JORVIK Viking Centre - York

Mona Vijay

A great experience! As a kid I was always fascinated by Vikings and I got an opportunity to understand their life, profession and the various stages of their development. It was a wholesome experience. A great history museum. Must acknowledge the great work done by the staff too who were very professional, cordial and knowledgeable.

Tudor

It is lovely to see people dressed as Vikings. The staff is nice and knowledgeable. The ride and the smell is amazing.

The only downside: the first room you visit is a guided room, and the queue for the ride happens right here. Inconsiderate people will be loud while the staff talks on the speaker. It becomes a social awkward moment when you feel the urge to tell the people in the ride queue in the same room with you to be considerate. I did not enjoy that part. I don’t enjoy overlapping talk or music in general. The staff should steward moments like this and lead the queue to be considerate for the duration of the talk.

Stephanie Lehrer

Pretty cool place but it was packed and smaller than I thought. The ride with all the animatronics was neat for my kids and seeing everything unearthed and they got a hammered viking coin which was neat. oh and the guy going to bathroom and the fake smell was pretty hilarious and gross at the sametime.

Ralf Schemmann

Very interesting for the archaeological record of the vikings in York, but I'm not much into the ride through the animatronic recreations. It's just my personal taste, but a larger, more traditional archaeological exhibition would have been more interesting for me. Still certainly worth a visit, especially if you're into visual recreations.

Roma Mulvey

It was an amazing experience. The glass flooring covering a recreation of what was discovered was incredible. The staff were terrific. Nothing was too much for them to give visitors an unforgettable visit. The experts were so engaging, explaining what was found and how they'd been used. They bought artifacts to life, with fun and subject enthusiasm. They made a good experience, excellent.
I highly recommend this location.

Adrian Pantea

The museum may not be particularly large, but it offers an engaging experience suitable for all ages and interests. The visit begins with an introduction to Viking settlements and their history, followed by an immersive journey in a cabin where you are transported into Viking society. Along the way, you’ll encounter lifelike mannequins representing traders, settlements, and customs, with an impressive level of realism. In some sections, scents are introduced to enhance the authenticity of the experience—rest assured, nothing unpleasant.

A helpful tip: once you select your preferred language for the journey, it cannot be changed mid-way.

After the immersive experience, you’re invited to explore a room featuring archaeological artifacts from the Viking era, which beautifully complements the earlier part of the visit.

Overall, the museum is well worth a visit. Its moderate size ensures you stay engaged throughout. As a bonus, visitors can create their own coins with a Viking-inspired design at the end of the tour.

Also, kudos to the staff, who have been very friendly throughout.

Helene Kristensen

We didn't buy a ticket beforehand and had to stand in a queue outside for a bit, but it even though it was in the middle of summer vacation, it wasn't too bad. The staff is really good at explaining everything you see and you can ask them about everything.
It was a very fun encounter when you come as a dane!

Kirsty Whitehead

This was well coordinated. Booking tickets at least the day before early on is a must, spaces fill up quick and you can't book on the day on the website. We arrived 10 mins early as requested and waited in line for the group in front to go in. Think it was 15 min gaps between groups so expect to wait approximately that time. We went through and saw the replica of the viking level floor which was explained to us by a couple of the people that worked there that were dressed up in authentic clothing. We queued about 10 mins to get onto the ride. The ride has a screen and you pick your language for the narration on the way round. Unfortunately when we went on, it broke down! This meant we missed some things on the narration of scenes when we went round but they asked if we wanted to go around again which we did for the full experience which was much better! Great little tour and experience of life back then. The museum of the artifacts they found when excavating was really lovely, with full descriptions of the items and trades across the world at the time. Very informative.