www.norfolksbest.co.uk
Tourist
Information Centres: Town Hall, Great Yarmouth; tel: 01493-846345. Open Monday-Friday
all year; Central Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth; tel: 01493-842195. Open daily
Easter-early October.
The Great Yarmouth area is marketed as Greater Yarmouth, and plenty of annual visitors will tell you: 'It's the greatest!'
You can find historic parts of the town, maybe joining a heritage walking tour. Much of the medieval wall and its towers are remarkably well preserved. North and south of Great Yarmouth's wide, sandy beaches are quieter sandy shores in uncrowded village locations, and inland there are rural communities in picturesque places. The Broads are within easy reach.
But what most summer visitors want – and there are said to be two million of them every year – is fun in many forms, and the more thrilling the better.
Technology has transformed traditional fairground rides into heart-in-mouth, gravity-defying experiences. The music beats out, the shrieks are heard above it and the louder the screams the more exciting it gets. Brilliant colours, flashing lights and noise, noise, noise....the exhilaration along the two-mile seafront is almost tangible.
A casino, summer shows at the two pier theatres - the Britannia and the Wellington – horse-drawn landau tours, sea trips, the extensive Pleasure Beach with spectacular rides, log flume and games, the model village, waxworks, Sea-Life Centre, Amazonian World of Reptiles, horse racing, Joyland, the children's fun park, illuminations, nightclubs, pub entertainment, laser games, sports - you name it, Yarmouth has it.
Flower-filled gardens, good shopping and one of the nation's largest open-air markets provide for a variety of interests. Plenty of indoor pursuits are available – indoor bowling, amusement arcades, multi-screen cinemas, museums – as well as such attractions as Sea-Life and the waxworks.
Just down the coast, over the county boundary at Lowestoft, is the Pleasurewood Hills theme park.
A few places, among them the Sea-Life Centre, Amazonia and many of the amusement arcades, are open all year. Much of Yarmouth's appeal, though, disappears as far as the holidaying public is concerned as soon as summer slides into autumn. Most of the entertainments and activities go into deep hibernation for months on end, enabling everyone to get their breath back. Even the horseracing ceases.
However, this year there is a major event on the 6-7 November, when a great pageant celebrates the return of Norfolk-born Admiral Lord Nelson to Great Yarmouth after his heroic exploits in the Mediterranean and elsewhere two centuries ago. This two-day spectacular, presenting more than 600 people in period costume, features the Band of the Royal Marines and the Band of the Honourable Artillery Company, and includes a fireworks display.
Nelson Returns to England at Great Yarmouth is a Millennium Commission Lottery Project, billed as the region's biggest millennium event. For inquiries about tickets tel: 01493-657575.
Nelson was fatally wounded in October 1805, after defeating the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar. The monument at South Denes, erected in 1819, pre-dates the famous Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square.
Greater Yarmouth offers a tremendous choice of holiday accommodation and much of it is amazingly inexpensive. The town has countless hotels, and throughout the area are guest houses, apartments, chalets, caravan parks and holiday villages with poolside bars and crazy golf. Self-catering cottages and B&Bs complete the picture.
