Take a boat trip from Morston Quay to see the seal colony on Blakeney Point

Walk out along the shingle spit from Cley

Look for samphire and specialised shingle plants on the ridge

Watch terns and waders over the marshes behind the spit

Come between November and January to see the grey seal pups from a seal trip boat from Morston

Blakeney Point is a shingle spit on the north Norfolk coast, a national nature reserve managed by the National Trust since 1912. Harbour and grey seals haul out at the end of the spit, and the grey seals, which started breeding here regularly in 2001, have their pups on the beach between November and January. Boats run from Morston Quay to see the seals, and the marshes behind the spit are a major site for migrating birds in autumn.

Blakeney Point: The Seal Colony on the Shingle Spit

Tour the Marble Hall and state rooms at Holkham

Walk through the pines onto Holkham beach

Walk the beach-hut line and the harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea

Cycle the estate park and look for the deer

Holkham Hall was built for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, to a design by William Kent with Lord Burlington's hand in it — one of the strictest Palladian houses in England, and closer to Palladio's own ideas than most. In front of it the pines and dunes give onto Holkham beach, miles of sand at low tide, and the sand runs east to Wells beach, with its line of beach huts under the pines, and on to the harbour town of Wells-next-the-Sea, about two miles from Holkham.

Holkham and Wells: The Palladian House and the Pinewood Beach

Walk to the end of Cromer Pier and see the Pavilion Theatre

See the 158ft tower of St Peter and St Paul, the tallest church tower in Norfolk

Cromer's pier of 1901 carries the Pavilion Theatre, which still runs a summer variety show at the end of it, and the town's crab boats are launched off the beach. The church of St Peter and St Paul stands in the middle of the town, and somewhere off the end of the pier lie the remains of Shipden, the village the sea took — a pleasure steamer struck its church tower in 1888 and the rock was blown up for safety.

Cromer: The End-of-Pier Theatre and the Crab Boats

Visit Norwich Cathedral, begun in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga, with its 96m spire, the second tallest in England, and its cloisters begun in 1297

Explore Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery in the Norman keep

Walk down Elm Hill, the cobbled lane of Tudor houses, rebuilt after a fire in 1507

Walk the Norwich Lanes, the old streets around Elm Hill in the city centre

Bishop Herbert de Losinga began Norwich Cathedral in 1096; its spire, 96m, is the second tallest in England, and its cloisters were begun in 1297. The Norman keep of the castle is now the Castle Museum & Art Gallery, and Elm Hill is a cobbled lane of Tudor houses rebuilt after a fire in 1507, in the middle of the Norwich Lanes.

Norwich: The Cathedral, the Castle and Elm Hill

See Henry Bell's Custom House of 1683 by the river

Find Hanse House of 1475, the last Hanseatic building in England, and Marriott's Warehouse on the quay

Walk the Saturday Market Place and King's Lynn Minster, St Margaret's

Walk the riverfront and the old warehouses on the Great Ouse

Lynn was Bishop's Lynn until Henry VIII took it in 1537 and it became King's Lynn. Its sea trade with Europe was dominated by the Hanseatic League, and it keeps Hanse House of 1475, the only surviving Hanseatic building in England, the old quayside Marriott's Warehouse, and Henry Bell's Custom House of 1683 by the river. In 2006 it became the first British member of the modern Hanse network.

King's Lynn: The Hanseatic Port on the Great Ouse

Hire a day boat or cabin cruiser from Wroxham, the 'capital of the Broads', and cruise Britain's largest protected wetland, whose broads are medieval peat diggings that flooded

Visit the ruins of St Benet's Abbey beside the River Bure, the Benedictine monastery with a windmill built into its gatehouse

Visit Norfolk Wildlife Trust's floating, thatched visitor centre on Ranworth Broad, and climb the tower of St Helen's, the church known as the 'Cathedral of the Broads'

See Horsey Windpump, the National Trust drainage mill by Horsey Mere

The Broads are medieval peat diggings that flooded, and they make up Britain's largest protected wetland. Boats hire out from Wroxham. On the Bure stand the ruins of St Benet's Abbey, with a windmill built into its gatehouse; at Ranworth, Norfolk Wildlife Trust's thatched visitor centre floats on the broad, and St Helen's church, known as the Cathedral of the Broads, has a tower you can climb; and near the coast the National Trust's Horsey Windpump stands by Horsey Mere.

The Norfolk Broads: Wroxham, St Benet's and Horsey

Mountain bike the trails at High Lodge in Thetford Forest, the largest lowland pine forest in Britain

Climb the treetops on the Go Ape course at High Lodge

Climb 9 metres down a shaft at Grime's Graves, the Neolithic flint mines dug from about 2600 BC, when the site is open

Find the statue of Captain Mainwaring in Thetford, where most of Dad's Army's outdoor scenes were filmed

Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain, with mountain-bike trails and a Go Ape course at High Lodge. At Grime's Graves, Neolithic miners dug for flint from about 2600 BC, and you can climb 9 metres down a shaft when the site is open. In Thetford, where most of Dad's Army's outdoor scenes were filmed, Captain Mainwaring has his own statue.

Thetford Forest and Grime's Graves

Tour the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter at Leavesden, walking through the Great Hall set and Diagon Alley

See Dumbledore's office and the Ministry of Magic sets

Stand on platform nine and three quarters with the Hogwarts Express

See the 1:24 model of Hogwarts used for the exterior shots

Warner Bros. built the Harry Potter films at Leavesden, on the site of Leavesden Aerodrome, a wartime de Havilland aircraft factory, and kept the sets when the shooting finished: the Great Hall, Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts Express on its platform, the Forbidden Forest and the 1:24 model of the castle that was filmed for the exteriors.

Leavesden: The Harry Potter Studio Tour

Visit Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon burial ground where Basil Brown uncovered the ship burial in 1939

Walk out to the burial mounds above the River Deben

See the reconstruction of the burial chamber and the replica finds in the exhibition hall

Walk the estuary path along the Deben below the mounds

Under a mound above the Deben, Basil Brown found the print of a 27m ship in the sand in 1939, with a burial chamber most likely made for an East Anglian king, probably Rædwald — helmet, shoulder clasps, gold buckle, silver from Byzantium — one of the most significant archaeological finds ever made in England. The ship itself had rotted away, leaving only its shape and its rivets.