Family ideas for places to go in Norfolk
Need some ideas for where to go with the family in Norfolk?
Here's a quick run through of our latest trip and some great places we'd recommend you visit.
Contents
- Introduction
- Sheringham
- Pinewoods Caravan Park
- The wonderful woods and beach walks
- Holt Country Park
- Wells Next the Sea
- A game call 'The Shame of Life'
- Holt and Elevenses
- Leaving for home
Introduction
We used to go to the Lake District a lot, but when our daughter was born we started looking for nearer destinations. This is when our trips to Norfolk started. If you haven't been there, you're missing out on some real gems. In this blog we'll give you a brief insight to our latest trip and where we'd recommend you pay a visit to.
This visit was at the end of the half term holidays in October. Which you would assume means loads of families everywhere. Busy roads, long delays, beaches full of people. Well, in some places you would be right but thankfully the beaches are so vast along the Norfolk coast, you can have a lot of it to yourselves.
As for the journey time, it's about 2hrs 30 min from our lovely home in Bedfordshire. This is mainly across country and you can go a few different ways, exploring the countryside along the way. This time round we chose to go via the A10 and Ely, which worked perfectly and has a few places along the way if you want to break it up a bit.
Sheringham
There's a lot to do for such a small seaside town and you can easily spend a few hours here in all weather. I'd recommend using the station car park which is at the top of town - Car Park, Station Approach, Station Rd, Sheringham NR26 8RG. There's plenty of spaces and an added bonus of the steam train that runs from there. We've done the journey from Holt to Sheringham before and would highly recommend it.
We arrived in Sheringham at lunch time and much to the little ones delight, headed straight for the penny arcades! We know that she loves them and of course we do too. Especially the grabber machines, which we appear to be very good at. We have a collection of our winnings all around her bedroom. This time we were unlucky, but we would be back!
There's a great ice cream shop a few doors down and a small independent coffee shop at the bottom of the main street called Grey Seal which comes highly recommended. You'll find some great charity shops mixed in with the regular seaside ones. We found a selection of fancy dress clothes for our daughter that would normally be £20 each and got them for £3 or £4 instead!
The beach is broken up by the massive rocks across the back of it and the traditional breakers stretching in to the water. The tide doesn't go out too far and you can easily paddle and build sand castles on the sand. Overall it's a nice clean beach and perfect for a play.
https://www.visitnorthnorfolk.com/explore/visit/sheringham
Pinewoods Caravan Park
Our next destination was Wells and Pinewoods Caravan park. We haven't stayed there before but had seen it from our many trips to the beach and we knew it would be a great place to stay for a few days. It's a lovely clean site and surrounded by nature walks, lakes and beaches. There's no bar or restaurant on site but they do have a good selection of take away vans instead. We had the Burrito's and they were really tasty. The cheesy chips really topped it off nicely too!
We had friends join us on the Friday and both families just about managed to fit in our Caravan. It was amazing to see them rocking our Balloon Dog gear when they arrived. It was going to be a great few days, but maybe a bit snug on the accommodation side due to the one that we'd booked.
The wonderful woods and beach walks
We decided on a nice walk through the woods which run parallel to the beach. It really is a perfect location for a family stroll. If you're not staying at the caravan park you can aim for the main Car Park, Beach Rd, Wells-next-the-Sea NR23 1DR. We normally head straight for the beach café and get ourselves a DIY sausage baguette or bacon roll, coffee or another of the amazing cakes or snacks on offer. There's also toilets here and a bus that takes you along the main road between town and the beach. This runs all year round but it's worth checking on timings if you use it, just in case you miss the last one.
https://www.holkham.co.uk/visit/things-to-do/eat-stay-shop/places-to-eat/wells-beach-cafe/
Just over the rise there's the new lifeboat station which will amaze both children and adults alike. Keep your ears open for the siren that tells you when the tides turning, or that they are about to launch!
https://www.wellslifeboat.org/
Head towards the coastline path and take a left and you'll see the woods ahead of you. About 10 minutes in there's toilets, just in case the little ones, or grown ups need a last minute pee. Or, if you get caught short, you can always do a wild one in the woods. There are various ways to go and routes you can take. Keep your eyes open and you might even come across a tree swing. We all had a go and managed to get some pretty good height on it as well. Next we found ourselves weaving towards the gaps in the trees that lead to the beach and before we knew it we popped right out on to it. The kids took their trainers off and rolled up their trousers and away we went.
The beaches here stretch for miles .. and even more so when the tide is out. Just be careful of the sand banks when it turns as you can quickly be cut off from the rest of the beach. The lifeboat station is right around the corner but it's a very scary situation to find yourself in when the waves are coming in quickly.
