Blog

Stories, tips, and local insights to help you make the most of your stay in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

The thing about May is that it has more useful days in it than people realise. Two bank holidays, a half term, the longest evenings until midsummer, and the gap between Easter and the summer holidays where the Dales empty out for a few weeks. We have the same conversation with guests every spring, they wish they'd come up sooner. So this is us pointing it out a bit earlier this year.

A long weekend is the right shape for the Dales. Three nights is enough to feel like you've actually been somewhere, but not so long that the trip has to be planned like a proper holiday. Here's how we'd play a Friday-to-Monday from Pinecroft, with real places attached rather than vague countryside vibes.

Ask most people when to come to the Dales and they'll say July. They're not wrong, exactly. But they're missing a trick. Late March and April here have a quality that summer can't quite touch. The waterfalls are at full pelt after a winter's worth of rain, the trails belong mostly to whoever turned up that morning, and you can still get a table at the pub without having booked a fortnight ago.

If you've been mulling over a few quiet days away, this is a good month to stop mulling.