Day 3: Great Yarmouth and Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens
My third day in Norfolk was quite cloudy and windy. So I decided to spend most of the day doing things that didn’t matter if the weather was great. I started off the day at Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens, which is a lovely small zoo. And then I headed over to Great Yarmouth.
Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens
There are quite a lot of small zoos in Norfolk, but I chose this one because its location is close to Great Yarmouth. It’s a fairly small zoo, but there’s still a good range of different animals. My favourites were the Snow Leopards and Amur Leopards.
I also really liked the tigers. There was a ‘Tiger Talk’ at midday which I went to, which was a great chance to see the tiger up close. There are also lots of gibbons and other monkeys, with good treetop walkways to see them. The Gibbons were really noisy and active at one point in my visit which was fun to see!
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth is one of the biggest coastal towns in Norfolk. It has a fascinating history as an important fishing village, where herring were caught and also cured here. It’s a great place to visit when enjoying the best of Norfolk in 4 days.
The Time and Tide Museum
To learn more about the history of Great Yarmouth, you can visit the Time and Tide Museum. It’s a surprisingly big museum that has loads of interesting things – I really enjoyed my visit. The museum building is in an old herring curing building – and you can still smell the fish sometimes! One room that particularly smelt was the old curing room – complete with a slightly creepy model of a person and some fish…
One of the great parts of this museum is a full size re-creation of ‘The Rows’. These narrow streets used to fill Great Yarmouth, with the fishermen and other workers living in the small houses and cramped living conditions. It’s great to be able to walk down a re-creation of one of The Rows and imagine what life used to be like in the early 1900s when fishing was so important here. Great Yarmouth was heavily bombed in the Second World War, meaning The Rows no longer survive.
You can also learn more about what life would have been like for the fishermen in the early 20th century, and the types of boats they’d have been using to go out to sea, often for days at a time.
Great Yarmouth seafront
After visiting the museum, head down to the seafront at Great Yarmouth. It’s a classic British seaside town. There’s lots of arcade games, and of course you can buy fish and chips.
There’s also a huge sandy beach and a pier with more arcade games and entertainment.
Galeon Andalucia – visiting Tall Ship
The South Quay area of Great Yarmouth also has some visiting ships sometimes. During my time in Great Yarmouth there was a visiting Tall Ship, called the Galeon Andalucia. It’s a full size replica of one of the Spanish ships from the 16th and 17th centuries. Ships like this sailed all over the world, for trade and discovering new lands.
While the ship was in Great Yarmouth, you could pay to go onboard and have a look around. I found it fascinating to see – it was like being on a real pirate ship! Make sure you check for events on in Great Yarmouth before your visit as there are often really cool things to see.
Day 4: Horsey Windpump and The Norfolk Broads
On the final day of ultimate guide to the best of Norfolk in 4 days, I’d recommend heading inland to enjoy the Norfolk Broads. The Norfolk Broads date back hundreds of years. It originated as an area of peatland, that was then dug up for the peat. Rising sea levels and the very flat landscape meant the area flooded, resulting in hundreds of miles of waterways and marshlands. For a lot of history, this area was fairly uninhabitable, with ‘fen plague’ and other diseases from the marshy water. But nowadays, it’s one of the top tourist areas in Norfolk.
Horsey Windpump
Windmills are an iconic feature on the Norfolk Broads landscape. The flat landscape made windmills a great option for the people living here. Horsey Windpump is a great one to visit, and very well maintained. It’s owned by the National Trust, and it’s just a short walk from the car park.
Horsey Windpump was built in 1912 as a way to drain water from the area, although the original windpump on this site dates back to the 17th century. You can get lovely views of the windpump across the water.
You can also go inside the windpump and climp up to the top. The stairs are fairly steep and narrow, but manageable for most people. It was fascinating to see inside the windpump and see how it worked. The views from the top were lovely as well.
You can follow footpaths around this area to go for a lovely walk in the Norfolk Broads. I loved the scenery here. It’s quite different from a lot of the rest of the UK, as it’s so flat, so I found it fascinating. I enjoyed seeing all the boats on the water as well.
Boating on the Norfolk Broads
The best way to explore the Norfolk Broads is by boat. There are lots of companies that offer boat trips, or you can also hire your own boat. You can hire a boat for a few hours. Or you can hire larger boats for several days or a week if you want – and have a full week’s boating holiday. Unfortunately I didn’t have time on this trip to hire a boat for several days, so I decided to hire a boat for 3 hours from Wroxham.
After an mild initial panic at having to steer a boat and not crash into things, I got the hang of it and really enjoyed it! It was lovely to be out on a boat on your own on the water. It was incredibly peaceful. The speed limit on most of the water is 5mph, so it’s definitely not a quick mode of transport. But chugging along slowly was really relaxing.
The scenery of the Norfolk Broads was lovely. I really liked seeing all the geese and swans as well. And overhead, I was lucky to see a Marsh Harrier – a rare bird of prey.
I drove the boat to the small village of Horning before turning back to Wroxham. It was a lovely stretch of water, and a really great way to end my time exploring the best of Norfolk in 4 days. I really enjoyed visiting this part of the UK and would love to come back.
Hope you enjoyed my ultimate guide to the best of Norfolk in 4 days! You can also check out my other guides for short breaks in the UK, including 4 days in the Brecon Beacons, 5 days on the Isle of Wight, 6 days in the Peak District, 1 week in Anglesey, and 5 days in the Lake District at Christmas.
