per group/vehicle, so you won’t find yourself sitting 10 rows back at the rear of the coach!

Our touring groups are small so everyone is guaranteed a good seat, a good view and chance to interact with the guide. Everyone gets a window seat!

We will always do our best to accommodate those people with special requirements and will endeavour to look after customers who are suffering from travel sickness, but we can’t make guarantees about seating allocations in advance of the tour.

Each tour is different, so please check to the details and “What’s Included” section to see if tickets/entrance fees are included.

Your guide on the day will be able to arrange your entrance fees and organise your train tickets – and we’ll always make sure you get a discount if there is one available to us.

You’ll never need to book these in advance; we’ll always make sure we’ve pre-booked tickets for the whole group if necessary.

Unfortunately, we do not currently have any wheelchair-adapted vehicles in our touring fleet, so we don’t have the ability to accommodate those who are unable to get in and out of the minibus.

We regularly take passengers who use collapsible wheelchairs and mobility scooters and will provide assistance where required to help you in and out of the minibus. There is usually space in our vehicles for collapsible wheelchairs and small mobility scooters, but it is imperative that you inform us in advance if you intend to bring these with you, as we cannot guarantee there will be space for these unless you have pre-notified us.

You can bring food with you on the tour. We make stops in lots of great places on our tours – there will always be lots of options for lunch and tea/coffee along the way – but you can of course bring food with you on the day.

We just ask that you don’t bring any hot food into the touring vehicle, as smells from your hot meal can be unpleasant for others on the tour.

If you are bringing food, we also ask that you consider others when eating. There are lots places visited on the tours and lots of photo stops, so where possible it is preferable if you eat during one of the scheduled stops on the tour.

We use spacious, air-conditioned 8-seater minivans for most of our tours and limit the group size to just 6 or 7 people per tour/vehicle, so you certainly won’t be short of space. There’s plenty of space and legroom on board and the small group size means you’ll be able to get to know your guide and fellow travellers along the way.

We use the smaller and more nimble touring minivans on our tours to give us greater access to the smallest roads, back lanes and farm tracks in the Yorkshire countryside. On these tours you’ll get as close as possible to the amazing scenery and enjoy a truly authentic experience of the rural Yorkshire landscape

No – we never cancel our tours based on numbers. If you have booked even just one place, the tour will run.

If you have travelled across the world to see Yorkshire, we don’t feel it is fair to cancel at the last minute just because there are only a few booked on the tour.

You can book in total confidence knowing that your day trip will go ahead even if nobody else books!

Our day trips are designed to be fun, informative sightseeing tours that help you get a genuine experience of the places we visit. We don’t think they are really suitable for small children and toddlers, who often do not like regularly getting in and out of the vehicle.

We therefore have set a lower age limit of 5 years old, both for the enjoyment of the child but also considering other travellers, whose experience of the day could be spoiled by an unhappy child.

We will of course accommodate registered guide dogs and assistance dogs on the tours, but other dogs and pets are not allowed on our tours.

Throughout our main touring season (March-October) the weather is never bad enough for us to need to cancel…so we won’t.

In Yorkshire our philosophy is quite simple: ‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes’. Our guides will adapt the tour where necessary to get the most out of the day’s weather, sometimes altering the order of the itinerary so that we can be in the right place at the right time to avoid the worst that the weather has to offer that day.

If you need to cancel your booking, 0ur cancellation policy is very straightforward:

Cancellations made at least 4 weeks before the tour date will receive a FULL REFUND*.

Cancellations made at least 2 weeks before the tour date will receive a 50% REFUND*.

Cancellations made less than 2 weeks before the tour date are non-refundable.

*Booking fees are non-refundable