My night at the White House

The weekend of 20/21 July was the perfect time to be enjoying B&B, and some R&R, at the White House.

Not only because political history was being made at the time, following Biden’s departure from America’s Presidential election. But also because the sun was actually shining in Whitby. And, The Times had included the nearby Fish Cottage in its round-up of the “Coolest places in the UK” to eat by the sea.

Perhaps I need to make it clear that this was the White House Farm in Ugthorpe, rather than the one with an Oval Office, in Washington DC.

History has a habit of asking the question, “Where were you when…?”

So this is one of those occasions when it will be hard not to remember exactly I was on the day Great Uncle Joe took one for the Democrats.

White House Farm is a standout example of a British B&B: a genuine, value-for-money, neat, tidy and perfectly run accommodation where you can sit outside in your own private patio space, smugly running through a tick list of everything you could possibly want from a shortbreak by the seaside.

A good night’s sleep. Tick. A brilliant breakfast. Tick. Near enough to a main road, but far enough away not to be able to hear it. Tick. A large room, with an equally large bathroom. Tick. Your own parking space. Tick.

And as if all that isn’t enough: a B&B close to one of the most popular seaside destinations in the whole of the UK. Along with an entire National Park on its doorstep. Tick. Tick.

Anything else? How about waking-up just 4.4 miles from the first place mentioned in a round-up of some 20 beach shacks, cabins and cafes that The Times is calling the “coolest places to eat by the sea” on the morning after you ate there? TICK!

Ugthorpe sits high above the North Yorkshire coast but is just a 10 minute drive from Sandsend’s seafront and all of the amenities it possesses. Choose room-only at The White House Farm, and you’re spoilt for choice on where to have your traditional full English: Wit’s End Café, Tides or Sandside Café.

But tick their own breakfast box (TICK!), and you can “dine in” at a table laden with fresh flowers and enjoy (for example) a very special Greek Yoghurt and Granola bowl, with croissant and jam. Or maybe a pancake stack with fruit and honey; or perhaps one with a very recent American twist. At least, you can now: because owner and perfect hostess, Sian, was kind enough to shuffle enough ingredients to prepare a bespoke stack for me, with bacon and maple syrup.

Fancy an evening meal nearby? Then look no further than The Fish Cottage, described in The Times as “reason enough to skip Whitby, to reach the wide rock-strewn beach at Sandsend…a fishing village with a growing reputation for good food”. Dine here, and the world is literally your oyster. Although the fish tacos are out of this world, as well.

The rules of staying at White House Farm are really very straightforward. Turn left, and enjoy the seaside. Turn right, and you’re in the North Yorkshire Moors.

All this from around £120 per night per room, housed within a beautifully renovated outbuilding.

But there are only two Courtyard rooms. And just remember - like that pancake stack - one of them always has my name on it…