Norfolk & Suffolk

Norfolk and Suffolk occupy the great eastward bulge of England, and they offer motorhome travellers a landscape and atmosphere unlike anything else in the country. These are counties of big skies, flat horizons, winding waterways, and a coastline that alternates between wide sandy beaches and crumbling clay cliffs. The pace of life is unhurried, the light has an extraordinary quality that has attracted painters for centuries, and the sense of space is remarkable. From our Pontefract depot, the drive to Norfolk takes around three and a half hours via the A1(M) and A17, making it a comfortable journey for a week's touring.

The Norfolk Broads are the region's most distinctive feature — a network of rivers, lakes (called broads), and marshes that form the largest protected wetland in the country. The Broads National Park covers over 300 square kilometres and supports an extraordinary array of wildlife, from swallowtail butterflies and marsh harriers to otters and bitterns. While the Broads are most famously explored by boat, the network of lanes, paths, and villages around them makes superb motorhome touring country. You can park up at a waterside pub, walk along a river bank, and watch the boats drift past in perfect tranquillity.

The Norfolk coast is one of the finest in England. The North Norfolk Coast, from Holme-next-the-Sea to Weybourne, is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty characterised by salt marshes, sand dunes, and vast tidal flats that attract internationally important populations of wading birds and wildfowl. Holkham Beach, often voted the best beach in Britain, stretches for miles beneath a canopy of Corsican pines, its sand firm enough to walk on at low tide and its sense of space genuinely breathtaking. Wells-next-the-Sea, the nearest town to Holkham, has a pretty quayside, a miniature railway to the beach, and excellent fish and chips.

Blakeney Point, a shingle spit extending into the sea from the village of Blakeney, is home to one of the largest grey seal colonies in England. Boat trips from Blakeney and Morston take visitors out to see the seals at close quarters, and during the winter months, hundreds of pups are born on the shingle. Cley next the Sea, immediately behind the point, has been a mecca for birdwatchers since the early twentieth century, and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve there remains one of the premier birding sites in the country.

Cromer and Sheringham, the larger resorts on the North Norfolk coast, have a traditional seaside charm. Cromer is famous for its pier, its crab — regarded as the finest in Britain — and its dramatic lifeboat history. Sheringham has a fine pebble beach, a steam railway (the North Norfolk Railway, known as the Poppy Line), and excellent walking along the coast path. The coast road between the two towns, and onward to Weybourne and Holt, is one of the most pleasant drives in East Anglia.

Norwich, the regional capital, is a city of genuine distinction. Its Norman cathedral, with the second-tallest spire in England, sits in a beautiful close that also contains the finest collection of medieval buildings in the city. Norwich Castle, perched on its mound above the centre, houses an excellent museum with collections ranging from Iceni gold to the Norwich School of painters. The city has over 30 medieval churches, a thriving market that has been trading since the eleventh century, and a network of narrow lanes — the Norwich Lanes — packed with independent shops, restaurants, and cafes.

Suffolk offers a quieter, more intimate version of the East Anglian experience. Aldeburgh, the small coastal town associated with composer Benjamin Britten, has a shingle beach, a fishermen's hut selling fresh-caught fish, and the Aldeburgh Festival held each June at the nearby Snape Maltings — a stunning concert hall converted from Victorian malt buildings on the banks of the River Alde. Southwold, further up the coast, is a perfectly preserved Edwardian seaside town with a lighthouse, a pier, beach huts painted in bright colours, and the Adnams Brewery, whose ales are as integral to Suffolk as cream is to Devon.

The Suffolk wool towns — Lavenham, Long Melford, and Kersey — are among the best-preserved medieval settlements in England. Lavenham's half-timbered buildings, many of which lean at alarming angles after five centuries, line streets that have changed very little since the wool trade made the town one of the richest in England. The Guildhall, now a National Trust museum, and the magnificent Church of St Peter and St Paul, built with wool wealth, are both outstanding. Long Melford's high street, over a mile long and lined with antique shops and tea rooms, is another essential East Anglian experience.

For motorhome campsites, the region is well served. The Camping and Caravanning Club site at Sandringham offers proximity to the royal estate and the north Norfolk coast. Clippesby Hall in the Broads is an award-winning site set in natural woodland with excellent facilities. Southwold Caravan Park provides easy access to the Suffolk Heritage Coast. All offer motorhome hook-ups, waste disposal, and friendly management.

The food culture of Norfolk and Suffolk celebrates the land and sea. Cromer crab, Brancaster mussels, Stiffkey blues cockles, and Aldeburgh fish and chips are coastal essentials. Inland, the farmers' markets at Aylsham, Holt, and Bury St Edmunds showcase local produce from game and cheese to asparagus and soft fruit. A pint of Adnams or Woodforde's ale, drunk in a pub garden overlooking a river or a marsh, is the perfect end to a day's motorhome touring in East Anglia.