Car-free ideas for Great summer staycationsin Norfolk
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Norfolk has so many brilliant places to explore that people who live here don’t need to travel outside the county to find really good summer holidays. And you don't need a car, either. Here are some ideas for trips, minibreaks and staycations you can get to without driving. A growing number of them will reward you for turning up by bus, train, bike or foot. You'll have a great adventure along the way with scenic bus and train rides.
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1. Great Yarmouth
Stroll by the wide sands or explore Yarmouth’s history, hike through dunes or relax on the beach. A holiday around Great Yarmouth feels light-years from the city, but smart, comfortable trains run here through the Broads from Norwich every hour, taking just over half an hour to arrive at Great Yarmouth station.
- It’s a twenty-minute walk from Yarmouth station past the airy Minster to the town’s huge beach. Here, you could eat chowder at the Beach Hut café, explore the restored Waterways or ride fairground attractions around the Britannia Pier.
- A few miles up the coast from Yarmouth, the seaside resort of Hemsby makes a great car-free family base. Richardson’s Hemsby Beach holiday park has lodges, bungalows, caravans and chalets, some of them with hot tubs and all of them with access to a huge range of activities: canoes and kayaks, fencing, archery, a climbing wall, a heated swimming pool and lots more.
- How do I get to Hemsby by bus? Buses 1 and 1A leave Yarmouth every half an hour (less often on Sundays) and takes 30 minutes to reach Kingsway Shops in Hemsby. From here, it’s a short stroll along Beach Road to the holiday park. Follow Good Journey’s directions for more details.
- To reward you for arriving car-free, there’s 20% off your first order at the Coastal Café, which serves gourmet biscuits baked by the Norfolk Cookie Company just next door. Perfect to refuel before a coastal walk.
- A mile’s walk north along the beach or through the dunes from Hemsby brings you to the quieter village of Winterton-on-Sea, famous for its huge seal colony and summer-nesting little terns. For a more isolated, rural staycation, check out Mill Farm eco barns, five minutes further on bus 1/1A with a path from the nearby bus stop.
- What about when it’s raining? Yarmouth’s interesting museums, include Time and Tide. Open daily in a Victorian fish-curing factory, this engaging museum celebrates the town’s history and herring industry. There’s a reconstruction of one of the town’s old rows (narrow streets) and bronze buckles from the Roman fort at Caister-on-Sea, whose ruins you can see from window of bus 1 to Hemsby.
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2. Sheringham
The elegant seaside town of Sheringham is another excellent base for car-free Norfolk holidays. Not only are there hourly trains from Norwich, there’s also a steam train and coastal bus service connecting Sheringham with picturesque villages and attractions in the area.
- YHA Sheringham is a modern youth hostel, with a TV and games room, almost next door to the railway station. If you’re hoping for something a bit fancier, there are hotels like stylish Alton House within a five-minute walk of the station.
- Sheringham Park has 1,000 acres of trees and flowers to explore. There are all kinds of outdoor experiences like a herb-and-lavender-scented Sensory Garden to stimulate the different senses, a bright wildflower meadow, a dragonfly-magnet pond and views across coast and countryside from the viewing tower gazebo. To get to Sheringham Park, follow Good Journey’s directions and get 10% off in the café to reward you for coming car-free!
- What else is there to do nearby? Walkers and birdwatchers will be in heaven here with nature reserves nearby at Salthouse, Cley, Blakeney and beyond. From Morston Quay, you can take a boat trip to see the seals at Blakeney Point. And, beyond that, you reach Wells-next-the-Sea, where a summer shuttle bus takes visitors to the beach-hut-and-pine-fringed sands at the end of Beach Road.
- How do I get to all these places? The Coasthopper Bus runs from Sheringham railway station along the coast to Wells, stopping in lots of little villages along the way, each with interesting wildlife to explore, not to mention centuries-old churches and welcoming village pubs.
- In the other direction, the Coasthopper and railway run to Cromer with its pier-end theatre and great places to eat.
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3. Thetford
For a different kind of holiday, head inland to the ancient market town of Thetford, where the huge forest nearby provides miles of tracks for cycling and walking. Attractions include the sprawling ruins of a twelfth-century priory, one of the biggest and most important in medieval East Anglia, and a conservation zoo. Trains arrive regularly from Norwich and elsehwere.
- Thetford Priory is just five minutes’ walk from the railway station and free to visit. Another five minutes’ riverside stroll brings you to Thetford Travelodge, a handy town-centre base with interesting walks from the door. If you’re looking for something more characterful, Wereham House hotel is a few doors down from the half-timbered Ancient House museum and even closer to the station
- Banham Zoo is about 12 miles east of Thetford and offers 20% off entry to people who arrive without a car. Housing tigers, giraffes, penguins, meerkats and hundreds of other animals, Banham Zoo is well worth the trip and getting there could be part of an adventurous day out.
