Cornwall? Forget it. ‘God’s Own Country’: Yorkshire? Try again. The Highlands? Doesn’t cut the mustard.
No, the best region right now in the UK is, according to Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2025 book, East Anglia. What’s more, it is the eighth best region worldwide.
Because? Because it is “enigmatic” and offers “the true taste of England.”
But what does that actually mean? Somewhere mysterious with bland pub food?
I’m on a mission to discover it with my partner, my seven-year-old daughter and a little help from BMW, which lent me a pretty electrifying car for the weekend to go searching for hidden gems in one of the most famous areas of East Anglia. Attractive counties: Norfolk.
As someone who grew up reading Arthur Ransome’s The Big Six, about a group of boating boy detectives who wander the rivers of the Norfolk Broads, I always imagined that wind power would be the best way to discover the area.
But I can attest that the new Mini Cooper C is also a fascinating means of transport to discover the charms of Britain’s most important district.
For starters, the attractive car has a superbly lucid circular OLED display, which sits in the center of the cabin, and a nifty head-up display, which folds out from the top of the dashboard at the touch of a button.
Ted Thornhill discovers Norfolk in East Anglia (the region Lonely Planet calls Britain’s best by 2025) in a new Mini Cooper C. Ted is pictured above with the car at his accommodation for the adventure: Cley Windmill in the chocolate box ‘Cley-by-the-sea village
LEFT: Ted behind the wheel of the new Mini Cooper in Norfolk. RIGHT: The car has multiple experience modes, with the ‘go-kart’ (pictured) proving to be ‘the most fun’
They clearly set out satellite navigation information which makes finding the corners of Norfolk very easy.
The first location I enter into the navigation system as we pull up outside our south London residence, ahead of our Mini adventure, is one that I hope demonstrates why East Anglia is being so strongly praised: a windmill hotel. seaside on the Norfolk coast. National Landscape Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
We endured tedious queues on the M11 northbound, but it seems that not only good things come to those who wait, but magical things.
A real taste of England? A stay at Cley Windmill in the chocolate box village of Cley-next-the-Sea is like being in a Constable living painting.
The former flour mill, built in the early 19th century, stands five storeys high on the edge of the village next to the River Glaven and stands like a sentinel over a mini desert, a fascinating boggy interface between the land and the North Sea. that is intertwined. with ponds and home to dozens of bird species including marsh harriers, owls, curlews, avocets and rosy-footed geese.
The windmill has 10 rooms, including one halfway up the tower, the ‘Stone Room’, where singer James Blunt used to stay when his family owned the property. Above is the wheelchair room, where guests must sign a liability waiver to stay because access is via a very steep staircase.
We stayed in the River Room on the ground floor, which has direct access to a lawn and a walkway leading into a reed forest.
Apart from a temperamental private shower that leaks water, it is a lovely accommodation. And the windmill as a whole, with its charming staff, rustic beamed interiors and excellent breakfasts, makes a wonderful base for exploring the surrounding area.
Ted comments that his stay at Cley Windmill (above) is “like being in a living Constable painting”.
Upstairs is the ground floor River Room, where Ted and his clan stay.
This is the wheel room at the top of the windmill tower – guests must sign a liability waiver to stay here because access is via a steep staircase.
On foot from our headquarters we headed out to the North Sea, where we spotted a seal patrolling the coast and the local pub The three swallowswhere we enjoyed fish and chips and eavesdropped on locals discussing astronomy, a topic held dear by the local parish council, which has banned street lighting for the benefit of local wildlife and stargazers.
It turns out that Norfolk is the eighth darkest county in England and there is an area nearby with official “dark sky” status: the Wiveton Downs Dark Sky Discovery Site.
The lack of light certainly helps create the enigmatic atmosphere that Lonely Planet alludes to.
I found that the best way to get to the farther attractions is by driving the Mini in “go-kart” mode, one of eight “experiences” available at the flick of a switch.
Each has its own signature lighting and soundscape (see sidebar for details), but the ‘go-kart’ mode is the most fun, with a ‘woo-hoo!’ beeping upon activation and a mimicked sports car analog tachometer and speedometer on the OLED screen.
Additionally, gear changes in the automatic gearbox (there is no manual option for the Mini Cooper C at the moment) occur at higher rev points and the steering becomes stiffer.
A port of call by car is picturesque Wells-next-the-Sea, about 15 minutes away.
From the harborside car park we walked for a kilometer to the stunning Holkham Beach, lined with executive-looking beach huts and a long stretch of sand, before enjoying an excellent seafood platter at Wells Crab House.
In ‘picturesque’ Wells-next-the-Sea (above), Ted and his family enjoy an ‘excellent’ seafood platter at Wells Crab House
‘Stunning’ Holkham Beach and its ‘executive looking’ beach huts
Also on the calendar is the Wells and Walsingham Light Railon the outskirts of the city.
Running four miles along the course of the former Great Eastern line from Wells-next-the-Sea to Walsingham, it is listed as the longest 10.25-inch narrow gauge steam railway in the world.
What a delight this is.
We have the option of returning immediately, but instead we take a train back later and explore Walsingham for a couple of hours, a quaint and definitely mysterious little place.
The village is famous for its beautifully preserved half-timbered buildings and for being one of the most important pilgrimage sites in medieval England, as it was here that in 1061 the lady of the manor, Richeldis de Faverches, is said to have had a series of visions of the Virgin Mary, who showed him the house in Nazareth where the angel Gabriel predicted the birth of Jesus. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of the holy house at Walsingham.
Wells and Walsingham light rail turns out to be a ‘pleasure’
The Wells and Walsingham Light Rail runs four miles from Wells-next-the-Sea to the medieval village of Walsingham (above)
Notable pilgrims to Walsingham in subsequent years included Henry III and Henry VIII, who came twice.
There is a pretty abbey with gardens to visit, with the excellent farm store and Black Lion Hotel It is also worthy of a pilgrimage; the latter is a much brighter option for refueling than the Bull Inn, where my fears of the “taste of England” being bland pub grub come true.
Our lackluster ploughman’s sandwich, chips and cheese here is but a small blemish on a brilliant weekend which leads me to agree with Lonely Planet’s summary of East Anglia as a very special region.
Wow!
TRAVEL DATA
BMW lent Ted a Mini Cooper C, which also covered his stay at Cley Windmill. All additional activities and meals were paid for by Ted.
The Mini Cooper features multiple “experience modes”, accessed by the movement of a lever bar or via the OLED screen “at the heart of the interior”. ‘Core’, ‘go-kart’, ‘green’, ‘vivid’, ‘timeless’, ‘balance’, ‘personal’ and ‘trail’ have their own lighting, soundscape and layout. Plus, “some of them can even enhance that Mini feeling,” says manufacturer BMW, “from the sportier handling of Go-Kart Mode to the extraordinary interior environments of Vivid Mode.”
For more information about the new Mini and their modes of experience visit www.mini.co.uk/en_GB/home/experience-modes-hub.
For more information Cley Windmill – www.instagram.com/cleywindmill and cleywindmill.co.uk.
