Its been a fun day!

Its school holiday time and despite opening in less than 7 days we have been spending some time with the kids before the site opens. We've been playing "guests" and have found loads of things to do that we can recommed to our guests in the summer.

Having attended a marketing course with Visit York a couple of weeks ago I met Chris and Tamsyn from Treasure Trails - York and Humber. They have created several trails around the region with three specific to York. I loved the sound of these trails and quickly ordered the three with a view to selling them on the site during the season.

The girls (aged 5 and 8) chose the one that they wanted to do first - Murder Mystery and off we went. We always advise our guests use the park and ride facility in York. It costs £2.30 per adult and upto two children travel free with each paying adult. Its much cheaper that the carparks in the city centre and saves the hassle of having to find a space.

We walked from the bus stop to the Minster picking up a hot chocolate and some treats along the way. I can't tell you much about the trail because I don't want to spoil it when you have a go but it took us all over - places that we have never been before.

The trail states that it will take 2 hours but I would advise that this is a minimum - we had a break for lunch but we could have had numerous other breaks at the various attractions that we passed along the way - some that we didn't know existed.

And, did we solve the murder? Yes we did - we found out who the murderer was and the weapon! The girls were very proud of themselves - when we came home we logged onto the treasure trails website to confirm our answer.

The trails are suitable for all ages. We took our 5 year old and she only whined a couple of times - which is usual - if we'd had a younger child we could have used the pushchair/pram with no problems whatsover and the same could be said for wheelchair users - the Shambles is a cobbled street as are many of the old streets around the city so it could be a bumpy ride in a few areas but well worth it.

And the cost of this fab day out? £5 for the trail - not many places you can take a family of 4/5/6 (as many as you like) for only £5. We enjoyed it so much we are doing another one on Thursday!