England Guide
Yorkshire
Robin Hood's Bay
The most heavily visited spot on the North Yorkshire coast, ROBIN HOOD'S BAY is made up of gorgeous narrow streets and pink-tiled cottages toppling down the cliff-edge site, evoking the romance of a time when this was both a hard-bitten fishing community and smugglers' den par excellence. From the upper village, lined with Victorian villas, now mostly B&Bs, it's a very steep walk down the hill to the harbour. When the tide is out, the massive rock beds below are exposed, split by a geological fault line and studded with fossil remains. There's an easy circular walk (2.5 miles) to Boggle Hole and its youth hostel, a mile south, returning inland via the path along the old Scarborough– Whitby railway line.
A couple of miles northwest of Robin Hood's Bay at Hawsker, on the A171, Trailways ( 
01947/820207, 
www.trailways.fsnet.co.uk ) is a bike-rental outfit based in the old Hawsker train station, perfectly placed for day-trips in either direction along the disused railway line.
There are three good pubs in the lower village, two of which have rooms: the tiny Laurel, on Main Street ( 01947/880400; Price: ₤51-60; two-night minimum), whose small self-catering flat sleeps two; and the Bay Hotel, right on the harbour ( 01947/880278; Price: ₤61-70), which is the traditional start or end of the Coast-to-Coast Walk. Boggle Hole's youth hostel is a former mill located in a wooded ravine about a mile south of Robin Hood's Bay at Mill Beck ( 0845/371 9504, www.yha.org.uk; from £13.95).