Wizard Walk of York - WINNER Best Tour & Experience of the Year
Description
Winner of a magical myriad of awards, and York's ONLY tour created for families with children! WINNER #1 Best Family Experience in the World 2025 - TripAdvisor WINNER Experience of the Year - Visit York WINNER Best of York Award - Visit York WINNER Best Tour 2023 to 2026 - Little Vikings Join The Wizard of York for spellbinding magic, comedy and five-star family fun! Ideal for ages 5-10 in particular, or big kids with a silly sense of humour... A great alternative to a ghost walk, this tour focuses on FUN over frights. A truly magical and memorable experience that Harry Potter fans will go Potty for (but no knowledge of the wizarding world required!) *Tours will take place with one of two Wizard Guides, either Phoenix the Red OR Viridian The Green*
Tour Options
Itinerary
Meet at the bottom of York's Shambles by the railings of St. Crux Church, look for The Wizard Walk sign!
York's shortest street (with the longest name!), and a wonderfully whimsical place to set the scene for our enchanting walk around this spellbinding city!
We'll take a wand-er up York's most iconic street, and the most enchanting street in the world! We'll pass shops selling peculiar potions and wizarding wares as we begin our search for magical creatures... *When too busy, we'll venture up the adjacent Colliergate instead
Mad Alice Lane...we'd be mad not to stop here, as we search for that rare and mystical of birds...the Phoenix! Will this magnificent creature ruffle a few feathers, and what bird-brained magic will our wizard get up to next?
Candy is dandy, and so we'll stop near York Sweet Shop in search of our next magical creature! Got a sweet tooth? No time to snack, but can you help conjure a chocolate frog? Hop to it!
We'll walk in the shadows of York Minster, adorned with gargoyles, grotesques and all manner of peculiar creatures! We'll search for a rat from the city's plague era. Can a rat really do magic? And what 'tails' will be told next? Find out on this spellbinding tour!
Next on our list is a magical mouse! Find out all about carpenter Robert 'Mousey' Thompson and watch in wonder as your wizard guide transforms a simple handkerchief into a white mouse and then brings it to life.
Our Wizard Walk continues through the backstreets of Bedern, as we work through our list of magical creatures in search of an elusive owl. Expect plenty of surprises along the way, it's always a HOOT on The Wizard Walk of York!
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(1,089)
We’ve done the Wizard Walk of York before and, despite this being our second time, it definitely hasn’t lost its magic! The kids absolutely love it, and it’s one of those experiences that is still fun even if you’ve done it before! This time we had the pleasure of meeting the new wizard, Oberon the Purple, and he was brilliant! He interacted so well with both the children and the adults, keeping everyone entertained and involved throughout the walk. There was plenty of laughter, a little bit of magic, and lots of opportunities for the kids to get involved. It’s clear how much thought goes into making the experience fun for everyone, and Oberon really brought the character to life. The kids were completely spellbound! If you’re visiting York with children, I’d definitely recommend adding the Wizard Walk to your plans. It’s a lovely way to explore the city with a little extra magic thrown in — and you might even discover a few areas of York that you didn’t know of before. We’ll definitely be back for another magical adventure… because apparently you can never have too much magic! 🪄✨ A brilliant experience from start to finish — 10 points to York! ⚡️
A fun hour with the green wizard! His jokes kept coming! I have tp praise his patience with a couple of children who's parents should of stepped in a few times to scilence the little horrors as they spoiled the experience for other families who's children were very well behaved and listened to the wizards performance. A few more magician/wizard tricks would have been welcomed but overall it was good fun.
Good attempt at entertaining audience - kids and grown ups alike with lots of "DAD jokes" , few magic tricks in between and nice little walk to nooks and corners of Shambles, York but could do with some more interactive elements as it kept feeling and yearning for "is there anything more"?! even for my 8-year old. OR maybe worth slashing down the price a bit. Overall, enjoyed it though so nothing majorly bad to write about it.