- How do I get to Banham Zoo from Thetford? You can use Good Journey’s travel planner for a personalised plan, but here is a morning itinerary that takes in plenty of interesting sights along the way. Make an early start from Thetford station with a train to Attleborough around 8.30am. The train passes through several nature reserves. Stroll ten minutes into Attleborough, past St Mary’s church, which has colourful medieval paintings, to catch bus 37D at 9.15am from Queen’s Square. This runs through Old Buckenham Country Park to drop you at Banham Zoo as soon as it opens so you’ll be able to enjoy the 50 acres of parkland and gardens before they get more crowded.
- The bus back leaves at 1.10pm from opposite the Zoo and arrives in Attleborough at 1.30pm. Banham Zoo has several snack shacks, a café and a pizza restaurant, but if you get to Attleborough hungry, you might want to have lunch in the Hideout Café before heading back to Thetford.
- Find lots more ideas for car-free things to do in our guide to Thetford.
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4. Hoveton and Wroxham
The waterside village of Hoveton in the Norfolk Broads is very easy to get to by train and has a whole range of fascinating attractions nearby. Hoveton and Wroxham railway station is just 13 minutes’ train journey from Norwich. It’s a great area to explore by boat, steam train, bike or on foot. You’ll find wildlife-rich countryside with welcoming pubs and big open skies that are perfect for watching the sun set over the river.
- Wroxham Miniature World, right next to the railway station, has a huge network of model railways as well as dolls houses, vintage toys and more. And there’s 20% off entry when you arrive by bus or train. Next door, you could eat Welsh rarebit or raclette potatoes with Norfolk smoked ham at Fizz and Fromage.
- Ten minutes’ stroll along Station Road and Riverside Road (or through the park) brings you to Richardson’s Day Boat Hire, where you can hire a boat to explore the Broads. Good Journey’s planner can give you a map of the way there and there’s a 5% discount on boat hire as a reward for arriving car-free and reducing your carbon emissions. Off the winding, tree-lined River Bure, there are a series of lakes or broads. The water is dotted with boats and there are paths and boardwalks around some of the flowering banks.
- Nearby Broads Tours also offers car-free visitors 5% off boat hire and boat trips on picturesque vessels like the Belle of the Broad and Vintage Broadsman. Most of the trips, which run all day every day in summer, last around 90 minutes.
- From Hoveton and Wroxham, you can also take the Bure Valley Railway from next door to the mainline station to visit the Blickling Estate, a Jacobean mansion with nearly 5000 acres of parkland and beautiful gardens. The steam railway runs about four to five times a day in summer from Wroxham to Aylsham. From the steam railway station in Aylsham, it’s a picturesque 1½-mile cross-country walk to Blickling, which is offering 20% off entry and 10% off in the café as a reward for arriving car-free.
- Aylsham offers a nice choice of places to stay like the Ironmongers boutique hotel in the Market Place. Hotels in Hoveton include the Wroxham and King’s Head, both next to river and five minutes’ walk from station.
- BeWILDerwood is another spectacular day trip from Hoveton and Wroxham. A woodland adventure packed with trails and treehouses, fantastical tales and playground mazes. It’s a huge family favourite and is even offering a free hot drink when you arrive by bus or train.
- How do I get to BeWILDerwood without a car? Bus 5B leaves hourly from outside Roy’s department store near Hoveton & Wroxham station and stops five minutes later at BeWILDerwood.
- A lovely circular walk from Hoveton leads beside the steam railway and then cross-country to the villages of Belaugh and Coltishall on the River Bure. The church at Belaugh, unusually for Norfolk, stands on a hill above the river. Inside, it has medieval paintings of saints and kneelers embroidered with local scenes. And there’s a choice of great pubs at the just-over-halfway point in riverside Coltishall.
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5. Hunstanton and beyond
West Norfolk has fabulous holiday areas too. At Hunstanton, striking red and white sedimentary rocks were deposited more than 100 million years ago to form dramatic striped cliffs, which are topped with a lighthouse. Regular buses from King’s Lynn take an hour to reach Hunstanton, passing some lovely countryside along the way.
- Hunstanton is a gateway to great coastal walks. Bus 36 goes on beyond Hunstanton, along the coast and is perfect for linear walks and excursions along the Norfolk Coast Path. Five miles’s walk along the coast path from Hunstanton, you can follow a grassy footpath right to the A149 near Thornham. There’s a map here. Cross the road and walk right along the edge of the field a short way and to reach Drove Orchards among the peaceful fields and trees, ten minutes by bus from Hunstanton.
- Here, you can eat fish and chips, pizza, ice cream and gourmet local produce from the farm shop. Show your bus ticket for a free apple juice. Bus 36 runs hourly from the road outside, back to Hunstanton or onwards along the road to Titchwell nature reserve and lovely villages like Brancaster and Burnham Deepdale.
- Deepdale Camping and Rooms has a bus stop outside and plenty of good places to eat nearby. There are all kinds of hotels and B&Bs along the West Norfolk coast like Cliff Farmhouse and The Lodge in Old Hunstanton, both a couple of minutes from the Post Office bus stop.
- What if it’s raining? Why not visit the swimming pool or the Sealife Centre in Hunstanton? Or head to King’s Lynn with its fabulous museums. True’s Yard Fisherfolk museum offers 50% off entry for people arriving by train, bus, bike or foot. You can find it following Good Journey’s directions. And here are more car-free ideas in the West Norfolk area.
