North Norfolk with three small boys

We spent the half term week in North Norfolk, which it turns out is a long way from Hampshire when navigating the M25 on a Friday! We stayed further east a couple of years ago and found there were lots of things to do with children so decided to have a return trip. I will write more about the trials and tribulations of holidays with three small boys but, for now, here is a list of the places we would recommend if you ever find yourself over that way.

1. Seal Watching from Morston Quay
This activity was surprisingly successful - it was my husband's idea and I have to admit I wasn't convinced but it turned out to be everyone's favourite activity of the holiday. It didn't start off particularly well - when we arrived to get our tickets the crew were warning everyone that seal sightings had been slim the previous day. And the boat was looking pretty full as we stood waiting at the back of the queue. But there was plenty of space for us in the end and, it turned out, plenty of seals. We headed towards a group (not sure of the collective noun for seals?!) sunning themselves on the beach to start with. They were pretty impressive although hard to see by the time everyone on the boat had stood up to take photos! Then we started spotting them in the water around the boat. They stayed in one place long enough for everyone to manage to see some, even A. The boys have been telling everyone we see about it since we got back (which requires a bit of translation sometimes in T's case!) so would definitely recommend.

2. Brancaster Beach
This place was lovely, about 10 degrees colder with the wind running across it but well worth a visit wearing lots of layers. The beach is vast - we visited at low tide and it seemed to go on and out for miles. I'm not a big fan of sand and playing on the beach but I love the wide open space and the feeling of being on the edge of something when you're next to the sea. The boys did some sandcastle building and flew the kite and then spent a long time collecting shells and stones and emptying them out every two minutes to count how many they each had in their buckets.

3. Dinosaur Adventure
If I'm honest, this place is the main reason why we came back to Norfolk as we had a great time here a couple of years ago! I always feel slightly under pressure to make sure everyone "has a good time" when we've paid lots of money to get in somewhere. But we did have a really good day out and made it nearly to closing time, which is always a good sign. They have put in a new high ropes course since we last visited which W and I did (T was too short, and got pretty grumpy having to watch by the end). W was surprisingly brave in the routes he chose to take, and our last crossing involving some rope handrails that he couldn't reach on his own was a bit of a challenge!

4. Felbrigg Hall
We made good use of our National Trust membership again, visiting a couple of big estates and a couple of car parks. We had a really nice day at Felbrigg Hall (which it turned out we did visit last time we were in Norfolk even though I was convinced we hadn't!). We decided to drag some slightly reluctant boys on an autumn walk around the estate to start with which they weren't too keen on, but they cheered up considerably when we discovered the visitor centre was loaning tracker rucksacks full of bug catching equipment. W especially is a little obsessed with trails and likes to have a piece of paper to clutch as we walk around places, and the rucksack helped distract him from the lack of trail. We ran out of time to look at the walled garden and the chicken this time round as A slightly lost the plot but definitely lots to do here.

5. Blickling Hall
We had a much more enthusiastic walk around the estate around Blickling Hall the following day as there is a really good geocaching trail that kept the boys happy. I was a little nervous about setting off on a 2 mile loop shortly before lunch, although had our usual box of flapjack with me to keep everyone going! I had hoped we were going to be able to shorten the walk a little and cut back in front of the house towards the end but the barbed wire and ditch put paid to that idea! We didn't go into the house or the gardens at all as everyone was keen to get back for some lunch but it looked lovely in the autumn sunshine.

6. Wells-next-the-Sea
Visiting a town is not always our favourite past time with the boys but Wells-next-the-Sea was pretty easy with them. There's a big play park near the harbour and the main street of shops heading away from the water is mostly pedestrianised. We found an amazing toy shop called Ele and Me full of all the wooden and recycled plastic toys that I love - was amazed that I came out only £20 lighter! Next time we might need to be braver and join the line of people along the quay catching crabs. The boys seemed quite fascinated although I am not a big fan of crabs - they suffer from the same problem as spiders, you're never quite sure which direction they are going to head in.

7. Thetford Forest
Not really North Norfolk but it was a good place to stop on our way home to give everyone's legs a stretch and have some lunch. No paper trails for W but he seemed happy with the play trails through the woods. The older two enjoyed the big slides while A just got cross that he couldn't go on them! And the music trail was one of my husband's favourite things from our previous holiday so we had to whizz round that again.