Jorvik Villas

Jorvik Villas is a three-storey townhouse on a residential street just south of York's city centre, and what hits you first is how much thought has gone into every room. Six bedrooms, each individually styled and named, many with original feature fireplaces still intact and Smart TVs on the walls. The ground-floor bedroom comes with an en-suite shower and a fireplace, making it a solid option for anyone in the group who wants to avoid stairs. Upstairs, the master earns a double take. A freestanding slipper bath sits in the room itself, not behind a door.

The kitchen runs on a gas range cooker and comes with a coffee machine, American fridge-freezer, and dishwasher, so feeding fourteen people is more of a pleasure than a project. French doors open from both the kitchen and the dining room onto the enclosed courtyard, which means food, drinks, and people flow between inside and out without anyone having to squeeze through a single doorway. The dining table seats the whole group, and there's a breakfast bar for the ones who surface late.

That courtyard is the heart of the place once the sun comes out. Enclosed and private, with a hot tub for six and a sauna that you don't have to share with anyone beyond your own group. On warmer evenings, the French doors open wide and the whole ground floor feels twice the size. There is an evening curfew on the hot tub, worth noting if late-night soaks are your thing.

Two of the six bedrooms come with a single daybed alongside the king-size, which is how the house stretches to fourteen. Four of the six bedrooms have their own en-suite shower room, so the morning queue stays manageable even with a full house. Every room has been put together with a level of care that most holiday lets don't attempt: different colour palettes, different furniture choices, different character. It doesn't feel like a house that was decorated once and left.

The owner lives two doors away and sets the tone from the start with a welcome pack on arrival. Anything that needs sorting gets dealt with quickly, and nothing is too much trouble.

On foot, you're roughly ten to fifteen minutes from the city centre. The Shambles, York Minster, and the JORVIK Viking Centre are all easy to reach without needing a car. Closer still, the local parade has a coffee shop and useful everyday shops. Dogs are welcome, which narrows down the field of city-centre properties for larger groups who refuse to leave the dog behind.

Road parking outside the house is free. A travel cot and highchair are available if the youngest members of your party are very young indeed.