Many magical thanks for your review, it's disappointing to see a three-star review in amongst all of our five-stars but we're glad you still had a good time. However, we've never before had feedback saying we aren't interactive enough. The tour is FULLY interactive from start to finish, there are opportunities to interact throughout - both from the group and as volunteers in certain routines. Even walking between stops, our guides are always interacting with our excited wand-erers. Of course, we can't control how much people interact back - and we'd never insist on it - but we do gently encourage it, and find most people love to! More than a few tricks too...there's magic at every single stop (magic is what we do!), as well as comedy, storytelling, slapstick, special effects, origami and even poetry in the rhyming rat's riddle. As for price, we are one of York's most affordable tours, and many reviews comment to say just how great value it is. Like all businesses we face many costs, so slashing down the price is not practical. I feel we absolutely deliver on what we advertise - and our awards and reviews normally demonstrate this - but sorry if we missed the mark for your family. We know we won't be able to please everyone all the time - but we'll have lots of fun trying! We hope you enjoyed the rest of your time in our enchanting city.
Excellent tour if you have kids. Fun as an adult! Phoenix did a great job of breaking the ice with the kids and getting them all enchanted by his magic and jokes. They were all soon following him around excited for the next stop on his tour and their laughter and enjoyment was a sight to behold. Honestly well worth the money!
We had a fantastic experience our wizard was so clever with his wizardry all the children were mesmerised. He was also very entertaining keeping all the adults engaged as we walked through the streets of York . We went up quiet alleys where he could perform his magic a truly interesting and value for money tour . We were highly impressed
What a find. We had a fantastic time and the wizard is amazing at what he does. Walking through the streets of York and keeping the whole group together and interacting with the adults as well as the children. Highly recommend for anyone who fancies a good joke or 2.
Fantastic family entertainment and the children were always the main part of the entertainment . The wizard takes you on a walk around the shambles area looking for various animals and does magic tricks and jokes throughout the tour. Very well planned and the children were fully engaged and entertained !!!
Great family fun! Excellent jokes throughout the tour.
Despite being hideously hot outside our wizard Oberon was fantastic and kept our tour group engaged all the way through, while keeping us out of the sun where he could. He was so entertaining and funny. If you’re a fan of dad jokes, this would be right up your street. We walked around York on the search for Oberon’s magical creatures and as we went he amazed the kids with his magic tricks. I was lucky enough to be chosen to help out at the end of the tour and the tricks got me too. Would highly recommend to families visiting York. The kids having knowledge of Harry Potter helps a little bit, but it’s not a deal breaker by any means if they don’t know it well enough.
I experienced this tour in 2025 and had such fun I booked to do it again on my recent visit to York. This proved to be a good decision as it was just as much fun the second time around! Having now seen Phoenix the Red (in 2025) and Viridian the Green (this time) I can safely say that you're in excellent hands regardless of which wizard materialises on your chosen tour date. Lots of call-and-response fun & magic tricks for younger guests and free-flowing puns & quick-fire wit to entertain everyone. (Parents/carers you won't regret being along for the ride!) The tour makes no pretence at being a history tour (York has plenty of those) this is pure outdoor family fun. With inevitable reference to (but not leaning heavily on) the popular boy-wizard franchise, the Wizard Walk makes the most of the city's beautiful streets and buildings as the backdrop for the sort of magic tricks you wish you'd had at your own birthday parties! Our wizard guide took great care to ensure all the children had the opportunity to take part if they wanted to, and that they were stood at the front at each stop so they could see. (He also - without missing a beat - successfully wrangled some overenthusiastic youngsters whose parents seemed to have forgotten they were supposed to supervise them.) The tour length is just right to keep everyone engaged before little legs get tired and the group was sized right so it wasn't too crowded even at the back. This is a great value tour and an ideal way to entertain children without sacrificing the adults!
