York: Private Walking Tour of City Walls & Historic Sites

4.77

(146 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I’ll admit, I was mostly curious about how much of York you can actually see from the top of those old city walls. Turns out — quite a lot. Our guide, Tom, met us right outside our little hotel (he waved before I even spotted him) and somehow made the first few steps feel like we’d known each other for ages. The stones were cold under my hands and there was this faint smell of wet leaves — maybe from last night’s rain? Anyway, Tom kept tossing in stories about Romans and Vikings as we walked. He even pointed out a spot where apparently someone saw a ghost once (I didn’t, but it was still fun to imagine).

We stopped for coffee near Micklegate Bar — Tom swears by the scones there, and honestly, he’s not wrong. The whole place felt lived-in; regulars greeting each other, someone reading a paper in the corner. After that we wandered through The Shambles (which is way narrower than I pictured) and past Clifford’s Tower. There’s something weirdly comforting about having no big group to keep up with or schedule to follow. When I asked about medieval toilets (don’t judge), Tom just laughed and launched into a story about chamber pots that still makes me cringe a bit.

I didn’t expect to get so caught up in the small details — like the way sunlight hit Treasurer’s House or how quiet it got along certain stretches of wall. At one point we just stood there looking out over rooftops and it felt like time slowed down. We finished near Barley Hall where Tom suggested a pub for later (“best chips in York,” he claims). It wasn’t rushed at all — just felt like wandering with someone who genuinely loves this city.