North York Moors, Steam Railway & Whitby

Our Private Steam Train, North York Moors & Whitby Tour from York

York is a brilliant base for exploring North Yorkshire.

The difficulty is that some of the places people most want to see are spread across the county, and joining them together without a car can quickly become a day of timetables, connections and working out how to get back to where you started.

That is exactly why we created our North York Moors, Steam Railway & Whitby tour.

It combines one of Yorkshire’s great heritage railway journeys with Goathland, the North York Moors, Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay in one private day from York.

We collect you in York, take care of the driving and the route, and bring you back again at the end of the day.

No coach group. No car hire. No trying to piece together several different journeys yourself.

Just your group, a local driver-guide and a properly planned day across North Yorkshire.

A North Yorkshire Moors Railway tour from York that actually joins up

The first part of the day takes us from York to Pickering.

Pickering is the southern gateway to the North York Moors and the starting point for your journey on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Rather than simply driving alongside the railway or visiting one of its stations, you get to experience the line properly.

You board at Pickering and travel through the countryside towards Goathland.

While you are enjoying the railway, your Highwayman driver-guide takes the vehicle ahead by road.

We then meet you at Goathland.

That small detail makes a huge difference to the day.

You do not have to ride back to Pickering to recover a car. You do not have to arrange another connection. You simply continue forwards into the North York Moors.

It is one of the reasons this itinerary works so well.

A private tour, with the railway built into the day

Highwayman Tours specialises in private driven tours from York for groups of up to four guests.

That means the road portion of the day is exclusively for your group.

You are not being collected alongside several other parties and you are not spending nine hours on a large coach.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is, of course, a public heritage railway, so other passengers will be travelling on the train.

But before and after your railway journey, the tour is yours.

We collect your group in York, meet you again at Goathland and continue privately across the moors and out towards the Yorkshire coast.

Goathland and the North York Moors

Goathland is one of the most recognisable villages in the North York Moors.

Its railway station has appeared on screen, the village became famous through Heartbeat, and the surrounding landscape is unmistakably North Yorkshire.

But this tour is not built around ticking off filming locations.

Goathland works because it sits right in the landscape we want you to experience.

Once we meet you from the train, we continue through the North York Moors by road.

This is not simply transport between the railway and Whitby.

The moors themselves are part of the tour.

Open heather, valleys, stone villages, changing views and some of Yorkshire’s most distinctive roads all form part of the journey.

Having a local driver-guide also means you can actually look at it.

You do not have to spend the day watching the sat-nav, thinking about parking or concentrating on unfamiliar rural roads.

A Whitby tour from York without hiring a car

Whitby is one of Yorkshire’s great destinations, but visiting it from York as part of a bigger day can be awkward without your own transport.

Our tour removes that problem.

After crossing the moors, we arrive in Whitby with time for you to explore.

This is not intended to be a five-minute photo stop.

Whitby deserves time.

You might want to wander through the old town, walk towards the famous 199 Steps, look across towards Whitby Abbey, explore the harbour or simply find somewhere for fish and chips.

Because this is a private tour, every group does not have to experience Whitby in exactly the same way.

We agree where and when to meet and give you the chance to enjoy the town.

And while you are doing that, parking is our problem rather than yours.

Why combine the steam railway and Whitby?

The railway is a fantastic experience in its own right.

Whitby is a fantastic destination in its own right.

But together they create a much more complete North Yorkshire day.

You begin in historic York.

You travel to Pickering.

You cross part of the North York Moors by heritage railway.

You arrive at Goathland.

You continue through the national park with your private driver-guide.

Then you reach Whitby and the Yorkshire coast.

Instead of spending the whole day travelling to one attraction and then returning the same way, the journey keeps moving forwards.

That is what we wanted this tour to achieve.

Robin Hood’s Bay is included too

Whitby is not the end of the day.

From there we continue down the Yorkshire coast to Robin Hood’s Bay.

The village has a completely different character from Whitby.

Old stone cottages and narrow lanes tumble steeply towards the sea, giving Robin Hood’s Bay the atmosphere of an old Yorkshire fishing village rather than a larger coastal town.

It makes a natural final stop before we begin our return journey to York.

Our full route is:

York → Pickering Station → North Yorkshire Moors Railway → Goathland → North York Moors → Whitby → Robin Hood’s Bay → York.

A Yorkshire day trip without a car

A lot of our guests are staying in York and simply do not want to hire a car.

Some are visiting Britain from overseas.

Some do not want to drive unfamiliar roads.

Others could drive perfectly happily but would rather spend the day enjoying Yorkshire than concentrating on directions, traffic and parking.

That is one of the main reasons Highwayman Tours exists.

You do not need your own vehicle to get beyond York and see the county properly.

We collect you, drive you, guide you and bring you back.

York hotel pick-up and a local driver-guide

We offer York pick-up and return, including hotels and accommodation by arrangement.

From there, your driver-guide looks after the road journey for the day.

We are not trying to turn every minute into a history lecture.

Part of being a local guide is also knowing when to give you information, when to let you explore and how to make the day actually work.

Yorkshire is a big county.

Travel times matter.

Weather matters.

Traffic matters.

And occasionally the best decision is to spend a little longer somewhere you are enjoying rather than rushing away because a printed itinerary says so.

Private touring gives us more freedom to deal with the real day in front of us.

Who is our private steam train and Whitby tour for?

This tour is particularly good for visitors who are staying in York and want to see more of North Yorkshire without hiring a car.

It also works well for guests who want to ride the North Yorkshire Moors Railway but do not want the railway journey to be the only experience of the day.

You get the railway, Goathland, the North York Moors, Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay, all joined into one route.

And because Highwayman Tours carries private groups of up to four, the day remains small, personal and flexible.

More than a railway ticket

The easiest way to understand this tour is that we are not selling you a train ride.

We are building the railway into a complete North Yorkshire day.

We collect you in York.

We get you to Pickering.

You ride the railway.

We meet you at Goathland.

We take you across the moors.

You explore Whitby.

We continue to Robin Hood’s Bay.

And we bring you back to York.

That is the Highwayman Tours difference.