Captain Cook Lodge

Flamingo Land is a theme park, zoo and resort at Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire. It has been running since 1959 and was the first site in Europe to combine rides and a zoo. The theme park has eight themed areas, with thrill coasters such as Sik, Hero, Kumali and Velocity, plus gentler family and kids' rides.

Tip: Check the day's keeper talk and show times on the website before you go, and plan your route around them.

Lightwater Valley is a family adventure park in North Stainley, near Ripon, set in 175 acres of North Yorkshire countryside. It began in 1969 as a self-pick fruit farm and grew into a theme park, and it was once home to The Ultimate, billed as the longest roller coaster in the world.

Tip: Book tickets online in advance, before midnight the day before your visit, to get the online discount rather than the on-the-day price.

HMS Trincomalee is a Royal Navy sailing frigate built shortly after the Napoleonic Wars. She was made in Bombay by the Wadia family of shipwrights, using teak because Britain was short of oak. She is now a museum ship afloat at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Hartlepool.

Mount Grace Priory is a ruined Carthusian monastery, founded in 1398 and set in woodland within the North York Moors National Park. It was the last monastery founded in Yorkshire, and its ruins are the best preserved and most accessible of the nine Carthusian houses in England. You can explore the priory and get a sense of what life was like for a monk.

Tip: Pick up a pamphlet pointing out the seasonal highlights, and walk through the meadow to the Monks' Pond.

MIMA, the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, is a contemporary art gallery in the centre of Middlesbrough, run by Teesside University. The building has gallery spaces, an auditorium, a café-bar, a shop and a roof terrace, so you can pair a look round the exhibitions with something to eat or drink.

Rievaulx Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery in the north of England, founded in 1132 and set in a wooded dale by the River Rye in the North York Moors National Park. It became one of the great monasteries in England before it was seized under Henry VIII in 1538. Today the ruins are owned and maintained by English Heritage.

Tip: Park in Helmsley and take the scenic walk from Helmsley Castle to the abbey; a joint ticket also covers nearby Rievaulx Terrace.

The World of James Herriot fills the original 1940s home and veterinary surgery of Alf Wight at 23 Kirkgate in Thirsk, known in the books as Skeldale House. You walk through the restored family rooms, the cramped consulting room and the dispensary packed with old remedies, then out to the garden with its memorial statue.

Tip: There's no cafe on site, so plan lunch in Thirsk marketplace, a two-minute walk away.

Hopetown Darlington is a railway-themed visitor attraction spread across 7.5 acres of heritage railway land, on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It mixes indoor and outdoor sights, from the Victorian North Road Station Museum to the Carriage Works, where the Stores display a collection of more than 30,000 items from Darlington's railway history.

Tip: Head for the Goods Shed first: it is the main entrance to the site.