York Minster Review + Photos • Trip Meets Travel

York Minster, located in York city centre is part of York’s fascinating history that must be visited. You could easily spend a couple of hours inside the minster building, admiring its beauty and learning about its history.

We visited York Minster as part of our 3 day York pass and out of the many places we went the minster was our favourite for great history and beautiful photo opportunities.

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York Minster

When we signed up for our York Pass we were focused on a mix places we could visit to really tell you the story of great things to do in York and how to spend your York pass wisely.

York Minster was on our list, not just because we had never been and would love to look inside, but also because we knew it wouldn’t take up a whole day, so the kids wouldn’t get bored and we could then visit lots of places on the same day.

Because of a mishap trying to find Cocoa Works and losing some time, York Minster was moved from day one of our York Pass to day two. (you can read about our cocoa works disaster here!). and with the sun shining we headed around York Minster and decided to see if it was up to its famous reputation.

Getting To York Minster?

We used our Google Maps on our iphone to easily navigate ourselves around York and to find where to go to get to the front entrance of the minster.

York minster is located on Deangate in York.

On arrival in York we used York park and ride and then walked from there to the minster. Its also a stop of the York sightseeing bus too.

Arriving at York Minster

I am so, so, so grateful that York minster doesn’t need to be pre-booked. When you are doing the York pass system you will often have several things booked for the day, and its hard to estimate how long each one will take and is easy to be late to the next on your list.

We loved that we didn’t need to pre-book York minster, or cliffords tower. Then we could fit them in on the 2^nd day when we had space.

When we did arrive, it was a relatively short queue considering that we were just turning up without a York minster ticket and that we visited during the schools half term holidays.

We probably waited 10-15 minutes to go inside of the minster building and the staff were very apologetic that we had to wait, which we really didn’t mind.

Minster York

Once we had got our York minster tickets, we were soon inside the minster and could check it out and get excited by its beauty.

Generally, people were inside the minster doing the same as us.

Walking around slowly, taking pictures, admiring its beauty, and learning about its history.

Though one mum had me in absolute fits of laughter and I just couldn’t stop laughing! She was there with her teenage son, and he was on his mobile phone with his headphones in. She told him to get off his phone and get excited over the history and that blink and he will miss out on his surroundings.

It just made me really chuckle because as a mum to a soon to be 22 year old I know that battle and you just want to rip those headphones out.

Sofia and Jorge are 8 and 6 and can still be entertained by what is going on….thankfully.

Me & Dom kind of headed off in different directions whilst we chose what to look at what parts of the minster, we wanted to take photos of.

york minster photo opportunities — It felt like everyone was in the way of each other, as you all tried to take tourist style photos of the surroundings. I would often have to wait until someone was out of the shot.

york minster beauty — The other option when you struggled to take pictures was to shoot higher up and get some of the York beauty in the shot without it taking over a picture.

inside york minster — Then of course, if you did want a gorgeous portrait picture of York minster then a great way of doing so was a bit of patience and going for the places that people were not photographing at that moment.

plenty of seating in york minster — There is also plenty of seating inside of York minster. This is the seating you would use if you had come for a service at York minster.

minster seating front view — Then this is the seating view from the front as you look back at everyone seated, kind of like what the priest would see if he was looking at his crowd.

Light A Candle At York Minster

Just like many other churches, you can light a candle at York Minster. I always do this and it reminds me of growing up and watching my grandma do so at church.

When you light your candles you can also make donations to the church because York minster has a high maintenance upkeep and its nice to be making an effort and contributing.

Windows At York Minster

Okay, so it was the windows at the minster that fascinated Me and Dom the most. We just loved the colour of them and some of them looked very old, so we did wonder what the upkeep was like on them.

york minster windows information — This is also info here about the windows and then throughout your trip around the minster building you can learn more and more about its history.

york minster windows — Or if you want the real thing, then throughout York Minster you will have the chance to take a photo of them from the distance. The light is not always great though with you being inside. But its still nice to take.

If going with kids, you could create a window bingo and get them to tick how many of these beautiful windows they see or do the same for other features of the minster.

always improving york minster — They are also always improving York Minster and when we visited they had a lot of scaffolding up around the sides of the building. Though it didn’t spoil our trip in any way.

More Exploring At York Minster

The kids were more into York Minster than I thought they would be. They both sat down and said their prayers, they both asked questions about everything and went to look at pictures of Jesus as well as any artifacts that were there.

jorge praying at york minster — Jorge praying at the minster. I think he had a lot of practice at school because he is very good at it!

Though I wonder if part of this is the bribe of an ice cream from the ice cream stand was outside when we were done!!!

york minster look above — Then I met up with Dom and he showed me all the lovely pics he took of the minster including this ceiling pic and then I showed him mine. The good thing is we have an Iphone each and have it to allow pics to sync to each others phones so we can easily access them.

outside pic of york minster — This is the kind of picture you will take if you are outside of the minster hoping for the perfect shot. Because it goes so high, you are much better doing the York walls or the sightseeing bus for the perfect photo.

York Minster Review

We just LOVED our day trip to York Minster. Its one of those beautiful places that is full of history, and you can understand why so many people visit York every year and include a visit to the minster.

We loved all the great culture and also was surprised by just how big the minster building is. There is a lot of rooms going off the main area and you can easily lose yourself an hour in here.

York Minster Visitor Information

Where is York Minster located? York’s famous minster is located on Deangate and is located in York city centre. Its easy to get to and is close to drop off points both from the sightseeing buses and from the park and ride.

What is the post code for York Minster? If you are using your Google Maps to navigate to the minster it is YO1 7HH.

Is York Minster free to enter? York Minster is free, if you are going to York minster to attend a church style service. But to view the minster building like we did there will be a cost.

How much does it cost to get into York Minster? York minster tickets are £16 per adult plus free for kids. Making it £32 for the four of us.

What is the dress code for York Minster? I would say the dress code for York Minster is casual. When we visited, we had shorts and tshirt on because it a warm day and many of the other visitors to York minster happened to be wearing similar. Though I am sure they would draw the line at beach wear or clothes with offensive wording on them.

What is York Pass? I have mentioned our York Pass a few times. Basically, it’s a York ticket where you have access to loads of York attractions for a set price. Kind of like when you get a special pass for theme parks. I recommend you read our York pass review here because we explain how to do it and save money as its easy to waste money on it. Plus, we run through all the attractions we did for the pass including our trip to the minster.

Pin York Minster For Later!

Well, that’s a wrap, do you have any questions then do ask below and if you want to refer back, to this later for planning your York day out then don’t forget to pin it to your travel board or days out board on Pinterest.

About the author

Run by Sam, Dom, Kyle, Sofia & Jorge it documents our family’s love for eating out, day trips, road trips and great holidays.

We just love a trip, we love to travel, and here we will show you with a little planning, how to have a great adventure and create new memories along the way!