A big welcome to our flat in Whitby. We hope you enjoy staying here at much as we do. We want
you to have a great time and have worked hard to make sure the flat has everything you need, so
you can just relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of wonderful Whitby.
However, if something is not quite right, or you have any suggestions on improvements, please just
send us an email. For emergencies, we have included a list of numbers you can ring for help or
advice.
As we don't have a cleaner, there are some items you will need to take with you:
Bedding: depending on how many of you are staying, you will need sheets, duvets covers and pillowcases for the double bed (double size) and 2 sofa beds (both small double size). The duvets are in the living room cupboard.
Towels: this includes bath, hand towels, and tea towels.
Should you need them, we do have spare bedding and towels in the cupboard in the living room. Please can you return them directly to us once you are back. Thank you. To make the sofa beds more comfortable there are mattress toppers in the living room cupboard. Please put them back when you leave.
Things to check before you leave
We hope you enjoy your stay. To help keep the flat ready for other visitors, please can you ensure you have left the flat clean, tidy and safe:
Clean the rooms
Put the rubbish in the bins (see below)
If you have used any of the spare bedding, towels or tea towels, please can you put these in the blue Ikea bag and bring them back so they can be washed.
Please make sure all the windows are closed. Leave the internal doors open to air the flat.
Empty the fridge of perishables. Leave it turned on
Leaving one set of keys on the hook by the door and bringing the other back
Information about the flat:
Keys: We have given you one set of keys, and there is another hanging on a hook by the door. Please make sure
you bring back the set we gave you and leave the other set hanging by the door.
Use this fob colour guide for each door key:
Cooker: The big red switch on the wall (behind the chopping boards) should already be flicked down. Please leave it flicked down when you leave. The instructions for using the cooker are in the very left-hand kitchen drawer. If it is turned off, you have to set the clock before using the oven.
Cleaning products: The vacuum cleaner, broom, and mop and bucket are in the hall cupboard. The rest are in the cupboard under the sink. Please let us know if anything is missing.
Food: Please feel free to use any of the food and leave food behind for following guests. It can be a few weeks between visits, so please only leave things with long use-by dates - e.g. pasta and tins, or if in the fridge - margarine and ketchup and not things like milk, cheese, vegetables etc.
Information about the flat: bins
We have 2 types of bins. Most of your rubbish will go in the main bin. This then goes into the
green or black bin. You can recycle the following (just put them in a bin bag until ready to leave). This then
goes into the blue bin.
paper and shredded paper, card and cardboard
glass jars and bottles
Plastic tubs, plastic bottles and lids
food and drink cans
empty aerosols
cartons, such as juice cartons and milk cartons
The bins are kept in the small road at the back of the building. To access them, go down to the floor between flats 1 and 2, follow the hall past the toilet and round the corner. There is a back door with a lock. Go down the wooden steps (they can be slippery!) to the courtyard. The bins are outside the gates. The green bin is numbered, the blue bin isn't. Please remember to lock the door when you return to the flat.
Information about the flat: other stuff
Steve: We often have a seagull who likes to perch outside the living room window and wait for tit bits.
If Steven Seagul is visiting, you might want to give him some of your lemon bun. He also likes chips, fish, and
any other food.
Wifi: You will need to turn on the router which is located on the bedroom wall to the left of
the window. The router name was Waark Waark Waark (Steve thought of that name) but now it's the rather boring "vodafone3A2341" The password is ZqfEbzEcsyttEtKm Try saying that when you've had a few.
TV: The TV has Freeview, but not all channels. You can login to various accounts eg: Netflix, Prime, BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Ch4, UKTV etc. Please login using your own account details. To log out of Netflix, go to the "Help" section and near the bottom is a button for logging out.
BT Speaker: There is a small Bluetooth speaker under the television in the cabinet. To use it, hold down the power button until it goes “FWOOISH!”, then hold down the Bluetooth button on the other side until the light starts flashing quicker. Then connect your device to it by pairing with “SoundCore 2”.
Shower: Flick the big red switch in the bedroom down.
Living room and kitchen windows: these can be tricky to open. Sometimes you need to pull
to one side as you bring them up or down. Sometimes you need to go all the way up to bring
them down. The bedroom window can open partially towards you (handle horizontal) or fully
to one side (handle upwards). If you have young kids, please only the windows open a little way
There are other information leaflets in the far left-hand drawer of the kitchen that might be
useful.
In the drawers under the tv cabinet there are a few novels, puzzle books, some colouring pens
and colouring books. Please help yourself. Feel free to leave any books or games you don’t want
to take home that you think others might like to use.
You are welcome to light the candles, but please use your common sense when using them. The
kitchen has a fire blanket and fire extinguisher.
