Description An Inspired Choice: Whitby

Sitting slap-bang in the middle of the characterful seaside town of Whitby, there's a lot to like about this apartment. For starters, the skylights bring in plenty of natural light and give you the opportunity to do a little star-spotting once nighttime descends. There's also a contemporary feel to the design, with a pleasingly bright palette of whites and greys, plus a tasteful sparsity to the artwork and decorative items.

For some, this flirtation with minimalism might come across as bland anonymity, but horses for courses and all that. We should also point out that the kitchen, while fairly large in terms of surface space, has no oven to speak of, which makes cooking up hearty rustic dinners a bit of a struggle.

Of course, there are plenty of restaurants in the surrounding streets that will do the hard work for you. You're also well covered for ways to fill up an afternoon or two, with two museums dedicated to the town's history and Captain Cook reached in five minutes on foot, plus the long sandy beach not that much further away as well.

Home truths:
*There's no lift in the building to reach this single-level apartment
*The building has no private parking available, but there are paid car parks in the surrounding streets and the town's railway station is only five minutes' walk away
*Some of the ceilings in the apartment are quite low