Short break

We had a short (two-day) break last week.

Harrogate would normally be our first choice. It’s an easy three-hour drive from Cambridgeshire. We stay in a nice hotel overlooking the Stray in the centre of town and there are good restaurants, an Everyman cinema, a concert hall and some beautiful local scenery.

Bath, our second choice, is really my first choice because it has all the things we like about Harrogate. It’s also, in my view, the most beautiful city in Britain and if I have one small regret in life it’s not moving there when I had the opportunity.

Harrogate however has the advantage of being en route to Scotland so as well as the occasional short break we sometimes stay overnight to break the journey and unlike Bath it rarely gets overwhelmed by tourists.

I mention this because we’ve found somewhere else we rather like and it’s closer to home (less than two hours by car) and completely different.

I’m referring to north Norfolk. It has few of the amenities that Bath and Harrogate can offer but it has a rustic charm that’s hard to beat.

It also has the sea and sandy beaches although I’m a bit ambivalent about beaches, sandy or otherwise, especially in tourist hotspots.

I’m not sure if north Norfolk can be described as a tourist hotspot but some places certainly get very busy in the summer and on public holidays.

It also attracts a lot of second home owners with Burnham Market, the jewel in the north Norfolk crown, famously dubbed Chelsea-on-Sea.

Given that it’s only two hours by train from London what may surprise first-time visitors is how rural and remote it can feel.

Unlike Bath, Harrogate or Cheltenham (another place we like to go for a break) I’m not sure I’d want to live there full-time because it must add hours to car journeys to other parts of the country.

Even on Norfolk’s A-roads driving can be slow, more of a procession at times, and if you’re anywhere near the Queen’s Sandringham estate on a public holiday expect significant delays.

It’s easy too, in the more rural areas, to find yourself on a single track road with no passing places for half a mile.

Last week wasn’t the first time we’ve had a short break in Norfolk.

In March 2020, a few weeks before the country went into lockdown for the first time, we marked my 61st birthday by spending two nights in Wells-next-the-Sea on the north Norfolk coast.

We stayed at The Crown, a pub/hotel I am keen to go back to but the cosiness I described here may be better suited to autumn or winter:

The small, dimly lit bar had a wood burner and leather armchairs. The dining room was lined with books and a feature of our bedroom was an enormous copper bath (which was in the bedroom not the bathroom).

What made it even nicer was that outside it was bitterly cold:

Yesterday we visited Holkham Beach which is where the closing shots of Shakespeare in Love were filmed. The Norfolk beach was used to replicate the shores of Virginia. I hope it was warmer for Gwyneth Paltrow because yesterday it was absolutely freezing!

Last week we stayed at a small hotel in a hamlet near Holt. I’m not identifying it by name but here’s a clue.

The hotel was previously the home of a glassblowing company that outgrew the site leaving several brick and flint-built barns.

The main barn has been converted into a modern boutique hotel ‘marrying past and present without an ounce of country house chintz’.

It wasn’t that busy so I’m guessing the summer staycation boom is over in favour of holidays abroad but we loved it and would gladly go again.

I should add that on day two we drove past The White Horse Inn at Brancaster Staithe which was 15 miles and 30 minutes from the hotel.

I recognised it because we went there for lunch in 2010, a few weeks after the proprietors received a Great British Pub Award for ‘Best Creative Outdoor Area’ (sponsored by JTI and the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign).

But that’s another story which you can read about here.

Above: Walled garden at Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust property near Felbrigg, Norfolk