Christmas in an English market town: Chester, Stratford or York

The Christmas break at home is a British institution, but it doesn't suit everyone. For people who live alone, or whose families are scattered, or who simply would rather not cook for twelve, a few days in an old town, in company, can be a better answer than either a long-haul flight or a quiet house. England's historic towns are at their most atmospheric in midwinter. The short days end early in lit windows and church bells, and their centres, built long before the car, are made for walking about in a good coat.

Three of the best for the purpose are Chester, Stratford-upon-Avon and York. Each has a different character, and each is the base for a short break for solo travellers with Just You.

Chester, inside its walls

Chester was founded by the Romans as the fortress of Deva, and it has the most complete circuit of city walls in Britain. Walking the full circuit takes about an hour, and it gives a view over the rooftops, the cathedral and the racecourse on the river below. Its unique feature is the Rows: medieval streets with two levels of shops, one at street level and one above it on a covered gallery, reached by steps. The black-and-white timbered façades along them are mostly Victorian rebuildings, but the arrangement is genuinely medieval and unlike anything else in the country. Above the Eastgate, an ornate Victorian clock marks the old entrance to the city.

Just You's Christmas in Chester, four nights, also looks out to North Wales. Llandudno is a Victorian seaside resort with a long promenade beneath the headland of the Great Orme. Conwy is a walled town dominated by one of the great castles built by Edward I in the late thirteenth century.

Stratford, and Shakespeare

Stratford-upon-Avon is a small market town on the River Avon, and it would be a pleasant one even without its famous son. But it is Shakespeare's town. The half-timbered house on Henley Street where he was born, and the parish church of Holy Trinity, where he is buried beside the river, are the two places that draw people from all over the world. Between them lie the theatres of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A play at Christmas, if the season's programme suits, is an obvious way to spend an evening.

Just You's Christmas in Stratford-upon-Avon, four nights, also visits Warwick Castle, a few miles away. Its earliest fortifications go back to William the Conqueror, and its towers and walls above the Avon are among the most complete of any medieval castle in England.

York, for the New Year

York is a city rather than a market town, but it is small enough to walk across in half an hour, and it has more history per street than almost anywhere in England. It was Roman Eboracum, Viking Jorvik and the great medieval capital of the north. Its Minster is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe, with a vast amount of medieval stained glass. The Shambles is a lane of overhanging timbered houses so narrow that the upper floors almost touch, and the medieval walls run around much of the centre.

Just You's New Year in York, three nights, sees in the New Year in the city and visits Castle Howard. This great Baroque house in the Howardian Hills, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh from the end of the seventeenth century, is familiar to many from its appearances on screen.

All three towns make something of the season. Chester and York hold Christmas markets in their historic centres in the weeks before Christmas. Chester Cathedral and York Minster hold carol services and concerts through Advent, and an evening service in a great medieval church, with candles and a full choir, is one of the best things an English December can offer. In each town, the old streets lit up on a winter evening, with the shop windows glowing and the bells of the parish churches ringing, have a charm that summer, with its crowds, rather lacks.

None of these is an adventure in the long-haul sense. That is rather the point. A short journey, a historic town, good company and a Christmas or New Year away from the usual routine is enough for a great many people, and a change, as they say, is as good as a rest.