Parking
Parking in Whitby can be quite challenging, but we have scratchcards for free parking to use in a W zone on a daily basis. These are
kept on top of the microwave in the kitchen and there are more in the drawer underneath it.
To use these, scratch off the Year, Month and Day you are using the card and place it on the inside
of your windscreen. These last for 24 hours and need to be replaced with a new card by 10am the following day -
you can put several day's worth of cards in at a time. If you forget to scratch part of it off,
you will be fined (I know, I've done this!).
Free Parking
There is free parking on the streets 7-8 minutes walk away from the flat. If we
cannot find a parking spot in the W zones, we usually find a spot on Upgang Road. See the map
on the website below for other free parking places.
Boat trips: You can take your pick of boat trips. From 20-minute outings either round the
harbour or out to sea, to 2-hour trips along the coast. There are also fishing trips available. Some
need to be booked online, but others, like the pirate boat and ship can be booked at the harbour itself.
The Beach: Whitby beach is relatively unspoilt by touristy shops and amusements. These are
mainly on the harbour road. When the tide is out, you can walk from Whitby to Sandsend. There
are a couple of cafes with some beach equipment at either end of the beach. You will need cash for
the North End Beach Café. You can hire a chalet but be aware they get very booked up in the
summer. There are free toilets at the North End.
Walks: One of our favourite walks is along the Cleveland Way to Robin Hood's Bay. Head up the 199 steps towards the abbey, and turn left just before it to pick up the trail. It's about 2.5 hours to Robin Hood's Bay, and a good plan
is to have lunch at one of the pubs there, and get one of the regular buses back to Whitby.
For a shorter walk, head out along the Cinder Track, picking it up at Southend Gardens,
and head south until you get to the Larpool viaduct.
Museum: In the middle of Pannet Park is The Whitby Museum,
home to the Hand of Glory - a preserved hand from an executed murderer that allows the bearer to break into people's houses un-noticed.
Goth weekend: Whitby often hosts events, but the major one is Goth Weekend which happens twice a year. Even if you
aren't of the Goth persuasion yourself, it is a sight to behold. Many people really put the effort in creating goth and steampunk
costumes.
Pubs: There are all sorts of pubs in Whitby. Some favourites of ours are Beer O'Clock on Flowergate and the Esk Vaults, tucked away up the top of some steps on Golden Lion Bank. Just down the road from the flat is The Granby, which is more of a traditional pub with traditional food - and no vegetarian options! Next to the abbey there is a rather nice microbrewery and pub that does pizza as well.
The Steves
Steven Seagul is a handsome herring gull who sometimes visits the flat for treats and snacks. He is probably be a girl - it's impossible to tell but she's a bit smaller than other gulls. Actually, there have been several Steves and there seems to be a new one each time we stay there. Here is a quick identification chart in case you have a returning Steve:
Original Steve
The original and, quite frankly, the best. She did everything - eating out of your hand, catching food in her beak, and watching telly with you over your shoulder. She stopped coming after a while.
Update: Steve has returned! Yes, she came back on our last visit and enjoyed some raisins and bits of lemon bun. She then went away and came back with a gift for us - some lovely twigs and feathers. Perfect for making a nest with. Thanks, Steve.
Spot
Named for the dimple in his feathers under his left eye. Spot learned how to catch food over a week, and also learned that nectarines left next to an open window make a tasty treat. He then started banging on the window with his beak at all hours. Even worse, when Steve left us our present, he swooped in and stole it! Since then he has been larus non grata, and is ignored or chased away when he visits.
Steve
Before we realised it was a usually a different gull each time, we thought this one was Steve, so he's called Steve. The black mark on his beak differentiates him from the other Steve. Steve is the longest-visiting gull, spending three months as our bun disposal expert. In Spring Steve brought his girlfriend Katy along too. If Steve comes back as well as Steve, we might have to rename him to avoid confusing him with Steve.
Fake Steve / Rubbish Steve
These were two gulls who pretended they were Steve but Fake Steve's beak markings were different, and Rubbish Steve couldn't catch food. Neither stayed more than the week they were being fed. Beware of imitation Steves.
Sid
A radical departure from the naming convention but this is one radical seagull. With his punk feather-do, imagine him as the seagull representation of the Sex Pistols bass player - but addicted to chips and lemon buns rather than heroin. The similarities don't end there - like his namesake, Sid the seagull can't play the bass guitar either.
There is currently a conspiracy theory going round that Sid is actually Steve with wet feathers. I have evidence, if you want to go down that particular rabbit hole.
The gulls tend to go away in autumn and winter, but let us know if you make friends with one. Be aware that they can tap on the window with their beak to let you know they are there, and they get up very early. Chocolate isn’t good for them, and chips and buns should only be given as treats rather than their staple diet.
