riverboat cruises york

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City cruises york - sightseeing cruises.

Enjoy York's No. 1 sightseeing tour; an entertaining and informative cruise on the River Ouse!

• Min. 45-Minute Sightseeing Cruise
• Live Captain's Commentary
• On-Board Bar With Local Snacks & Beverages

Pre-Booking Advised! We advise pre-booking your cruise on our website - it's a great way to plan your visit to York!

Step on-board and take a seat on the top deck or wrapped up warm in our enclosed saloon - wherever you sit you will have a great view to uncover the history of our ancient city and the immense impact the River Ouse has had on its development. From the impact of flooding over the centuries to its prosperity as an inland port, bringing precious goods from across the globe into York, including the humble cocoa bean, that super-charged York’s world-famous chocolate industry.

You’ll discover more about all this history, as well as picking up some local knowledge, thanks to live, on-board commentary from our home-grown skippers. During your cruise, treat yourself at our on-board bar, stocked with a selection of beers, wines, spirits, soft drinks, hot drinks and snacks.

Walk-Ups Welcome! We reserve tickets for walk-ups... Visit us at Lendal Bridge or King's Staith Landing !

There are four guaranteed cruises from each of our landings:

King's Staith Landing: 10:30, 12:00, 13:30, 15:00. Lendal Bridge Landing: 10:40, 12:10, 13:40, 15:10.

Many more trips operate, usually every 30-45 mins... Times are displayed at the landings and online! Also from City Cruises York... Evening Sightseeing with our Early Evening Cruise and Floodlit Evening Cruise ! Dining Cruises , take your pick from Lunch, Afternoon Tea and Evening Dinner! We WON a TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Award 2021. We WON Visit York's Visitor Attraction of the Year 2019. We were NOMINATED for a York Press Business Award 2021. We are ACCREDITED by AA's Covid-19 Confident. We are ACCREDITED by Visit Britain's 'We're Good To Go'. We are MEMBERS of the Good Business Charter.

We create amazing experiences and will take great care of you from boarding to disembarking!

Opening Times

Up-to-date timings are on the City Cruises website ...

• On-Site Refreshments
• Live Tour Guide
• Baby Changing Facilities
• Covid-19 Precautions
• Mobile Ticketing
• Instant Confirmation
• Families Welcome
• Partially Wheelchair Accessible
• Facilities For Educational Visits
• Groups Welcome
• Facilities For Corporate Hospitality
• Nearby Parking (With Charges)
• Well-Behaved Dogs Accepted
• Regional Tourist Board Member
• Coach Parties Accepted

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In Paris, a Riverboat Sojourn on the Banks of the Seine

For a week, the novelist Joyce Maynard said good night to Paris from the deck of a péniche, within full view of the Eiffel Tower. Who cared if it rained the whole time?

By Joyce Maynard

There’s something about sleeping on a boat. It’s the rocking, of course, and the sound of the water. It’s also the cocoon effect of containment in a small space tucked away from the world. I’m not talking about cruise ships and luxury yachts here. I’m talking about a vessel that gently rocks, just enough to let a person know she’s not on dry land. If you suffer from seasickness, this could be an issue. As for me, I never sleep better than I do on a boat.

Now imagine this boat is docked in Paris. You wake up to a view straight out of a French movie from the 1950s and finish your day under a full moon.

In June I got to experience that (all but the full moon, but more on that later).

My fixation was not a recent one. I’d been eyeing boats — specifically péniches, riverboats used originally for commercial purposes — for more than 30 years, as long as I’d been visiting Paris. Then, at a party in Paris last fall, my last night in the city before heading home to the United States, I met a Dutch couple — Jan and Lydia — who invited me to their péniche for a drink.

Docked along the Right Bank — midway between the Pont de la Concorde and the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor — my new friends’ péniche sat in the middle of my favorite city, but in a world of its own, away from traffic and crowds. As perfect a combination as I could dream up.

The evening was warm. We sat on the deck as Jan set out wine glasses and a bottle of Champagne. Across the water, the Eiffel Tower sparkled.

“If you ever hear of someone who might like to rent their péniche for a week or two,” I said, “let me know.”

