'Most beautiful yet underrated' hidden gem beach featured in Alan Partridge film
Planning a summer getaway can be a daunting affair with sky-high flight prices, costly airport transfers, and steep accommodation costs, particularly in the likes of France. However, scores of Brits are choosing to forgo foreign jaunts this year, instead opting to uncover hidden gems right here on home turf.
For a top-notch staycation spot that's stirring quite the buzz, take a trip eastward to the charms of Norfolk's coastline. Norfolk boasts an array of stunning coastal scenery, from Holkham's sprawling sands to Wells-next-the-Sea's extensive quay, yet it's the buzzing heart of north Norfolk drawing crowds: Cromer. Known far and wide for its exquisite crabs, Cromer is capturing attention as a prime destination in its own regard.
The quintessential seaside town of Cromer sits proudly atop dramatic cliffs, enveloped by the region's lush woodland and countryside – providing visitors with epic vistas across the North Sea. Cromer's crown jewel is its celebrated Victorian pier in the town's centre, a hub of entertainment where guests can savour a show at the Pavillion Theatre, revel in arcade games, or simply meander along taking in the atmosphere; the very same pier also garnered fame in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, reports the Express.
So captivating is Cromer Pier that it snagged the prestigious title of Pier of the Year last year from the National Piers Society, who cited its enormous appeal due to the impeccable upkeep of its traditional Victorian aesthetics and the incredible sea views it affords.
For those with a passion for literature, the charming line from Jane Austen's Emma might ring a bell: "You should have gone to Cromer... the best of all the sea bathing places. A fine open sea... and very pure air." Arthur Conan Doyle, famed creator of Sherlock Holmes, drew inspiration from Cromer's local legends, particularly the tale of the spectral hound Black Shuck, which became the basis for his renowned novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
What's on offer in Cromer?
Visitors have been left spellbound by the beach, with one enthusiast taking to Google Reviews to proclaim it "the most beautiful yet underrated beach". Praise continues to pour in from another reviewer who expressed: "Beautiful town and beach. The beach was almost empty despite it being the school holidays. Beautiful town with both local independent shops and larger chains." Another visitor shared their enchantment, commenting: "It's the loveliest town I've ever visited... great atmosphere and fantastic fish and chips."
Cromer is a treasure trove of unique boutique shops, quaint cafes, and delightful bakeries, perfect for a leisurely afternoon stroll. For those keen on a more vigorous activity, the picturesque Norfolk Coastal Path offers a journey through sand dunes and lush countryside.
Sampling the celebrated fresh Cromer Crab is an essential experience for any foodie visiting the area. And if you're craving some traditional fish and chips, No. 1 Cromer, owned by Michelin-starred chef Galton Blackiston, boasts stunning views of the coast and pier.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
40 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Love Island star Emma reveals real reason she and Harry discussed winning £50k after ‘game plan' rumours
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) LOVE Island's evicted bombshell Emma Munro has opened up on the real reason she discussed the show's whopper cash prize with Harry Cooksley. Love Island 2025 OG Harry was left stunned when his real-world ex Emma entered the Mallorca compound, and he could be heard saying: "Oh my god, it's my ex." Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 6 Love Island's Emma Munro has clarified her comments after discussing the show's prize pot with Harry Cooksley Credit: Shutterstock Editorial 6 She was reunited with her real-world ex on the ITV2 series Credit: Shutterstock Editorial 6 Emma said she and Harry were 'being silly' when they discussed winning Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Fans then previously insisted the late arrival should win the series after dishing out home truths to Harry before revealing the real reason for their split. Yet their connection then appeared to take a turn - after Harry pulled Emma for a chat and they enjoyed some new banter about PDA, as fans claimed the brunette's "real mask had slipped." This was exacerbated when she was heard discussing the show's £50K cash prize pot on the ITV2 series. In spin off show Aftersun, host Maya Jama directly asked the TV show star why. She said: "You're one of the few Islanders who have actually mentioned the 50k." Emma replied: "We have broken the fourth wall," to which Maya said: "You did, can you clarify what you meant by that? "I think you said something after like 'ahh play along' something like that?" Emma giggled before she said: "Look I'm glad you brought that up because the whole thing was a complete joke. "Harry and I had nothing else to talk about and we are both really playful but I can confirm there was no game plan and we were just being silly. "None of it was serious." Love Island star Emma responds after Helena says she wishes she could apologise to her after brutal Harry split SPEAK OUT As well as his flirting with ex Shakira Khan and new bombshell Angel Swift, footballer Harry was previously seen telling his ex Emma that he still loves her, prior to her being dumped from the island. At the time, Emma tried telling Helena what Harry had told her but the besotted star refused to believe her. However, after seeing the clip for herself at the show's Grafties, Helena had said on Friday's episode that she wished she could apologise to her former love rival. She also raged: "I didn't expect you to be sitting with your ex-girlfriend and saying you'll get back into bed with one another on the outside. 