WHITBY ABBEY VOTED UK’S MOST ROMANTIC RUIN

Whitby Abbey has just been voted the UK's most romantic ruin, check out the reports on the BBC and Whitby Gazette sites. The photo below was taken from The Waverley by one of our guests, all of our rear rooms have views of the Abbey. 

Whitby Abbey from The Waverley

Many of our regular guests actually ask for room 9, despite it being our smallest room and at the top of 51 stairs, simply for the spectacular view of the Abbey and sea. Why not have a Romantic weekend in Whitby to celebrate Valentine's day?

Click here for mor images of Whitby and The Abbey

We are opening for Valentine's Weekend

After our extended closure for our own holidays, Christmas and a bit of decorating we are reopening for Valentine's Weekend on 11th February. Come and indulge yourselves for a few days in Whitby and ask us about ideas on where to book that romantic meal. We look forward to seeing guests, both old and new. Whatever you choose to do have a romantic start to the year.

5 years at The Waverley

With the close of this year's Goth Weekend we have reached the end of another season, it's hard to believe that it is our 5th. The photo has been hijacked from our regular guest Joz's Facebook page. (Joz writes horror books, click here for his site)

The speculation and rumour about the Goth Weekend dates appears to be resolved with a move to November, see The Gazette for more details.
The original Goth Weekend is promoted by Jo Hampshire's site TopMum and the traditional date of the last weekend in October will now see the Bram Stoker film festival which has been held mid October for the last 2 years. Some Goth fringe events promoted by Dark Daisy, run by Jo Hampshire's ex husband Sam Hoyle, will be held alongside the film festival.

This is all a little confusing but I think that sums it up.

Thank You to our guests for our new Trip Advisor Award

When we opened the post this morning we were very surprised to receive a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence, this is despite that we are slipping down the rankings. Some people will remember that we were ranked as No 1 on the hotel side of the Trip Advisor site, but when we received the Trip Advisor Traveller's Choice award earlier this year it was realised that we are a guest house and not a hotel, consequently we were moved onto the B&B side of the site. There is a great deal more competition on that side and as the ranking is based on quantity as well as quality of reviews we could not hope to be in the higher rankings as we have fewer letting rooms than some, coupled to only being open for about 9 months of the year and having many regular guests as well as plenty who do not have access to computers. There is also a weighting on Trip Advisor towards the more recent reviews.

Unlike most places we do not solicit reviews from our guests, nor do we offer any inducement to get them to do so, but we are always very grateful when someone takes the time and effort to put a comment on the review site. If you would like to see our reviews click here. Thank you to all of our guests.

Watch out for the Christmas Tree

When you are coming to Whitby on the A169 over the moors from Pickering look out for the Christmas Tree around a mile, or maybe a bit more, after RAF Fylingdales. We first noticed the tree about this time last year when there was only one bauble. Over the next few weeks a couple more appeared and at Chrismas last year there were no more than half a dozen. Since then it seems that every time we pass there is another ornament, some tinsel and now the top is adorned by a star. Technically people are probably littering, but seeing the tree develop makes us smile each time we pass on our weekly trips to visit family.

Whether you are coming to stay at The Waverley, somewhere else or just on a day trip, look out for the tree on the left hand side after passing the early warning station and hopefully it will make you smile too.

50 Pints and Still Counting

Proud day today as Julie has given her 50th pint of blood. Unfortunately I (Stephen) can't give bood any more but Julie has more than made up for that. It is a common misconception that if you have a common type of blood that there is no need to donate, whereas more of the blood is needed simply because it is more common. Everyone who can give blood should do so because there are very few people who would refuse to take blood except on religious grounds. Follow this link to find out more http://www.blood.co.uk/

Julie is proudly wearing her new badge whilst sporting the bandage where the blood was taken.

Fancy New Year in Whitby?

Esk Valley Theatre, Glaisdale

We have lived in Whitby for approaching 5 years and each year have promised ourselves that we would go to Esk Valley Theatre (EVT) but have never got around to it. This year we have been twice.

On Tuesday last week 8 of us went to see a Pocket Panto production of Dick Whittington - There were 4 generations of our family there ranging in age from 4 to 90 and one person from each generation really didn't like the idea of a panto. How wrong we were, every one of us had a great time watching the three performers enact the tale of Dick on his London adventure and we all laughed throughout the performance.

In contrast to this just the 2 of us went to see Second from last in the Sack Race on Monday night (instead of watching the Regatta fireworks in the rain!) and once again had a fabulous night. EVT is only a theatre for one month a year but the productions of both programmes were excellent. We will be back next year.

Regatta

Once again the Regatta and Whitby Folk Week have coincided, but looking at the Regatta website we are pleased to see that common sense now prevails as there should be no further conflict for the next 5 years at least. We wish both events every success going forward.

This year's Regatta was what we have come to expect with the usual attractions, rides and Monday fair but it is a shame that it cannot revert more to what it was 40 years ago and be less of a commercial enterprise. We were sorry that the Monday was somewhat of a washout and unfortunately the Red Arrows were unable to make an appearance because of the weather, let's hope that next year the sun will shine for the three days. The Carousel pictured here was a new attraction which seemed to draw plenty of attention. Because of the weather we did not venture out on Regatta Monday until the evening when we went to Glaisdale, but more of that in the next blog.

Proud Parents watch Jessica Jump

Jessica 15 seconds from landing

After 3 aborted attempts, due to inclement weather, Jessica has finally done her skydive to raise funds for Lynn's Bowel Cancer Campaign and has apparently become one of the 0.03% of the world's population to have jumped from an airoplane. Even though I (Stephen) would have liked to do this when I was younger, Jessica took up the gauntlet and effectively did it on behalf of her old man as well as LBCC because I'm not sure that I have the bottle any longer!! Sad but true.

In total she raised going on for £500 but, more importantly, awareness of bowel cancer has been raised. We finished the rooms in time to be able to go to see her jump and very proud parents we both are too.

If you would like to see more photos you can see  them with this link skydive album and if you would like to see about the charity please click here.