BwB meet-up in York: 29th May weekend

[Sophelia]

[quote name='Padraig' post='1680576' date='Feb 9 2009, 22.16'][font="Times New Roman"][size=3]Can but approve of all Sean's ideas. :)
[/size][/font]
Btw, one other lodging possibility is [url="http://www.stakesby.co.uk/accommodation.htm"]Holiday Flat[/url]. This was suggested before by Tenalpia IIRC. Some people may be doing their own thing but we could book Fri and Sat nights there, when we have a lot of people.

So are any people interested in doing a group booking? And does this place seem ok?[/quote]

Looks good Pod, but Flat 1 is already taken for that weekend. Flat 2 sleeps 8.:unsure:

[Ratty]

As I said before if you want some advise about places to eat, drink and be merry ask me. Also I can tell you which museums are worth a visit etc. First bit of advice, if you want to go to the races, don't go in the grandstand, you'll have a much better time in the cheap paddock area.

[tenalpia]

so far the cheapest accommodation I've found is for the YHA at £24.50 per night, most B&Bs seem to be £35 per night per person, I've made an enquiry about the flat for the Friday and Saturday nights as it certainly seems to have enough space to accommodate more than 8, unofficially like. I know there was concern about getting a flat as there is the risk that everyone ends up sitting around there all day and not going out but I think if we have activities planned it could work... With 8 in the flat it would work out at £30 per person per night, with more it would be cheaper.... Just a suggestion :P

[tenalpia]

Enquiry into the flat option isn't too positive: I asked about having a couple of friends round for a meal one night to gauge stroppiness and he said that nobody was allowed in the flat who wasn't paying to stay there. His address is in the same road so I'm guessing he'd be checking. He suggested the Garden Flat which sleeps 12 as that is still available and has a patio and gas bbq. However that is £35 per person per night and he requires a 50% deposit up front for any bookings.

[Sophelia]

I think every reputable place will be very careful on upper limits for health/safety and insurance reasons.

Tenalpia - I can't work out the price for that place if (say) 8 people are staying Fri-Mon (3 nights)?

I have been looking at some alternatives for example [url="http://www.riverside-york.co.uk/index-1-home.html"]this one[/url] sleeps 8 people for a total of £605 for the three days*. (It's in the city centre rather than near the racecourse though)


*That would be £76 per person for the whole weekend - so that works out as under £26 per night for people staying 3 nights - but would not be so good for 2-nighters (£38 per night) unless the 3-nighters subsidised the 2-nighters when it might come out £31 a night or something for everybody.

[Sophelia]

[quote name='Dunhallym' post='1679700' date='Feb 9 2009, 09.49']I should be there from Friday night to Monday (I thought I had already said so ?).

I have to say I have little to no interest in races, so are there other things people who don't want to go to races can do? Unless you convince me that going to the races is something one really has to do ;).[/quote]

What Dunny said.

(I'm for Fri-Mon as well)

There may be a couple of other people interested but we're not sure yet.

Most of the places I have looked at do 3 day weekend breaks Fri to Mon, so it might be an idea to get a large place (8 seems to be the max) for the Fri-Mon people, which could be filled by some Fri-Sun people if necessary, and the Fri-Sun people find cheaper short-term accommodation in a second location, since it doesn't seem possible to get one large place which would fit everyone anyway.

I make it we have 4 definite Fri-Mon people, plus hopefully Malt makes 5 so far
3 people are Fri-Sun, plus Isis (will have to find a room on Thurs night alone - aww), and possibly Derfel - makes 4-5 so far

Eloisa, Tomfoster, Pod... (and anyone else who hasn't committed)... which days will you be coming for?

ETA: I'm willing to fork out a deposit for the one I linked to for the Fri-Mon contingent, but I don't want to take responsibility for overfilling it, so that would be 8 only. Or I could go for a smaller place, perhaps 5-6 people, to take the overflow from Ten's place? I found one near the racecourse for 6 people at a cost of £390 (£22 a night if it was filled with 3-nighters).

[zakalwe7]

Afraid this is the weekend of my dad's retirement party so afraid that we won't be able to make it :(

[Werthead]

I'll see if I can speed up inquiries about the uni option. I didn't realise the date was that late in the year. By then most of the courses should have wrapped up and there should be accomodation to spare. I'm seeing my contact on Thursday so I'll see if I can have some more info by the weekend.

[tenalpia]

[quote name='zakalwe7' post='1681841' date='Feb 10 2009, 20.29']Afraid this is the weekend of my dad's retirement party so afraid that we won't be able to make it :([/quote]

:(

[Ser Sean]

Just want to get an idea of what people actually want to do?

The Ghost Walk seems to be the favourite for Friday evening, so here are two alternatives - [url="http://www.ghosthunt.co.uk/index.html"]Ghost Hunt[/url] or [url="http://www.guyfawkesinn.co.uk/guy-fawkes-ghost-walk.php"]Guy Fawkes Inn - Ghost Walk[/url]
The first seems to be the biggest or at least one of the bigger walks in York but seems to be more fun than informative and the second doesn't have much info, but claims to be the only walk in York to have access to the insides of the haunted buildings.


YORK RACES - Who does and doesn't want to do this?
I'm definitely going as it was the main reason for choosing these dates and because after going racing and enjoying it immensely a couple of years back, I vowed it was something I'd do again.

There are, of course loads of other things to do and visit if you don't fancy a day at the nags.
Here's a handy linky with places to visit and info on each place + a guide to some of the historic pubs (note the e-book in the 'free stuff' section) - [url="http://www.yorkexplorer.com/index.shtml"]York Explorer[/url]


Tom is on the case as far as the Cheesy club and our own party area for the Sat night.

