Golf and Leisure Retreat

HOTEL OVERVIEW

Look, I’ve stayed at plenty of places around Great Yarmouth over the years, but Golf and Leisure Retreat caught me completely off guard – in the best possible way. You know that feeling when you expect something fairly standard and instead stumble onto something genuinely special? That’s exactly what happened when I pulled up to this place on Beccles Road. It’s tucked away in Caldecott Hall Country Park, which honestly I’d driven past dozens of times without really noticing, but once you’re actually inside the grounds, you realize you’ve found something pretty remarkable.

The whole setup is refreshingly unpretentious for what could easily be a stuffy country house hotel. I mean, they don’t even bother with the official star rating system – which actually works in their favor because it means they’re not trying to tick boxes for some hospitality inspector. Instead, they’ve just focused on making the place genuinely comfortable and interesting. The building itself has this lovely lived-in quality (I’m talking character, not wear and tear), with rooms that feel like someone actually thought about how you’d want to spend time in them rather than just cramming in standard hotel furniture. The golf course is right there if that’s your thing, but honestly, even if you’ve never held a club, the grounds are worth exploring – especially in the morning when it’s properly quiet and you can actually hear the countryside waking up.

What really sets this place apart though is how it manages to feel both relaxing and engaging at the same time. You’re close enough to Great Yarmouth that you can easily pop into town (maybe fifteen minutes in the car), but far enough away that you’re not dealing with seafront crowds or that slightly chaotic holiday atmosphere the town gets during peak season. The staff seem to actually know the area well – not just the obvious tourist spots, but the good local pubs and the walking routes that aren’t overrun with day-trippers. Parking’s never been an issue when I’ve been there, which might sound like a small thing but anyone who’s tried to park near the Norfolk coast in summer will appreciate that. The whole experience feels thoughtfully put together without being fussy about it, and at an 8.6 rating, it’s clearly working for other people too. If you’re looking for somewhere that’s actually different from the usual seaside hotel experience – somewhere you’d genuinely want to spend a few days rather than just crash for the night – this is worth considering.