Norfolk occupies the bulge of England that pushes east into the North Sea, bounded by The Wash to the west, Suffolk to the south and roughly ninety miles of coastline everywhere else. It is the flattest county in the country and makes no apology for it. The absence of hills means the sky does most of the work here, and light behaves differently over the salt marshes at Blakeney and Brancaster than it does almost anywhere else in England. Landscape painters noticed this two centuries ago and the county has been drawing people east for the same reason ever since.
The county divides fairly cleanly into four. The north coast is a designated National Landscape of creeks, dunes, pine belts and flint-and-brick villages, with a run of beaches at Holkham, Wells and Brancaster that are wide enough to swallow a bank holiday crowd without feeling busy. Inland to the east lie the Broads, a network of shallow lakes and connected rivers created by medieval peat digging and now the largest protected wetland in Britain. West Norfolk runs to farmland, the royal estate at Sandringham and the old port town of King's Lynn. And at the centre sits Norwich, which was England's second city in the Middle Ages and still has the cathedral, castle and thirty-odd medieval churches to show for it.
What Norfolk does not have is motorways, tourist coach fleets or much in the way of crowds outside July and August. Getting around means single-carriageway A-roads and lanes, which slows the pace whether you want it slowed or not. That is broadly the point. People come here for birdwatching, sailing, seal-spotting, long empty walks and lunch, and the county is unusually well set up for all five.
Top things to do in Norfolk
The county rewards a mix of coast, water and one or two big houses. These are the places most visitors build a trip around.
- Holkham Beach — an enormous sweep of pale sand backed by Corsican pines and a nature reserve, reached on foot from Lady Anne's Drive; at low tide the water retreats far enough that the walk out takes a good ten minutes.
- The Norfolk Broads — hire a day boat at Wroxham, Horning or Potter Heigham and drift the rivers Bure, Ant and Thurne past reedbeds, windpumps and riverside pubs; no licence is needed and the speed limits keep everything gentle.
- Blakeney Point — take a boat trip from Blakeney or Morston Quay to the sand spit where several thousand grey and common seals haul out; grey seal pups are born from late October through December.
- Norwich Cathedral and the Lanes — an eleventh-century Norman cathedral with the second-tallest spire in England and the largest monastic cloister, ten minutes' walk from a warren of independent shops in the Norwich Lanes.
- Holkham Hall — a Palladian house built for the first Earl of Leicester, with a marble entrance hall, a walled garden under long-term restoration and a deer park you can cycle round.
- Blickling Estate — a Jacobean house of dark red brick and shaped yew hedges north of Aylsham, with a large lake, formal gardens and a National Trust bookshop worth an hour on its own.
- RSPB Titchwell Marsh — reedbed, freshwater and brackish lagoons behind the dunes on the north coast, with hides close enough to the paths to suit casual visitors as well as serious birders.
- Cromer Pier — one of the last British piers with an end-of-pier variety theatre still running a summer season, alongside a lifeboat station and the crab boats that made the town's name.
- BeWILDerwood — a low-tech adventure park of treehouses, rope bridges and marsh walks near Hoveton, aimed squarely at children under twelve and better than the description suggests.
Getting to Norfolk
Norwich is the obvious rail gateway. Greater Anglia runs direct trains from London Liverpool Street roughly every half hour, with the fastest services taking about 1 hour 33 minutes and the typical journey closer to 1 hour 50. Advance fares start around £12 one way if booked early. From Norwich, branch lines run east to Great Yarmouth and north to Sheringham via Cromer, and the Bittern Line in particular is a genuinely useful way to reach the coast without a car.
From the Midlands and the north, trains run to Norwich via Peterborough and Ely on the cross-country route, and King's Lynn is served directly from London King's Cross via Cambridge, which is the better approach for west Norfolk and Sandringham.