A pleasant level of funkiness

It turns out that you can, in fact, book a Parisian péniche on Airbnb and Vrbo (prices range from under $100 a night for houseboats a few miles outside Paris, in locations like Neuilly-sur-Seine, to $500 a night or more for a luxury péniche in central Paris), as well as through various rental agencies in the city, including Paris Attitude and Bookahouseboat.com . But before I had time to research these, my new friends made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

“When you come back you can stay with us,” Jan said.

In June I returned to Paris. In the months since that fall evening on Jan and Lydia’s boat, I’d had plenty of opportunities to imagine the scenes of warm nights on the deck, Champagne in hand.

But on this June day, it was raining hard when I arrived, the wind whipping off the water.

My Uber dropped me off on the busy thoroughfare directly above the quay where Jan and Lydia’s péniche was moored, which required me to haul my suitcase down a set of steps to the water. A small price to pay.

The péniche was one of a dozen or so lining the riverbank — most roughly the same size, a little over 100 feet, some appointed with cafe seating and planters, children’s playthings (deck space sufficiently open to allow for a tricycle or two), pergolas, and in one case, an amphibious car.

But though a few of the boats appeared to have been elaborately renovated, most conveyed a pleasant level of funkiness.

Watch your footing

My dream of staying on a péniche is not one shared with everyone who visits Paris, or lives there. Even though it costs less to live on a péniche than it would to occupy a space of comparable square footage in one of the better arrondissements in Paris, many Parisians view the vessels as more trouble than they’re worth. And it’s true: All that character and romance requires a certain level of open-mindedness, possession of a baseline level of handy skills, a willingness to come face to face with the elements and sufficient agility that navigating the deck on a windy day won’t put you off.

In most areas where péniche s are docked (including my hosts’), they’re lined up in rows two boats deep, which means that to step onto the vessel on the outside edge, a person has to walk across the deck of the boat pulled up alongside the quay, and then it’s a quick hop across a wooden platform. If you don’t feel like taking a dip in the Seine, it’s a good idea to watch one’s footing. For me, all of that was part of the adventure.

A person unfamiliar with péniche life might imagine small, cramped spaces inside, but the boat belonging to my Dutch friends felt nearly as expansive as a New York City loft — with a kitchen large enough to accommodate a couple of cooks at once, extending out to a dining and living room area, bedrooms at either end, two bathrooms and an area where a captain might sit, if the boat were actually traversing the river, as this one no longer did.

In the old days, when péniches and barges were used to transport goods up and down the river, smaller boats often pulled them — or animals did from the riverbanks. These days, most péniches stay docked, though sometimes their owners haul them away in the off-season for repairs.

A different aspect

In addition to the built-in bed, my room housed a drum set and a couple of guitars (owing to my friends’ participation in a rock band), along with a desk. From the bed, I could look out across the water to the Assemblée Nationale and a row of other buildings along the Left Bank. But the best view was from above.

We’re speaking of the deck, the most important element of a péniche experience. Some péniche owners cultivate elaborate gardens — lemon trees, roses, planters of vegetables — but the main attraction of a péniche deck is how it opens up onto the city’s skyline. Over my many trips to Paris, I’d never beheld what I did from the deck of that boat: an utterly unobstructed view of the Eiffel Tower.

The morning after my arrival, I woke to rain, and drank my coffee from the enclosure of the small captain’s cabin. Next morning, more rain. I ventured out anyway, crossing one of the many bridges spanning the Seine for croissants and a baguette.

Back on the boat, there was a little gas stove in the living room. My hosts and I turned it on.

As things worked out, the rain held for the entire week of my stay. But once I let go of my romantic dream of clear and balmy evenings looking out over the water, I was able to embrace a different picture of my time on the péniche. As much as my little cocoon bed sheltered me from the weather, something compelled me to venture out on the deck every night, even when the rain was pelting down its hardest, and the water was dark and choppy. This, too, was Paris. Just a different aspect.

I made it my tradition every evening of my stay to close out each day on the boat by looking out to the Eiffel Tower — one rare constant in this turbulent and shifting world.

One night the fog was so thick it even obscured the lights from the tower, but I could still make out its presence, along with that of the last bateau mouche (each one named for a French movie star from times gone by) transporting passengers from one end of the city to the other.

