If you’ve been trying to book somewhere to stay in Whitby and struggled, you’re not imagining it. Whitby has a genuine, well-documented accommodation shortage, a packed events calendar that regularly brings in more visitors than the town was built for, and a town centre that was never really designed for cars in the first place. Scarborough, a short direct bus ride away, is worth considering as a practical alternative, whether you’re visiting for an event, working nearby, or just can’t find anywhere that fits your budget.

Why is Whitby accommodation so hard to find?

Whitby’s housing and accommodation market is genuinely squeezed. A significant proportion of homes in the town aren’t permanently occupied, largely holiday lets and second homes, and average house prices in Whitby have run well ahead of nearby Scarborough as a result. It’s serious enough that Whitby Town Council has looked at restricting further private housing development, and local reporting has linked the shortage to businesses struggling to find staff able to live locally.

Add in a narrow, historic town centre and a genuinely limited supply of places to stay, and it’s not surprising that accommodation in Whitby is often scarce, and priced accordingly.

How far is Scarborough from Whitby, and do you need a car?

Scarborough is around 20 miles from Whitby, and you don’t need a car to get between them. Two Arriva services, the X93 and X94, run directly between Scarborough and Whitby, and interleaved they give a combined service roughly every 30 minutes through the day. The X93 calls at Falsgrave Road, close to Sanderling Chase, a couple of minutes after leaving Scarborough Railway Station, and each individual journey takes around an hour. Services start early, from around 7:45am, and run until the last bus back leaves Whitby at around 9:45pm, so it’s well suited to day trips or working hours, though not something to rely on if you’re planning a late night out in Whitby, since the last bus back leaves well before most nightlife winds down.

For a later finish, a taxi is the practical option. Local firms don’t publish a fixed rate for the Scarborough–Whitby run, so it’s worth getting an actual quote rather than guessing, and pre-booking rather than expecting one on the rank for a journey this length. Nippy Taxis cover the route and can provide a quote in advance.

That’s genuinely useful, because parking in Whitby is its own separate headache. It’s an old fishing town, never designed for cars: most town-centre properties have no parking at all, streets are narrow, and there are controlled parking zones to navigate. Basing yourself in Scarborough and taking the bus in sidesteps that entirely.

What about Whitby’s packed events calendar?

Whitby is a small town with a genuinely packed events calendar, and it shows. Across the year, it hosts Whitby Goth Weekend and Steampunk Weekend, the historic Whitby Regatta (running for over 180 years), Whitby Folk Week, the Pirate Festival, Musicport, Illuminated Abbey, and a Christmas Festival, among others. For a town of its size, that’s a lot of weekends where visitor numbers significantly outstrip what the town was ever built to hold.

Whitby Goth Weekend is a good example of just how far ahead this gets booked up. It’s been running twice a year since the mid-1990s, and accommodation for it typically sells out many months in advance, sometimes close to a year ahead for popular places. The Regatta is described locally as an event that “really attracts the crowds” too, and it’s far from the only one.

If you’ve left it too late for a particular weekend, or would simply rather have more space and better value than a small Whitby room at event prices, Scarborough is a straightforward, direct bus ride away, without needing to drive in and find somewhere to park on top of everything else.

What Sanderling Chase offers as a Scarborough base

Sanderling Chase is a professionally managed two-bedroom apartment in Scarborough, close to the Falsgrave Road bus stop for the direct Whitby service. It has its own standalone entrance, a proper kitchen, and secure bike storage, and suits anything from a couple of nights to a longer stay.

You can find more about Sanderling Chase on our homepage.

Bus route, frequency and journey times are correct as of August 2026, based on current Arriva timetable information, but can change seasonally. You can check the current X93 and X94 timetables before travelling.