WHILE the volcanic ash cloud was wreaking havoc for holidaymakers from York trying to get home, it helped boost the city’s profile as a tourist destination.

Freelance travel writer Peter Geoghegan was supposed to be travelling to New York, but when flight chaos grounded him in the UK, he was instead sent to write a feature on York for Escape, a Northern Ireland-based travel magazine.

The 28-year-old Irishman, who was visiting York for the first time, stayed at the Middlethorpe Hall Hotel and visited York Minster, the National Railway Museum and the Richard III Museum during his stay.

He said he had been impressed by the mixture of old and new.

“I’ve just been exploring. There’s so much to do. It’s a very relaxing old-world place and I’ve been very impressed with the food in York,” he said, after eating out at Meltons Too in Walmgate.

Peter was particularly impressed by the welcome he received in York, especially at Middlethorpe Hall, where general manager Lionel Chatard had given him a tour of the hotel’s gardens.

“The gardens are beautiful and it’s a lovely walk into town. I’d love to stay here again and I’d come back with a bicycle.

“I hope to visit York again in the future because I didn’t see everything I wanted to see. Everyone has been amazingly friendly.

“I have no problem with New York, but I know they wouldn’t be as friendly!”

How they face up

•Fifth Avenue, Manhattan v Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall
•Coney Island v Coney Street
•Grand Central Station v Grand Central Trains
•Bloomingdales, 59th Street v Browns, Davygate
•Broadway, Fulford v Broadway theatres
•Times Square v St Helen’s Square
•Statue of Liberty v Statue of Constantine
•Central Park v Rowntree Park
•Yankee Stadium v Huntington Stadium
•Brooklyn Bridge v Skeldergate Bridge