Bundled up in my friend’s rain jacket, I considered what a gift it was that I could stand under the night sky, rather than staring up at a hotel room ceiling. Somewhere up there, under the clouds, there were stars.

Joyce Maynard’s newest novel, “How the Light Gets In,” was published this summer.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

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Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

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Lima, Peru : The city, with its decade-long dining boom , now holds three places on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, as many chefs embrace Indigenous Andean and Amazonian ingredients in the seafood.

Kyoto, Japan :  The Japanese city is famous for its temples and gardens, but it is laced with waterways  that can offer a different, and no less enchanting, view.

Marseille, France :  Get the full flavor of France’s second-largest city through its favorite street food — pizza  — whether it’s topped with raw garlic, sweet Corsican sausage, Emmental cheese or anchovies.

Rafting in Montana :  On a family trip in Montana, a father shares a tradition with his two sons  even as climate change threatens the certainty of the rivers he grew up running.

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The Hidden Russia

Tomsk has none of the historical pomp and circumstance of Russia's two major tourist destinations, Moscow and St. Petersburg . For the traveler who hankers for something besides glittering churches and postcard-familiar scenery, Tomsk offers something more subdued. Wooden houses, like those out of a favorite Russian fairy tale, line the streets in various stages of repair or renovation. The many universities give the town a learned, serious atmosphere. And the museums are heavy with the gravity of Siberian history. Set in the midst of miles of taiga, Tomsk has a quiet dignity.

Tomsk Attractions and People

The best time to visit Tomsk is in the summer: June, July, or August. The sunny, warm days are perfect for taking walks in Lagerny Sad, the war memorial park that looks over the River Tom. The residential neighborhoods are full of points of interest, and the downtown area is great for shopping and eating. However, even on rainy days, you can find something to do. Not only is there a recently established art museum, but the Tomsk Regional Museum gives an in-depth look at how the peoples of Siberia once lived.

For those who want something special, it's imperative to check out the KGB Memorial Museum. Located in the original Tomsk KGB headquarters, it is a reminder of the terror of the Communist years and the many labor and concentration camps that were set up in the Tomsk region. The holding cells for prisoners also contain their stories of survival; a rotating exhibit honors the art, literature, and lives of those who were brave enough to fight against and tell about their experiences at the hands of the KGB. The museum is the only one like it in the country, and visitors can see Solzhenitsyn's signature in its guestbook.

The wooden houses are a point of pride for the people of Tomsk. Many of the more elaborate ones have become symbols of the city. The windows are bordered with elaborately carved wooden decorations, some in themes depicting birds or dragons. Some of these buildings are still inhabited, which seems a decent metaphor for the way the past in Siberia maintains a symbiont relationship with the present.

The rare Westerner in Tomsk will be met with wariness and curiosity, though seldom hostility. Anyone who shows interest in Tomsk or the Siberian way of life will make friends quickly. Tomichi, the citizens of Tomsk, love to have guests and to share their warm Russian hospitality with foreigners. Their knowledge of their city and of Siberian history can make a stay in this town especially meaningful. You can meet them at the American Center near Tomsk State University, at the central fountain where many Tomichi congregate during the evening, over drinks at one of the many bars, or even on the bus. Any foreigner tends to stand out, but this can be an advantage when trying to make friends.

Eating in Tomsk

One of the most delightful aspects of a Siberian summer is the food. The markets are full of delicious fruits and berries, all of which are at premium pricing for the traveler who is used to paying an arm and a leg for sub-par produce. There is an extensive variety of cheese and other dairy products, free from the processes that often make US diary bland and lacking consistency. At certain times of the week, you can visit stalls that sell meat freshly butchered or fish freshly caught. Be sure to be aware of any old woman by the side of the road with vegetables for sale  - they're almost always home-grown and delicious.

Tomsk is a part of Russia that is unique for the Eastern European traveler. Its small size and community atmosphere, along with its proximity to vast pine forests, make it an escape from the big city Russia that most tourists are familiar with. Fourteen hours by train will take you to a bigger city, Krasnoyarsk, and then you can ride the Trans-Siberian railroad on to Novosibirsk. However, given Tomsk's character and quality, it is unlikely any visitor will be in a hurry to leave.

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