Sunny Norfolk weekend shows English seaside at its best

Norfolk is a curiously undiscovered English jewel. Foreign tourists flock to the Cotswolds, Bath and Salisbury. The Brits decamp in their masses to Cornwall and Devon for beach holidays. While Norfolk is, without doubt, full of visitors there for the beaches and attractions, it doesn't seem to have the top-of-mind awareness and mass traffic of those other spots.

Maybe it's because there are no motorways past Cambridge: the 150 miles from near Heathrow to the North Norfolk coast take about 3.5 hours, without traffic. (It was a deeply unpleasent 5.5 hours on Friday evening.) Maybe it's that the locals are content with their current, more selective tourist trade and don't want to cast their net wider. Whatever the reason, I'm delighted. It makes Norfolk a near-perfect holiday destination, especially under the sunny skies we just had, without the overcrowding, tackiness, over-development and price-gouging you see at other coastal resorts.

We stayed in Wells-next-the-Sea at a B&B that's worth the journey on its own. The Crown is one of four properties in Norfolk owned by TV chef (host of ITV's "Coastal Kitchen",) entrepreneur and New Zealander Chris Coubrough. It's a delightful mix of traditional and modern, manned by a young and energetic staff providing exceptional service levels.

The exterior is 18th century coaching inn, antiquity reinforced by the rounded wear of the stone paving on the ground floor. The pub to your right still has a traditional feel, but has been modernised with comfortable chairs and couches, bright colours and tables full of papers and magazines. A formal restaurant on the right brings out the starched linen, while the breakfast room to the back goes the cheerful conservatory-cum-library route. We loved the decor of our room, which had the pale colours, crisp linens and flat screen TVs of the modern boutique hotel but wasn't afraid to show some personality with rich decorative touches from different eras. A bold, patterned wallpaper on one wall countered the plain, soft green of the others; 1960s-style bulbous glass lamps atop obviously Georgian tables; art deco mirrored side tables next to the beds in the second bedroom. A spacious modern bathroom with stone tiles, a modern shower, a big roll-topped bath, a closet and plenty of toiletries added to the luxurious feel. As did the high-tech fan left to cool us down, the Roberts digital radio with the iPod dock and the coffee and tea tray holding a regularly refreshed thermos of cold milk, packets of Jamaican blue mountain coffee, a cafetiere and butter cookies that looked to have come from a kitchen rather than a package.

The breakfast menu was wider than the usual B&B fare, with a range of home baked pastries and a fried brioche with bananas and maple syrup that was a classy alternative to American pancakes. We had dinner in the formal restaurant on the Saturday. There's plenty of local seafood on the menu, with that local crab making its appearance in both starters and mains.

The kind of inn you could happily spend the whole weekend inside. But there was too much to do, the sun was shining, and we had a convertible. Places to go, things to see.

First stop, Holt. A charming and rather sophisticated market town about 10 miles inland, Holt is clearly populated by the well-heeled, with the odd celebrity (notably Johnny Depp, who the locals tell us is shopping for a place around here) spotted on the high street and titled ladies regularly popping into the hair salon between mucking out stables and getting ready for the evening's dinner party. (In fact, it was my friend Hillary's hair stylist who triggered this trip, having recently moved from London to open the Jordan Burr salon.) The shopping is great. Plenty of boutiques, arts and crafts and antiques without any of the usual high street chains.

It's a short drive to the coast, lined with broad, sandy beaches. We stopped for lunch in Sherringham, a far more typical British resort in its amusement arcades, chip shops and ice cream stalls. Still, there's an old fashioned gentility to the place, with more pensioners than hen parties. The Two Lifeboats pub sits right on the waterfront, with a patio that was packed with sun worshipers. It's a simple place with a basic menu. We all opted for variations of the crab that's a local specialty, and surprisingly tasty in a jacket potato. Not worth a special trip unless the weather is good. But in that case, grab a table outside and settle in for the afternoon.

The coast road from Cromer back to Wells makes for a beautiful ride, sometimes offering spectacular views of sea, others dipping inland for pastoral vistas. There are tidal estuaries, quaint villages of cobbled stone edged with red brick and the occasional old-style windmill.

Back at Wells, there's a festive quayside lined with both traditional sailing ships and modern cruisers. Wells sits about a mile inland on a river that winds across grassy wetlands; you actually have to walk out a long causeway to get to the spectacular beach. From there, you can walk along the sandy shore up to Holkham, one of the broadest beaches in England. If you've seen "Shakespeare in Love" you may remember it; it was the magnificent stretch of shore Viola was walking across as the credits rolled.

Just inland at Holkham you'll find the Victoria, another upscale pub and restaurant that gave the Crown a run for its money on both food and the look of the rooms. (Where the Crown is all cool modernity mixed with traditional English, the Victoria is old English mixed with bold colours and an imperial Indian vibe.) On summer weekends the Victoria has a bbq in its extensive gardens, but this isn't the average version. Sure, you can have a burger or sausage, but you can also opt for local lobster and crayfish. Which seemed far more in keeping with our elegant surroundings.

The most impressive site along this coast, however, is without doubt Holkham Hall. So impressive, in fact, that it needs its own entry. So come back soon to read all about it...