Ratty, any advice you can give on the walks or places of interest would be awesome. :)

[Ratty]

There are the usual touristy things that visitors to York like to do such as walk round the city on the walls, Museums wise the NRM and the Castle museum are decent, but the best one is the Yorvik Viking Centre. Tourists also like going to Bettys although I'm yet to meet one York resident who has been there. York races are a top day/night out, but seriously, the cheap paddocky area is the best place to be, take some food and blankets with you picknick style and its brilliant.

Pubs and clubs wise is more my speciality. Clubs are a bit of a problem at the moment as we're down to only a few, most of which are crap, when a chinese restaurant in the high street is considered one of the best clubs you know things are on a downer. However, there are tons of good bars and pubs. Good choices are Varsity, Judges Lodgings, Blue Fly, the Stone Roses, Lendall Cellars, the Evil Eye etc. If your looking for somewhere to eat as well as drink then the best pub for that is Oscars, but you'll have to book a table as its always packed. The York brewery pubs such as the three legged mare are more traditional as is the Old White Swan, Hansom Cab or Ye olde starr Inn.

[Padraig]

+1 Horse racing
+1 Ghost walk

[b]Attending[/b]
Malt Sat-Mon (maybe Fri also)
Isis Thur-Sun
Ten Fri-Sun
Chal Fri-Sun
Sean Fri-Sun
William Fri-Mon
Slick Fri-Mon
Dunhallym Fri-Mon
Padraig Fri-Mon
Sophie Fri-Mon

Zollo
Eloisa
Tomfoster

Maybe
Derfel Fri-Sun
Iceman
Werthead

[b]Another list - Looking for group accomodation
[/b]Tenalpia
Sophie
Padraig

I'm sure a few others want to grab some accomodation also but I'm not assuming anything. :) The flat suggestions above work fine with me anyhow.

[The Iceman of the North]

You might as well write me up for Friday to Monday, I'll just have to figure out how to get to York. The Bergen-York longboat service seems to have been discontinued.

[Isis]

I am fine with sorting something for the Thursday night myself. tomfoster will possibly be there on Thursday too. If not, I will go out for a spot of lone-pub scoping. :)

I am flexi about group accomodation btw.

[dalThor]

Mashiara and I might actually consider this. Being that it's during the school year we thought it'd be a no-go for sure but my boss was quite nice about it. We'd be Fri - Sun and would be interested in group accomodations to keep costs down.

Count us as possibly maybe at this point.

ETA: Assuming one flies into Heathrow there's a train up to York? How long does it take and how often - if anyone knows offhand.

[Maltaran]

[quote name='dalThor' post='1686245' date='Feb 13 2009, 22.20']Mashiara and I might actually consider this. Being that it's during the school year we thought it'd be a no-go for sure but my boss was quite nice about it. We'd be Fri - Sun and would be interested in group accomodations to keep costs down.

Count us as possibly maybe at this point.

ETA: Assuming one flies into Heathrow there's a train up to York? How long does it take and how often - if anyone knows offhand.[/quote]

I'd suggest you fly into Manchester - there are regular direct trains from Manchester Airport to York, which take just under two hours, whereas to get from Heathrow to York you'd have to go in and out of London.

[Sophelia]

To dalThor:

:o Wow - that would be amazingly wonderful!

:cry: about zak and needle though :(

[quote name='dalThor' post='1686245' date='Feb 13 2009, 22.20']ETA: Assuming one flies into Heathrow there's a train up to York? How long does it take and how often - if anyone knows offhand.[/quote]

Offhand, every half hour or so.


I'm just waiting for Wert to report back on uni accommodation before finalising anything about where to stay.


ETA: to add to what Malt said, it's about an hour and a half on the tube from Heathrow to King's Cross, and King's Cross to York is 2.5 to 3 hours on the train. I might be down in London myself though so if anyone is arriving from that direction I could meet up and travel up with you.

You could look at other airports too. I don't know if there are flights from Athens to Newcastle, but if so, Newcastle airport is even closer (half an hour on the metro and an hour on the train, to York).

[williamjm]

I'd probably be interested in the group accommodation as well if someone is volunteering to book something, although if we're all just booking things ourselves then that's fine as well.

[quote name='dalThor' post='1686245' date='Feb 13 2009, 22.20']ETA: Assuming one flies into Heathrow there's a train up to York? How long does it take and how often - if anyone knows offhand.[/quote]

There are closer airports, but from Heathrow it should be about a 3 hour train journey, you'd get the underground from Heathrow to London Kings Cross and then there are regular direct trains to York.

[Maltaran]

Further to my above post, I checked the Manchester Airport website, and there are flights to Athens (Olympic Airways - I assume that's a Greek airline).

[Sophelia]

Actually I have impulsively booked the Riverside flat for 8 that I linked to a few posts ago, for Fri-Mon (I'll offer first refusal to the mafia people and people coming from furthest away...).

I don't think it matters too much if there are several clusters of us, since we don't plan to stay indoors a lot (it's extra incentive to leave the house to meet the others ;) ).

According to [url="http://www.yorkconferences.com/page.php?id=119"]this webpage [/url] (scroll down to self-catering in Halifax House), the uni flats aren't available until 5th July, officially. Maybe Wert can get some special arrangement, but it seems to be some way away from the centre of town so not ideal, but it's a bargain (£216 for 6 or £432.00 for 12 people for Fri-Mon).

In case anyone is interested in nabbing it, this is the link to [url="http://assamhouse.yorkwebsites.co.uk/"]Assam House[/url], the 6 person place near the race-course that I mentioned before (short break price £390 Fri-Mon). I did fill in the web form to check it is available, but got no reply, so I would suggest phoning them.