Despite the regular trains into Scarborough from York and Hull and the fixed £2 bus tickets on many of the services into our town this year, many of our guests opt to drive themselves to Kenways Bed and Breakfast. This can allow greater freedom to explore the area on your own terms and is never a problem for us as the parking in the area is usually no trouble.
Many of Scarborough’s residential and town centre areas are covered by a parking permit scheme know as disc zones. Disc clocks, which we provide for free, work in any of these zones for a limited time. The lamp posts in streets where the restrictions apply have notices on them stating that it is a disc zone and how long you can stay. You simply turn the disc clock dial so that the arrow is pointing to the time at which you have parked and pop it on your dashboard. You then have the stated amount of time from then until you need to return to the car.
Outside our B&B, for example, a permit of some kind is needed between 9am and 5pm Monday to Saturday and between 12 noon and 5pm on a Sunday. The disc zone time is 3 hours. If you arrived at 10am and set your disc clock to that time, you can leave the car there until 1pm. If you arrived at 2:30pm and set that time, you would be covered up until 5:30pm which takes you past the restriction time for that day and would actually mean you could park until the new day started at 9am.
These disc clocks work in any disc zone, not just around Scarborough but also in Filey, Whitby and even outside the North Yorkshire Council area – we’ve used ours on holiday in Northumberland before.
If you are leaving your car outside Kenways Guest House for a longer duration (which many do – there are so many pubs in the area, you don’t always want to drive!), we will provide you with a scratch card (or cards) to display on your dashboard to cover you for the full duration of your stay. These are specific to our local parking area which is detailed on the lamp post notices as 3A.
The 3A zone covers not just our street but most of the adjacent streets around out block. Usually, it’s not a problem to find a space on Victoria Park Avenue, especially as the cars towards to bottom of our road tend to come and go regularly as people pop into the convenience store, North Bay fisheries or the cafes. If, however, you can’t get parked as close as that, we will usually point you to either Victoria Park or Woodall Avenue which run parallel to us. The spaces outside the cinema at the top of our road and running alongside the North Riding Brew Pub on Queens Parade are 3A, as is Tennyson Avenue and the bottom part of Trafalgar Road at the other end of Victoria Park Avenue near the One Stop shop.
The only “road” you need to avoid is the back alley running directly behind our property which is clearly marked as residents only.
If you wish to drive into the centre of Scarborough, you have various options. There are pay and display car parks available and sign posted all around the town centre including the multi-storey at the Brunswick shopping centre, a large car park on North Street behind the Opera House Casino and one opposite the railway station on Valley Bridge Road. The prices are not unreasonable – it’s not like parking in Cornwall!
The entire sea road running around the headland from North Bay to South Bay has pay and display bays all along it, as does the stretch of road leading into the Spa complex. The main area along Foreshaw Road (along the front in Scarborough’s South Bay) is actually a stretch of disc zone so you can park there for free for a limited time – if you can find a spot! There are also smaller car parks at the Spa roundabout, on the West Pier and just off Quay Street, behind the Golden Ball pub.
The great news for those of you who prefer to travel out of the summer season is that most of the parking bays around the front are completely free to use between November and March and all council parking areas are usually free after 6pm all year round.
Finally, if you are travelling further afield, we can thoroughly recommend the Park and Ride services in Whitby. Trying to park near to the town centre or harbour in the summer months can be a bit of a nightmare but the regular bus service running from either the abbey or the north side of town drops you right in the centre of everything and is well sign posted as you come into the town. Filey has a large car park at West Avenue, behind Glen Gardens with its play area, boating lake and mini golf. There is a further car park near the station/Tesco. Disc clock parking is possible along the promenade and in the residential streets near the town centre but is, of course, on a first come, first served basis. Both towns are very well served by regular and reasonably priced buses leaving from Scarborough throughout the day.
If you have any questions or concerns about the best way to travel to Kenways Guest House or how to get around once you are here, please do not hesitate to get in touch - 01723 365757.