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

Watch whooper and Bewick's swans on the floodlit lagoon at WWT Welney Wetland Centre in winter

Come for a floodlit swan feed on a winter Saturday evening

Every winter thousands of whooper swans from Iceland and a few hundred Bewick's swans fly in to the Ouse Washes at WWT Welney. From November to March they are fed in front of the hides, and on Saturday evenings from mid-November to February the lagoon is floodlit for an evening swan feed.

WWT Welney: Wild Swans Under the Floodlights

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

Look out over the Fens and the Wash from the tower

See the Guildhall where the Pilgrims were tried in 1607, and the cells where tradition says they were held

Walk the Haven bank where the boats loaded

St Botolph's in Boston has one of the tallest medieval church towers in England at 81m — the Stump — and the flat Fens around it make it visible for miles; on a clear day it can be seen from Norfolk. The rebuilding began in 1309, and the town below was the port that sent the Pilgrim Fathers to their first attempted escape in 1607.

Boston: The Stump Above the Fens

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

Visit Ely Cathedral, begun in 1083, and see the Octagon and its timber lantern, built after the central tower fell in 1322

Tour Oliver Cromwell's House in Ely, where he lived from 1636 to 1647

Walk Ely's riverside along the Great Ouse

Ely Cathedral, begun in 1083, is the Ship of the Fens, and its Octagon, built after the Norman central tower collapsed in 1322 and topped by a timber lantern, lights the crossing. Oliver Cromwell lived in the town from 1636 to 1647, and his house is open; the Great Ouse runs along the town's riverside.

Ely: The Octagon and Cromwell's House

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

Walk the rings of the turf maze on Saffron Walden common

Walk the timber-framed streets and see the pargeting

Tour Audley End House and its Jacobean great hall

Walk Capability Brown's park and the kitchen garden at Audley End

Saffron Walden took its name from the saffron crocus grown here in the 16th and 17th centuries, and on the common by the castle mound is a turf maze cut in circular channels, about 30m across and the largest of its kind in England. Just west of the town, Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, built Audley End on the site of a Benedictine abbey — a house of palatial size, in which he entertained James I — and Capability Brown landscaped the park.

Saffron Walden and Audley End: A Turf Maze and a Jacobean Palace

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.