3-star hotels in Selby

Selby rewards an honest look. Gowthorpe and the retail edges are ordinary, and the 1970s swing bridge over the Ouse is functional rather than photogenic, but the streets around Market Place, Micklegate, Ousegate and Finkle Street keep real Georgian and Victorian bones, and the abbey's west front, with its Norman doorway, is genuinely stopping. Selby Park, off Scott Road, is a proper Victorian park with a bandstand, mature limes, tennis courts and a play area. The listings here sit in two bands. The George Inn on Market Place, Bay Horse hotel at 57 59 Micklegate and Micklegate House at 67 Micklegate put you among those old streets; Maypole Farm Bed & Breakfast, Mary's and Sycamore Moss Hagg Farm sit out towards Selby Common. The rest are in the villages around town: Tadcaster, Church Fenton, Riccall and Sherburn In Elmet, several within a short walk of the station.

Getting there and around

From Selby station, direct services reach York in about fourteen minutes and Leeds in around twenty-five, with London King's Cross a shade over two hours on the through Hull services. Buy an off-peak return, spend the day inside the walls and come back to a room costing half the York rate. The last useful train from York runs late enough to eat dinner there and return. On foot, the canal leaves the Ouse at the basin near Ousegate lock and runs five flat miles south-west to West Haddlesey; turn back at Burn Bridge for a two-hour round trip. Several of the hotels listed are in villages outside town, so a car helps.

When to go

Weekend nights are livelier and loud around the pubs until roughly eleven, but this is not a nightlife destination. If you want the abbey without the weekend crowds, a midweek stay pairs well with dinner in York and the late train back.