The African Violet Centre is situated five miles from King’s Lynn. Visitors are able to wander around the nursery and see the violets in all stages of growth. A wide range of house and garden plants are also for sale and the gift shop offers gifts and mementos of the visit.

This area of North Norfolk has a great many historic houses of merit. Blickling Hall, near Aylsham, was built in the early 17th Century over the site of a building dating back to 1057, and is one of England's great Jacobean houses. Now owned by the National Trust, Blickling is famed for its spectacular long gallery, superb library and fine collection of furniture, pictures and tapestries. Access to the house and tours are from March to October. The landscaped gardens are full of colour throughout the year and the extensive parkland features a lake and a series of beautiful woodland and lakeside walks.

The Palladian style mansion, Holkham Hall, near Wells-next-the-Sea, is home to the Coke family and the Earls of Leicester. Built between 1734 and 1764 by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, the Hall is still in the private ownership of the current Earl and Countess of Leicester. The finest rooms in the house are open to the public from June to September and offer a glimpse of the breathtaking opulence enjoyed by the Coke Family at the height of their wealth. Probably the most breathtaking room is the magnificent 50ft high entrance hall built of alabaster and plasterwork to a design by Inigo Jones.

As well as the house, there are also shops and craft centres to visit, including a working pottery, a plant nursery and a farming museum. The Hall is surrounded by extensive parkland, which is open to the public all year round.

Felbrigg Hall, near Cromer, is a fine example of a 17th Century country house and is the work of master builder Robert Lyminge, who was also responsible for Blickling Hall. Jacobean in style, it was built over the site a medieval property dating back to 1400.

Now owned by the National Trust and open to the public from March to October, the Hall contains its original 18th Century furniture, one of the largest collections of Grand Tour paintings by a single artist and an outstanding library. The library is said to be haunted by the Ghost of William Windham the Second who died in a fire in 1810 while trying to rescue some precious books.

The original Walled Garden has been restored and features a series of potager gardens, a working dovecote and the National Collection of Colchicums as well as a restored orangery. The park and woodland surrounding the house, through which there are marked walks, is well known for its magnificent and aged trees.

Beaches along the coastline include Brancaster, Blakeney and the famously expansive sandy stretches of Holkham. The area is noted for its wildlife and internationally renowned nature reserves such as Titchwell Marsh (RSPB), Blakeney Point (Wildfowl bird sanctuary and boat trips to visit seal grounds) and Holkham where there is an annual spectacle of migratory geese over the winter months. Pensthorpe Waterfowl Park is set in 500 acres of beautiful countryside with miles of nature trails to explore through ancient fen meadows, woodland and a superb series of lakes.

The Sandringham Estate. Sandringham House was built in 1870 and has been the private home to four generations of British monarchs. It is now the country retreat of Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

Many of the ground floor rooms in the main house are open to the public and contain many items of personal and family value to the Royal Family. The decor and furnishings remain very much as they were in Edwardian times. There is a museum, originally created in 1928 by King George V, which houses an interesting collection of Royal family cars and estate vehicles as well as rooms containing hundreds of items of objets d’art and other memorabilia given to members of the Royal Family as gifts or collected during Royal visits. The house, museum and gardens are open from April to October (except when HM is in residence) from 11am to 5pm.

The coastline is also dotted with pretty seaside towns and villages – Wells next the Sea, The Burnhams, Brancaster and Stiffkey or the more traditional seaside resorts of Hunstanton, Sheringham and Cromer.