North Yorkshire Moors

The busy estuarine harbour at Whitby forms the original core of this fishing town turned resort, and fresh fish is still sold from the catch in the early morning. From here the old town rises steeply, with smart shops and cafes dotted around a web of streets and cobbled alleys.

A whalebone arch commemorates the town's once thriving whaling industry, while across the river 199 steps rise up past the parish church, memorable for its Georgian furnishings including a triple-decker pulpit and a cheerful jumble of box pews.

Look out for the ear trumpet, installed there for the benefit of an aurally challenged 19th-century vicar, that hangs from the pulpit. Bram Stoker took the setting of the windswept churchyard for the opening of his novel Dracula.

Close by are the 13th-century ruins of Whitby Abbey, bombarded by enemy shelling during the First World War but still impressive. The remains include a three-tiered choir and north transept, and there's a Celtic Christian cemetery as well as a restored 17th-century stone garden.

In Pannett Park (on the west side of town) Whitby Museum is delightfully old-fashioned and crammed with mementoes, including some spectacular fossils and the hand of a murderer used as a candle holder by superstitious burglars. In the town centre the Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Grape Lane occupies the house where the great explorer James Cook lived as an apprentice in the shipping trade with his kindly Quaker master John Walker.

On Marine Parade, the Dracula Experience is a vivid spooky re-creation of scenes from the classic tale.