By road, most drivers arrive on the A11 from Cambridge and the M11, which is dual carriageway all the way to Norwich. The A47 crosses the county east to west, linking King's Lynn, Norwich and Great Yarmouth, though stretches remain single carriageway and traffic backs up in summer. The north coast is reached on the A149 coast road, a narrow route through a string of villages where parking is the real constraint — Holkham, Wells and Brancaster all charge for car parks and fill by mid-morning in August. Arrive before ten or after three.
Norwich Airport handles flights to Amsterdam Schiphol and a handful of UK and holiday destinations, and sits about four miles north of the city. For most visitors, though, Stansted is the more practical airport, roughly two hours by road.
Best time to visit Norfolk
Spring is arguably the best-kept part of the Norfolk year. April and May bring migrating birds to the coastal reserves, samphire appears on the marshes from May, and the beaches are empty on weekdays. Temperatures are modest and the wind off the North Sea has teeth well into May, so pack more layers than the calendar suggests.
Summer is when the county is busiest, and July and August genuinely do fill the coastal car parks and boatyards. Norfolk is among the driest and sunniest counties in Britain, which helps, and the beaches are large enough to absorb the numbers. Book accommodation and boat hire months ahead for this window, and expect the Burnhams and Wells to be at full stretch.
Autumn is the connoisseur's season. September still carries summer warmth, the sea is at its warmest of the year, prices drop and the light on the marshes is at its best. October and November bring the grey seal pupping season at Blakeney and Horsey, along with big flocks of pink-footed geese arriving from Iceland — the dawn flights over the north coast are a real spectacle.
Winter is quiet, exposed and cold, with a strong easterly wind that has nothing between it and the Urals. Plenty of coastal pubs and hotels stay open and do good business with walkers and birdwatchers, and Norwich has a decent Christmas market season, but some smaller attractions and boat operators close from November to March.
Where to stay in Norfolk
The north coast between Hunstanton and Sheringham is the most sought-after base and priced accordingly. Burnham Market is the smart end — Georgian houses round a green, galleries, delicatessens and a nickname locally that references Chelsea. It suits couples and anyone who wants good food within walking distance, and it is two miles inland from Brancaster beach and six from Wells.
Wells-next-the-Sea is the better family choice: a working harbour with crabbing off the quay, a beach reached by a mile-long walk or the seasonal narrow-gauge train, and a good spread of holiday cottages and pubs. Brancaster and Titchwell are quieter still and put you next to the RSPB reserves and the Norfolk Coast Path, which makes them the pick for walkers and birdwatchers.
Cromer and Sheringham offer traditional seaside at more accessible prices, with piers, fish and chips, steam railway connections and rail links back to Norwich — useful if you would rather not drive. Further east, Wroxham, Horning and Ludham are the places to be if the Broads are the point of the trip, with boatyards on the doorstep and lower prices than the coast.
Norwich makes an excellent base for a first visit, particularly out of season. You get restaurants, museums and a cathedral on your doorstep, everywhere in the county is within an hour's drive, and hotel rates are notably lower than on the coast. King's Lynn plays a similar role for west Norfolk and Sandringham.
Food and drink in Norfolk
Cromer crab is the county's best-known product, caught on the chalk reef offshore and sweeter than crab landed elsewhere. The season runs roughly April to October and the traditional way to eat it is dressed, on brown bread, with black pepper and lemon. Brancaster mussels are the winter equivalent, grown on in the tidal creeks and available in the months with an R in them, from September through April.
Samphire grows wild on the salt marshes and appears on menus from May, usually blanched and served with butter and fish. Norfolk also produces asparagus in May and June, Norfolk Black turkeys at Christmas, and a good deal of the country's barley — which is why the county supports a large number of small breweries alongside Woodforde's at Woodbastwick, whose Wherry is the local benchmark bitter.
For eating out, The White Horse at Brancaster Staithe has a dining room looking straight over the marshes and is the standard recommendation for mussels. Socius in Burnham Market does modern small plates and books up well in advance. Titchwell Manor's restaurant is the smarter option on the north coast. In Norwich, the covered market has traded on the same site since Norman times and is the place for cheap lunch, while Wells and Cromer both have fish shacks on the quay that are better than anything you will find inland.
