This year, make it a November to remember with a trip to the North Yorkshire coast, where you’ll find a positive feast for the senses. Here’s a batch of 10 top ideas for the 11th month

LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE

Scarborough Lights returns for its second outing from November 15 to December 22. A wide variety of free and affordable light shows, installations and community activities will take place throughout Scarborough both indoors and out, including a five-day event around the newly refurbished South Cliff Gardens between December 18 and 22. It’ll feature an enchanting garden of fire and light, with 225 candles in the Victorian Rose Garden and fire performances, all presented by the creators of the fire gardens at Blenheim Palace, Kew Gardens and events worldwide. Other events will include installations at St Mary’s Church, an interactive exhibition of astrophotography, images and timelapse photos from local group Astro Dog and, of course, the community advent calendar.

THE ABBEY AND THE CASTLE

Whitby’s world-famous abbey is worth a visit at any time of year, but it takes on its own particularly haunting quality over the winter months. And if you’re quick, you can catch the last couple of days of the annual Illuminated Abbey event: this year, it ends on November 2. The event will also feature spine-chilling performances from Time Will Tell theatre company, who have created a thrilling journey into a nightmare world of Victorian gothic in their new show If these Stones could Talk. And don’t forget to pay a visit to the abbey’s more sedate sister, Scarborough Castle, while you’re at the coast – it has a fascinating 3,000-year history, amazing views of both the town’s North and South Bays, and over half-term, is holding Halloween events for all the family, including creepy quests and spooky stories.

HIS DARK MATERIALS

Talking of all things gothic – a visit to Whitby Goth Weekend is a definite tick on the bucket list. Thirty years old this year, it’s one of the UK’s most extraordinary spectacles, a long weekend (November 1-3) when the seaside town resembles a dark-tinged video game, with Goths and those interested in all things alternative and bohemian mingling to celebrate their interests and communities.

CATCH A (PSYCHEDELIC) CRAB

Ever wanted to meet a giant moustachioed inflatable crab wearing spectacles and a Kiss Me Quick hat? Did we need to ask? Find one, amongst other mind-explodingly colourful artworks, including a piece inspired by Scarborough’s willow pattern-themed Peasholm Park, in Jason Beside the Sea. This exhibition, from Wakefield-born artist Jason Wilsher-Mills, is at the Woodend Gallery in Scarborough until January 4.

GIDDY KIPPERS

Turn off the SatNav and just follow your nose! Fortune’s Kippers, tucked away on Whitby’s Henrietta Street near the bottom of the famous 199 Steps, has produced delicious kippers for over 150 years, and is now run by the fifth generation of the founding family. The traditional smokehouse is a must-visit venue for celebrity chefs and food-lovers alike – it’s a smell and taste you’ll never forget.

SAUNA BY THE SEA

For a sauna with a view, seek out Whitby Well Being’s wild trailer, which promises to enhance your mood and promote deeper and more restful sleep. This bracing pairing of sweating it out in a wood-fired Finnish sauna with a view of the North Sea, which you’re then invited to plunge into, is on offer at venues up and down the coast, including Whitby, Scarborough and Runswick Bay. As one Finnish writer put it: “The thoughts and feelings that emerge from being on the sauna bench could never appear being anywhere else in the world.”

HERE’S TAE US

At this time of year, we’re beginning to feel that little nip in the air. See it off with a little nip of something warming – and if you can’t decide what your favourite tipple is, try a distillery tour to help you make your mind up. At the Whitby Distillery, find a range of gins with flavours inspired by the surrounding countryside, including sugar kelp (a type of seaweed) and heather from the North York Moors, plus a dark spiced rum flavoured with, amongst other things, sea buckthorn. Down the coast at Hunmanby, near Filey, you’ll find the county’s first single malt whisky at the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery – an award-winning tipple proudly made by a field-to-bottle operation using 100% homegrown barley.

SEE LIFE

Wend your way through the Ocean Tunnel at SEA LIFE Scarborough to get very up close and personal with some denizens of the deep, including turtles and sharks, or find a rainbow of colours on a Rainforest Adventure, where neon green tree pythons and dazzling poison arrow dart frogs play.

FACE THE MUSIC

Robin Hood’s Bay has long had a well-deserved reputation for great music. Every Tuesday, find blues legend and former Notting Hillbilly Steve Phillips with his band of Rough Diamonds at The Grosvenor Hotel at the top of the village, whilst each Friday, the venerable Robin Hood’s Bay Folk Club welcomes performers and audiences in the cosy Laurel Inn near the bottom.

AND FIN-ALLY

If there’s one sensory experience that sums up the Yorkshire coast, it’s… well, can you guess? No? Here’s a clue: you can find it from Filey to Staithes, and everywhere in between. It’s golden and crisp and salty and vinegar-y (and for some of you, mushy pea-y). And we promise that, eaten outdoors on a chilly November day, it’s even more warming for the soul than it is on a hot summer’s evening. Go on, you know you want to – make this the month you treat yourself to some fabulous fish and chips by the sea!

For further information on what else is on across the Yorkshire Coast and beyond this month, go to visitnorthyorkshire.com