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Home / TRIP IDEAS / A-List Travel Advisors / The East Coast of England's Norfolk is ideal for sailing, seafood, and stately homes.

The East Coast of England's Norfolk is ideal for sailing, seafood, and stately homes.

2022-11-13  Maliyah Mah

Here is a list of places to stay, eat, and do in Norfolk, one of England's most picturesque coastal counties.

Norfolk, the English county with more rivers than either Venice or Amsterdam, has long avoided drawing visitors compared to Devon and Cornwall. This is partially due to the region's difficulty in accessibility; it is located in the far east of England, is not connected to London by a freeway, and must travel two hours by rail to reach Norwich, the county's principal city.

Sandringham Estate
 

Monarchs, queens, and affluent landowners have been drawn to this windmill-dotted region for over a thousand years by its remoteness. Numerous stately homes may be found in the fifth-largest county in England, including Sandringham Estate, the cherished rural getaway of Queen Elizabeth II, and Houghton Hall, the birthplace of Britain's first prime minister, Robert Walpole. The presence of William and Kate, who have had a home in the North Norfolk town of Anmer since 2011, has generated a buzz that has drawn award-winning young chefs, upscale hoteliers, and trailblazing tour operators. However, the royal family has only recently brought Norfolk to the world's attention.


The county still has a strong sense of identity, firmly founded in its maritime past and a love of sustainability. I traveled through Norfolk on a soggy August weekend by boat, foot, and food to meet the people shaping its future.

Exploration Co
 

Friday

I curled my toes over the wet hull of the boat, one hand urgently holding to a rope flapping in the wind, before stepping forward and diving into the swiftly moving grey below.

I jumped off My Girls, a 1960s crab boat that Coastal Exploration Co. had converted in 2016 to take tourists through the North Norfolk coast's creeks and open waters. Henry Chamberlain, a former Royal Marine, founded the eco-conscious sailing firm. He was reared in nearby Houghton and sought to promote wind-powered adventure while protecting the last remaining wooden fishing boats in the area.

Chamberlain observed as we allowed the chilly water to transport our tingling bodies toward purple-hued marshes, "Norfolk's not that different from Afghanistan." He added with a giggle after observing my bewildered expression: "No. Being on the battlefield and getting caught in a storm in the North Sea may be terrifying. It's untamed and unpredictably unpredictable—a true adventure.

Coastal Exploration’s
 

We had departed Coastal Exploration's headquarters in Wells-next-the-Sea at 6 a.m. to ride the high tide into Norfolk's salt marshes, one of the U.K.'s most critical bird-breeding habitats. Here, pastel-colored cafés offer lemon-dressed crab directly from their wire pots. We cruised gently by swaying sea lavender and flying swamp sparrows while letting the wind determine our speed before anchoring up for an open-water swim and an on-deck bacon-and-egg breakfast.

I believe this to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, but Chamberlain informed me that things couldn't go on the way they were. "Our roads are congested, and our rivers are dirty. We will stay caught up if we invent new things. For the first time in decades, he is transporting merchandise between the villages of Wells-next-the-Sea and King's Lynn under sail to support more environmentally friendly transportation methods.

Saturday

In the Harper, a brand-new 32-room hotel in Langham housed inside a former glass-blowing factory, where modern furniture in vibrant tones pops against the old flint walls, I woke up on Saturday to the scent of lavender. When it comes to this level of luxury, Norfolk is behind Cornwall and Devon, according to house manager Jules Keirle, who was pointing out canary-yellow velvet sofas and exposed brick in the hotel bar. "We want to provide a product that would be attractive to the younger, more design-conscious demographic.

North Norfolk Paddleboards-1
 

Poached eggs and locally cured bacon for breakfast later, the sea was beckoning once more. I had reserved a trip with North Norfolk Paddleboards, hoping to see harbor or grey seals. From Burnham Overy Staithe, we would travel to Scolt Head Island, a fortified offshore barrier that rises out of the marsh before plunging into the North Sea. A jet-black head, smooth and slippery as oil, didn't surface until we had paddled far out into the ocean through flooded mudflats swinging with samphire. It was then that it appeared only a few feet from my board. After I took a quick whiff of the sea air, the seal was gone, as if I had been dreaming.

One of my fellow paddleboarders, a young woman, traveling alone, commented, "Beautiful, isn't she? She explained that she had decided to explore new things after her buddy unexpectedly passed away when I asked her why she had come to Norfolk. "I love Norfolk because it contains everything I'm afraid of."

For a beverage in the Yard, a stone and brick courtyard adorned with fairy lights and flavored with rosemary, and I went back to the Harper. Under an olive tree next to me, a family played Scrabble, and a young couple was sipping sparkling Norfolk rosé as a Yorkshire terrier sat at their feet. Dinner was served in Stanley's, a home-away-from-home dining room with wooden rafters and midnight-blue velvet banquettes, and included smoked Cley mackerel and wood-fired sea bass with crisp samphire and luscious chunks of marrow.

Sunday
 

That weekend, the sun finally shone, so I laced up my hiking boots and started on the Norfolk Coast Path from Wells-next-the-Sea. The England Coast Path, which spans 2,800 miles and will eventually be the world's longest coastal route, includes the trail from Hunstanton to Hopton-on-Sea.

North Norfolk Paddleboards
 

The Technicolor beach houses of Holkham Beach, a stretch of sand that had its significant motion picture premiere in The Eagle Has Landed, were in my way as I went west toward Brancaster Staithe. I moved inland and followed the river Burn as I could hear the North Sea crashing in my ears. Soon after, I passed tall dunes that eventually gave way to a flat marshland dotted with yellow and purple flowers.

Two hours later, I saw picnic tables piled high with North Sea lobster and oysters, indicating that I had arrived at the White Horse, a restaurant renowned for its fresh seafood straight from the boat and marsh views. I enjoyed the trademark platter, with its cockles pickled in saffron, which brought out another aspect of the terroir. That evening as I traveled south, I made a brief pit call at King's Lynn's Duration Brewing, a small-batch, farm-based brewery famed for its wild ales.

I continued for another hour to Norwich, the historic city of Norfolk, where I had dinner at Farmyard. The restaurant was founded in 2017 to promote seasonal Norfolk products by London-trained chef Andrew Jones and his television director wife, Hannah Springham, who had previously worked for European heavyweights Richard Corrigan and Claude Bosi. Before moving on to Wagyu beef with cream of foraged lovage and lightly battered zucchini flowers with black truffle, I ordered grilled octopus with Urfa chile off the snack menu.

I watched the chef in the open kitchen prepare my entree of stone bass and rainbow chard with sea herbs and vanilla as the rain poured. A window had been left slightly ajar, allowing the scent of Norfolk to enter. I shall constantly be reminded of this wild and lovely area of England by the heady concoction of damp earth, pine, and wildflowers and the sharp bitterness of the sea.


2022-11-13  Maliyah Mah