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When I saw a new venture from Oak Tree cottages while scrolling through Facebook, I was drawn to a new location in Norfolk we were yet to explore.

A family-run business located in East Ruston, there are currently three beautifully decorated cottages available, catering for families of four or six plus four legged friends. After a couple of emails to the very helpful Lauren, we were set up for the second week of half term.

Living in Norfolk, we are fully aware of all it has to offer visitors and like to have a staycation to reduce our carbon footprint and support our local economy. Also Craig moans a lot about driving. 

On arrival at Oak Tree Cottage in East Ruston we were pleased to find a beautifully decorated barn conversion with all we needed to chill out as a family of five for the week ahead, with the dreaded monopoly on hand and lots of DVDs for rainy days, we were set up. WIFI was perfect in the living room, less so in the bedrooms which was a positive for us, as it drew out the teenager to reassure us she was still breathing. 

The dreaded 50 walks in Norfolk, was soon located by Craig and our first adventure took us on a 6 km wander around Worstead. Boys were pleased with the surrounding farms with lots of tractor and machine spotting to keep them going. Always better when the navigation is down to James, as we are less likely to get lost or end up in a bog. Worstead has a beautiful church open to the public all year round with stunning pews and stain glass  and we enjoyed a Sunday lunch in the White Lady pub.

https://www.fairhavengarden.co.uk/

We made a trip to Fairhaven Gardens with 4 miles of footpaths and a fairy door hunt to keep the kids occupied. Beautiful gardens and woodland and accessible for buggies and mobility scooters, this was a walk without any complaints from the children. Lara even found lots of suitable backdrops for instagrammable selfies. Several hides if you like birds watching. 

Happisburgh was beautiful a windy rugged eroded coastline with a path worryingly close to the crumbling cliff edge and a stunning lighthouse thrown in. A breezy stroll with reluctant children took us on another 6km route to the Lighthouse Inn for lemonade refuelling and another pub lunch. 

You can’t visit Norfolk on your holidays and miss out Cromer. With a lifeboat Station and museum, and beach huts to rival Southwold we may have stumbled on some of the best ever fish and chips at Mary Janes! 5 km done with no moaning as lots to see and a stony beach to damn build on.

The boys are tricky present buyers, so for their birthday treat we headed down the A11 to Mildenhall in Suffolk for a Groupon special experience flying a Boeing 737 simulator with the lovely Serena. After an initial tutorial they each got 30 minutes flying time. No crashing and only a little  travel sickness for their passengers this was something they won’t forget in a hurry and has reinstated their conviction they want to be pilots. Or farmers. Or possibly both.

Our last couple of days at the cottage were wet and wild so we battened down the hatches and had monopoly marathons and watched some movies. Craig escaped from us for some damp ‘me time’ to Bacton Woods for a wander as this was highly recommended by our hosts and he wasn’t disappointed with forest trails galore.

 So all in all,  we had a wonderful week in Norfolk. Can there be any other?! Would highly recommend Oak Tree Cottages as a perfect cosy base for exploration of the never ending forests, farmland and coastland that Norfolk has to offer.

We received a slight discount on the property in exchange for this review but all views are our very own.