Because there is no place on earth like God’s Own County. It considers its food and drink reputation as now the best in Britain. Yorkshire boasts more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else in the country (apart from the clogged streets of London and who wants to go there?). On every street corner there are proper pubs that sell proper pints, there’s even the odd Yorkshire vineyard.  The view from Sutton Bank encapsulates the atmospheric beauty of Yorkshire.  There is a hugely impressive arts scene, with the Hepworth Wakefield (01924 247360; hepworthwakefield.org) and Yorkshire Sculpture Park (01924 832631; ysp.co.uk) enjoying fabulous reputations, not to mention the annual film festivals in Sheffield and Leeds. Poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath stalked the moors of the Calder Valley while this, don’t forget, is Brontë country too.  The sheer beauty of the county, sometimes as unexpected as a dilapidated mill chimney stabbing up through a leaden sky, has inspired generations of painters: from John Atkinson Grimshaw’s moonscapes to the Victorian artists of the Staithes Group to David Hockney’s Yorkshire Wolds.  And no surprise. Yorkshire boasts three national parks, a wild and rugged coastline, and wonderful Victorian architecture, not least the preserved terraced streets and mills of the World Heritage Site of Saltaire.  Burnsall, in the Yorkshire Dales: there is no place quite like God's Own Country.  The only downside for visitors is the secret is out. The world’s largest annual sporting event – the Tour de France – has chosen Yorkshire as the place for this year’s Grand Départ in July. Some 40 million visitors now travel here every year for heritage-related tourism alone. Good job its grand old cities and sweeping moors and Dales are large enough to soak them all up.  Obviously, nobody comes here for the weather, although it still gets a fair bit less rain than its old enemy on the other side of the Pennines. Come in summer and surf, hunt for fossils or lie on sandy beaches along its cracking North Sea coastline. There is no better place than the Yorkshire Dales on long summer day, walking along its wildflower meadows and moors with only the mewing curlews for company.  Yet equally satisfying is a winter tramp over sodden moorland to sit by a fire in one of hundreds of ancient sandstone pubs.  Cayton Bay, near Scarborough, has hot showers and changing facilities.  To drive from London takes four hours up the M1 or A1. The East Coast (eastcoast.co.uk) mainline serves Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York and Northallerton and there are also direct services to the capital to Harrogate, Sheffield, Bradford and Halifax.  Yorkshire has three international airports: Doncaster’s Robin Hood (0871 220 2210; robinhoodairport.com), Leeds Bradford (0871 288 2288; leedsbradfordairport.co.uk) and Humberside (0844 8877 747; humbersideairport.com).  Public transportNorthern Rail and Transpennine Express run good (ish) local services through much of the county but there are other more exciting lines for the train buff. Most impressive is the 72-mile Settle to Carlisle Railway, the last great mainline to be built in Britain and ranked as one of the most spectacular rail routes in the world. Crossing the Ribblehead Viaduct, in particular, is an extraordinary sight. There is also the steam-hauled North Yorkshire Moors Railway (nymr.co.uk) running between Pickering and Grosmont, the Wensleydale Railway (wensleydalerail.com) and Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (kwvr.co.uk).  Askrigg is one of the traditional sandstone villages that pepper the Yorkshire Dales  Given its grand industrial heritage, an impressive canal network still snakes through Yorkshire. The Leeds & Liverpool Canal boasts the monumental Bingley Five Rise locks (penninecruisers.com) while the Rochdale Canal crosses the rugged heights of the Pennines into Lancashire (shirecruisers.co.uk).  Skipton – supposedly now the best place to live in the UK – has a charming canal basin that is a great place to start.  As befits the next home of the Tour de France, there are numerous fabulous cycle routes through Yorkshire. The newly-opened Way of the Roses runs 170 miles coast to coast from Morecambe Bay to Bridlington (wayoftheroses.info). There is also a 150-mile West Yorkshire Cycle Route, various Trans-Pennine trails and a great (and flat) 21-mile route along an old railway line called the Cinder Track which runs between Whitby and Scarborough. North Yorkshire’s Dalby Forest also boasts more than 1,553 miles (2,500km) of purpose-built mountain bike trails (dalbybuikebarn.co.uk).  The Bingley Five Rise Locks are on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, and are monumental.  During the summer months and peak holiday periods, roads throughout the Yorkshire Dales can become very busy with traffic.  The weather, particularly in the wilder parts of Yorkshire, can turn on a sixpence. On any day out you should bring a good waterproof and walking boots. On longer walks, definitely take a detailed OS map or something similar. Do not rely on an iPhone map to guide you as phone reception can be very poor in the national parks.  More Telegraph Travel expert guides  Follow Telegraph Travel on Twitter  The ultimate Yorkshire road trip
An insider's guide to Yorkshire featuring the region's best hotels, pubs, restaurants, bars, shops and attractions. By Joe Shute, our destination expert.