We had a great hour or so strolling along the sand before we decided to head back in to the woods and make our way home. If we'd carried on the way we were going, we would have found ourselves at the Holkham beach, another amazing place to go. Dogs are allowed on both but there is a small area where they aren't allowed in Wells and Holkham may have restrictions due to nesting birds which is similar to most coastal areas at certain times of the year.
Back at Pinewoods and tonight was our chance to have a little Halloween party for the minions. Hot dog fingers with Ketchup for blood, a selection of nibbles, fancy dress and decorations. Spooky music and they were having a great time. I'm not sure they quite understand the gravity of the Ghost Busters theme, but they will one day.
Holt Country Park
The next day we were off to another one our favourite places for a walk, Holt Country Park, Edgefield Hill, Holt NR25 6SP. This little wood has everything that you need for a few hours in the the fresh air. The tea room is amazing and looks like a small cottage. They do a great selection of cakes, sandwiches and coffee. There's also plenty of places to sit and it has a nice benched picnic area which is undercover in case the rain arrives. We love grabbing a coffee before we set off in to the woods. The caffeine also helps us keep up with the little ones, and the dog!
https://www.hettyshouse.co.uk/
There's a small wooden play area at the start of the trails and it's an ideal place to go before you head off in to the woods. You can pick a selection of walks depending on your time and the distance you want to do. We like the purple one which goes right around the wood and takes an hour or so. Keep your eyes open for the places to stop and play as you go around the trails. There's a great 'tin can ally' where you use pine cones to knock them off the wooden shelf. Perfect for a little competition between family members. Grown ups.. just remember, it's good to let the little ones win every now and then.
https://www.north-norfolk.gov.uk/tasks/your-community/find-out-about-holt-country-park/
Wells Next the Sea (yes that is how it's pronounced)
The last night and we were having Fish and Chips in Wells Next the Sea. You've got a few places to choose from and I can honestly say they are all as good as each other. Afterall, they've been serving Fish & Chips on the coast for decades so should be good at it. There are a few car parks within close proximity to each other and fairly reasonable in price. If like us when we take my wife's car, you need electric charging. This can be found at the Car Park, 43 Freeman St, Wells-next-the-Sea NR23 1BQ, just off the mini roundabout.
There's a great selection of seaside shops in Staithe Street. If you're looking for refreshments there are plenty to choose from. We like a coffee shop called Ground as it has some nice outdoor space and grass for the kids and dogs. Just up the street there's also Flo and Joe which has plenty of outside seating as well. Both are worth a visit and come recommended.
Then it was back to the grabber machines. We had unfinished business from day 1 in Sheringham! We love these arcades and they have a great mix of games for all the family. You can earn tickets for prizes at the end of your fun to. We aimed for the first one and got lucky on the first £1. Us 1 grabber machines 0. Then another cheer goes up and it was 2-0 and only £2 in as well. Now, unfortunately that was our winning streak over but we still popped another few quid in the machines while the little ones tried in vein to win even more soft toys, that they don't need. There was also a couple of hundred tickets to exchange for sweets so we all went away very happy from our hour of fun.
If you are still needing to burn off some energy, there's a lovely play park just along from the arcades. Plenty of open space and a variety of equipment for young and older children. There's also toilets here as well in case you need a pit stop on your travels.
A game called, The Shame of Life
That night and once the kids were finally asleep, the grown ups sat down with some wine, crisps and a game called 'The Shame of Life' .. all I will say is that I don't think we've laughed so much in a very long time.. highly recommended but not for the faint hearted!
Holt and elevenses
The next morning we had to check out by 10 and somehow we managed to do it with a few minutes to spare. The rain had started to come down and we decided to head to Holt for elevenses. It's a great town a few minutes in land and one to put on your list of places to visit. Our destination was a little café called Charlies which does great food and coffee as well. It's just a few minutes from the car park on Albert St, Holt NR25 6HG. There's plenty of seating upstairs if it looks busy inside and there's loads of room outside as well. We settled for some large warm sausage rolls and a latte each. Dogs are allowed so our Charlie was very happy curled up under the table, in Charlies.
https://www.charliesofholt.co.uk/
Leaving for home
Then it was over and our few days away had come to an end. Back to the cars for one last drive through the country side as the roads lead us to home.
I hope that our blogs will help you plan your next trip away. Let us know how you get on and where you go for your next adventure. We'd love you to get in touch with us, so please use the comments section below.
We'll be posting more of our favorite places in our next blog so be sure to keep your eyes open for it.
We are Balloon Dog, welcome to the family.