'You just don't shut things down, you entertain everything and everyone.' Now Emma, who received a pre-villa glow up, has broken her silence and responded to Helena's comment. Taking to TikTok, the brunette beauty expressed: 'Hey guys, I'm just jumping on here to address tonight's episode where Helena said she owes me an apology. 'I just wanted to say that she absolutely doesn't, there is no need to apologise to me for how she spoke to me. We both could have handled things better and I'm no angel.' Proving there was no issue between them, she concluded: 'So no need to apologise, all good, no bad blood.' 6 The pair dated prior to finding fame on the ITV2 show Credit: Instagram 6 She told how their discussion was a 'complete joke' Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
5 airport scams as experts are warning travellers
Around 22 million Brits (38%) have either fallen for a scam or know someone who has, while 13.4 million (20%) say they'd be more likely to click a suspicious link on holiday, and £2.7 billion was stolen through fraud and cybercrime in the past year. The average loss per victim was £7,596.34, enough to cover your entire trip. So, what should we be watching out for? Fake messages 'Scammers are hijacking the names of trusted brands like sending fake emails or texts claiming there's an urgent problem with your hotel booking," says Siobhan Blagbrough, Financial Crime Manager at Ocean Finance. "You'll be asked to re-enter your card details on a fake website. Once you do, the scammers charge your card and vanish. Even clicking a button, like 'accept cookies', can download malware to your device.' Flight Change Texts Posting a photo of your boarding pass on social media might seem harmless, but scammers can use those details to send fake flight updates just before check-in. You're told your flight's cancelled and sent a link to reconfirm. But it leads to a spoof site that drains your card. 'Delayed Baggage' Compensation 'You arrive at your destination, but your luggage hasn't," explains Siobhan. "Then comes a message from what looks like the airport or airline offering you instant compensation, just click the link. These scams target genuine airline mishaps to trick people into handing over banking details. No airline will text you compensation links without formal contact. Always go through an official website or app." Free Wi-Fi trap in airports and hotels This is a sneaky one, particularly as many people try to avoid costly data bills on holiday, so are more likely to use free wifi hotspots in airports and hotels. 'Join the wrong 'free Wi-Fi' at a café abroad and you could be connecting to a scammer's hotspot," says Siobhan. "Every password you type, every site you visit, they can see it all. If you're logging into banking apps, emails or payment sites, they've got everything they need to take over your accounts. Stick to mobile data or a trusted VPN.' Airport phone charging This is another one that's so tempting, particularly if your battery is running low, but beware free charging, as it can be a trap. 'Plugging your phone into a public USB port could unknowingly be allowing data to be hacked or malware to be installed," says Siobhan. "Bring your own plug and cable, and always use a standard wall socket, not a USB-only port.' She adds: 'Fraud used to mean a stolen wallet or dodgy market stall. Now it's emails, texts, calls, and even the plug socket at the airport. These scams are slick, fast and emotionally manipulative. They'll catch you off guard while you're in holiday mode, and before you know it, your money's gone. 'The most common trick is to pile on the pressure, scammers love using urgency to force quick decisions. If you notice something off, slow down, take a step back, and double check.' 3 smart ways to protect your money on holiday Don't click - go direct: Whether it's a fake message or dodgy baggage compensation, never click links in emails or texts. Go straight to the official app or website and log in there. If in doubt, assume it's a scam until your proven otherwise. Use credit cards for extra protection: Credit cards offer legal protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. That means if you pay for something between £100 and £30,000 and something goes wrong - the company goes bust or you don't receive what you pay for – you could get your money back. Even if you only pay part of the cost by credit card, the whole transaction might still be covered. Avoid public Wi-Fi and USB ports: Avoid using public Wi-Fi for anything sensitive like banking. And never charge your phone through random USB ports. Bring your own charger and plug it into a proper socket. What to do if you think you've been scammed 'If you think you've been scammed, act fast,' urges Siobhan. 'Contact your bank straight away - if the payment hasn't gone through yet, they might be able to stop it. If it has, they can talk you through what to do next. 'Always report the scam to Action Fraud, and if it came via email, forward it to report@ so it can be shut down before someone else falls for it.'
