Riding the North Yorkshire Moors Railway from York in November

The only trains in November

Every departure in late November is a festive one, and they all do the same thing, a one-hour return run from Pickering down the line to Levisham. The Santa Express goes at 10:30, 12:00, 13:30 and 15:00 on both days. It's £29.50 a head, with a carer's seat at £17.50, and a £1.50 booking fee is charged once rather than per ticket. Every child gets a gingerbread plush toy and a festive book. On the platform there are elves, a 'Naughty or Nice' ticket scanner and a post box for letters to Santa.

Pickering terminus is dressed as it was in the 1930s, under an 1847 glazed roof, with gas-style lamps and a black steam engine simmering at the platform end.

One run is quieter than the rest. The Relaxed Santa Express takes fewer people, with softer sound and lighting, seats allocated in advance and a quiet waiting area in the Platform 2 visitor centre. It goes once only, at 15:00 on 28 November, and families need to be on the platform by 14:50.

If you have a choice of day, take the Saturday. The 28th carries everything; the 29th has the four Santa runs and nothing else.

Groups from 20 to 192 travelling passengers get a discounted fare and reserved seating, and the group leader travels free, though the Santa Express has its own group rates. Coaches drop off at the lay-by on The Ropery and park at Eastgate, and they can't be left standing unattended.

Tinsel Tipple after dark

Tinsel Tipple is the 14-plus version of the same hour, at 17:00 and 18:30 on 28 November. It's £35.00 a head, and that buys a 50ml Baileys or a soft drink, a mince pie, a lit carriage and a sing-along with the elves. Same line, same turnaround at Levisham.

The bus from York

The Coastliner 840 goes to Pickering every hour, every day, and takes about an hour and a quarter. Get off at the Royal Oak on Eastgate, a short walk from the terminus. A guided coach day trip from York over the moors to Whitby also runs every day of the week this winter, which covers the moorland and the coast while the trains are off. Book that ahead.

Goathland without a train

Goathland station is the one people come for. Its platform was Hogsmeade in the first Harry Potter film and Aidensfield in Heartbeat, and it costs nothing to walk onto. In November, looking is all you can do. The tea room in the old goods shed and the gift shop open only on days the railway runs, so the next trains to call here are on 27 December. Parking is £2 an hour or £5 all day between 09:00 and 18:00, with no exemption for Blue Badge holders, and there are toilets on the platform, including an accessible one.

The path to Mallyan Spout leaves the village near the Mallyan Spout Hotel and drops into a wooded gorge beside West Beck. The waterfall is a 70ft thread of water down a mossy rock face, and November rain is what makes it worth the walk. The same rain turns the last stretch into a wet boulder scramble, so wear boots and allow 45 minutes. The path is single-file, which strings a big group out badly, and it's no place for a buggy.

A pint in Goathland

Goathland Hotel stands above the village green and was the Aidensfield Arms in Heartbeat. With the station tea room shut for the winter, it's the only place in the village to count on for a pint, and there are up to three cask beers on. It's closed Monday and Tuesday, open 11:30 to 15:00 for the rest of the week, with Thursday to Saturday evenings from 18:45 to 22:00. Food stops at 14:00, so turning up hungry at half past two doesn't work. Hours change a lot between November and March, so check the week you travel.

Pickering's painted church

Twenty minutes from the platform, the Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul stands at the top of the Market Place, and its nave arcade is covered top to bottom in medieval wall paintings. They are in faded red ochre, St George and the dragon among them, and they make up one of the most complete sets to survive in Britain. The church is open daily 09:00 to 16:00 through the winter and free to go in, with donations invited. If steps are a problem, come up the Hallgarth path, the only approach without any.

Beds in Pickering and Levisham

The White Swan Inn on Pickering's Market Place is the obvious base for a late-November train weekend, a 16th-century coaching inn with rooms, log fires and a flagged bar. Lunch runs from 12:00 to 14:00 Monday to Saturday, and to 14:30 on Sunday when there's a roast. The kitchen does Yorkshire beef and Whitby-landed fish at restaurant prices, mains in the twenties, with a discretionary 10% service charge on the bill.

The Horseshoe Inn faces the green at Levisham, up the hill from the station where the festive trains turn round. It opens at 15:00 Wednesday to Saturday and at noon on Sunday, so midweek lunch is out. Dinner is from 18:00 Wednesday to Sunday, Sunday lunch is 12:00 to 13:45, and check-in for the rooms is 16:00 to 20:00. No coach can reach Levisham station, so without the train you need a car or a taxi from Pickering.

Whitby by bus

In summer the line runs through to Whitby, which came back on 1 June 2026 once Bridge 42 had been inspected and propped. In November the bus does that job, two and a quarter to two and a half hours from York.

Whitby Abbey stands roofless on the clifftop above the town, its tall window tracery open to the sea wind. Winter opening is Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 16:00, with last entry at 15:30. Tickets last all day and cost up to 15% less if you book online before midnight the day before. Arrive by bus or train with a valid travel ticket and you get 20% off at the door instead. The south car park is closed for the winter, so head straight for the visitor centre and its displays on St Hild, Caedmon and the abbey's Dracula connection.

Lunch is Magpie Café on Pier Road, in a harbourside house of 1750 above the fishing boats, open daily from 11:30. Bookings are taken for around 11:30 and after 15:00 only, and the rest of the day you queue. Three courses without drinks is £25. A weekday lunch in late November is the one time you can walk in without a long wait.

On the way back, Fortune's Kippers smokes split herring over slow oak fires in a doorway on Henrietta Street, below the 199 steps. It's open 09:00 to 15:00 Monday to Saturday and from 10:00 on Sunday, until the day's fish has gone. Go in the morning.

Steam without leaving York

If neither date works, the National Railway Museum is a few minutes' walk from York station and free to go in. It opens daily 10:00 to 17:00, with last admission at 16:30, and Mallard, a Japanese bullet train and an InterCity 125 are all there, with some vehicles you can walk through. Book a slot to save time at the door. Work on a new central hall has started, so the route round the site isn't always the usual one.

The next trains after November

From 27 December to 3 January the hop-on hop-off Winter Steamer runs daily, at £24.95 for an adult. It works Pickering to Goathland only, because of engineering work on the stretch beyond. Daily trains along the full line return in March 2027.

Booking and closed days

Book the 28 or 29 November trains before you travel, and remember that Tinsel Tipple and the relaxed run are on the Saturday only. A Monday or Tuesday is the wrong day for the rest of it, with the abbey and the Goathland pub both closed. See the York guide and the York hotel search.