Life on the River: My Holiday to the Norfolk Broads

I’m a big fan of holidays in the UK aka. a staycation. The UK is beautiful with so many wonderful places to explore, like Snowdonia National Park and The Lake District. My latest adventure was to Norfolk, on a boating holiday to the Norfolk Broads. I’ve had a weekend away in Great Yarmouth before but never had the chance to see the Broads, so here’s my account of my holiday to Norfolk, where boating is the only way to travel!

We hired a boat through Barnes Brinkcraft, a boat hire company situated in Wroxham in Norfolk. We set out on Tuesday afternoon as soon as possible, not wanting to waste any time and wanting to cover as much ground (or water…) as possible. Within the first 10 minutes, I was amazed at how beautiful it was and how relaxing and tranquil this holiday was going to be. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced and was in some ways, the perfect holiday. You get to simultaneously do nothing but see everything all at the same time and the incredibly slow pace of life on the Broads made a wonderful and welcome change.

The Broads themselves were stunning. I loved the mixture of the small villages bustling with boats and people and the remote rivers where you won’t see another boat or person for hours. It makes you feel like you’re the only people on the entire planet at times. The Broads are massive but it is definitely doable to see them all within one holiday. We only missed a couple of rivers due to height restrictions on bridges or a thunderstorm that was threatening to start above us had we not turned around.

I’m a big animal fan and aside from seeing hundreds and hundreds of ducks (which is to be expected!) there lots more wildlife to see throughout the Broads and seeing animals in their natural environment can be a wonderful thing. Amongst the animals I saw on our travels were ducks, geese, swans, Herons and other birds I couldn’t even name. I saw a hawk – just about to swoop down and catch something in the grass beside the river. I also saw a massive deer in the distance, horses, cows, hares and rabbits.

There were plenty of free mooring spots to stop for the night throughout the Broads, all marked on a map we had from a local Broads newspaper. Some of them were near boat yards and yacht stations so were busy with other boats and others were literally in the middle of nowhere. We stayed at both types of places, which was nice. Another thing to note is how friendly everyone was! Every single boat you pass, people will wave at you. When we had trouble mooring on our first night, the people in the boat next to us didn’t hesitate to come over and give us a hand.

The Broads really are one of the nicest, most stunning and laid-back places I’ve visited and a boating holiday is a fantastic experience – one that’s definitely up my street and I would absolutely love to do again. Have you ever had a boating holiday? If not, what’s the most relaxing holiday you’ve taken? Tell me all about your best vacations!