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Why Middlemarch is ‘the perfect beach read'
At the time of writing, I am not more than a few hours away from leaving this dismal hell-hole and hightailing it for the South of France in a battered Skoda Octavia. And there, I shall settle down for a fortnight, surrounded by all the paraphernalia of 1970s camping – the blue gas-bottles; the nylon sleeping bags; the fold-out chairs where the cup-holder in the arm is torn so your Orangina plummets to the floor when you absent-mindedly deposit it there. Bliss. And what will I do there, apart from squatting on my haunches to cook awful one-pot beany casseroles and eating croissants? Why, read, of course. Isn't that what holidays are, fundamentally, for? This is where my long-suffering wife and I find ourselves somewhat at odds. She thinks I am boring and antisocial and an all-round suboptimal husband because all I want to do on holiday is sit in a sunny place with a cold drink and a paperback. Vigorous activities and sparkling conversation should, she thinks, also form part of a holiday. What's the point, she thinks, in going to a foreign country if all you're going to do there is sit in a chair and read a book, which is what you spend the rest of the year doing anyway? Also she thinks men, especially men with feet like mine, shouldn't wear flip-flops, that my straw hat makes me look like a wally (she doesn't say this, but I intuit it), and that if we ignore the children they will drown in the river. As they say: agree to disagree. For most people of working age, the summer holiday is the one time when you can read continuously for a week or two – so what you take matters a good deal. This is your chance. But all sorts of myths surround the idea of 'holiday reading'. I'm forever being emailed by publicists, for instance, announcing that this book or that one – usually thrillers or romantic comedies – is 'the perfect beach read'. Isn't that weird? In most of the rest of our lives, we feel under vague but palpable pressure to read something improving and high-minded – not what our more austere older relatives would dismiss as 'trash'. We reproach ourselves, many of us, about our failure to do so – dutifully chugging through ten pages of Middlemarch before bed and becoming ever more dispirited as the weeks pass. But then, at the one time of year when we could, for instance, read a couple of hundred pages of Middlemarch in a day and really get into it (there's a lot going on in that book: you do need to immerse yourself a bit), we get reading-shamed in the other direction. Now is, apparently, the time to get stuck into the new Dan Brown and if we insist on taking a Victorian classic we are, implicitly, the sort of pretentious person who doesn't know how to enjoy a holiday. It should be, I suggest, quite the other way round. Think how much happier we'd all be if we read thrillers and chick-lit and science-fiction and all that lovely pulp in our day-to-day lives, when our batteries are low and our phones and emails a constant distraction, and saved up the more challenging material for our holidays. I don't say this to denigrate popular fiction – I love that stuff, and the writers who do it well are consummately skilled – but to note that there are different types of reading, and that the circumstances in which you read makes a difference to how enjoyable and successful a given type of reading will be. It goes without saying, of course, that all of us should read what we damn well like when we damn well like, and that shaming people for what they read is one of the most insidious and philistine of our cultural contagions. But the holidays are a precious opportunity. They are the one time of year when we really do have leisure to properly immerse ourselves in a book. For what it's worth, I think there is something to the stereotype that paperbacks are best. Thick hardbacks are heavy, and e-books may help with the luggage allowance but reading on screen is tricky in bright sunshine and you don't have to worry about sand getting in the charging port of a paperback. My own situation is a bit unusual, obviously. I am privileged to have a day job, as literary editor of this magazine and host of our weekly podcast, that involves a lot of reading. But it has given me a very distorted reading life: it means almost everything I read in the ordinary course of things is published within a month or two of the time in which I read it. Holidays, then, are usually the chance to catch up on things I've missed. Books by friends, for instance, which I've shamingly failed to find time for the rest of the year; classics I've never read; a bit of homework in advance; and, yes, sometimes 'something sensational to read on the train'. So, this year I'm taking a mix: it's Elif Shafak's There are Rivers in the Sky (she's a great writer and I've been wanting to read this for a year), Stuart Jeffries's A Short History of Stupidity (something chewy and, hopefully, also fun), Graham Robb's The Discovery of Britain (forthcoming work by another fine writer), Terry Pratchett's The Night Watch (reissued classic I've never read)… and David McCloskey's Damascus Station (spy thriller friends have raved about) on the Kindle for emergencies – because the great thing about holiday reading is you don't have to follow even your own rules. And once I've read them, if she hasn't divorced me, I'll put some proper shoes on and have a conversation with my wife.
