We have just returned from a week's holiday in Caister which is a small town 3 miles outside of Great Yarmouth and I thought I would share our experiences with you and give you an idea of what there is all to do round that area. I'm going to do this one in sections to make it easier and will try to cover everything from the shopping facilities to the pleasure beach as well as some of the attractions that are nearby too. I've been to Yarmouth a couple of times before but the last time was 5 years ago and had forgotten just how much there is available to do. Being October some of the attractions have limited opening times so unfortunately we missed them because of this but there are a lot of places which stay open the whole year through.

We saw lots of bed and breakfasts just off the sea front road which looked lovely from the outside and had awards galore, and there are a number of hotels as well as caravan sites around so whichever way you want to spend your holiday there is plenty of choice. We stayed in Caister at the Haven site there which cost £280 for a 6 berth chalet which was very comfortable and roomy and included on site activities and entertainment. There is another Haven site on the north coastal route out of Yarmouth called Seashore near the race tracks where I stayed 5 years ago and that was lovely too.

The best bit about the shopping in Great Yarmouth is on market days which are run all year round on Wednesdays and Saturdays and in the summer have one on a Friday too. There are a limited number of stalls on a daily basis but this is when you get around 100 stalls available. You can find everything from fruit, veg and meat to clothes, collectables and novelties. Great for picking up stocking fillers or larger gifts. I managed to get a couple of good quality t shirts for only £4 each and some early xmas pressies which I can't mention any more about in case my daughter reads this. Don't want to spoil the surprise. Seriously though I find it great fun to look round the stalls as I used to love going round the market in Selby when I lived there and although Arbroath does have a market it isn't really up to much these days. The market is held in a car parking area in Yarmouth and can take a while to walk round when you are checking out all the bargains.

Every good seaside town though has what we lovingly refer to as a 'Tacky Street', you know the place where you can get your cheap souveniers and sticks of rock. Great Yarmouth is no exception and you can find this one in Regent Road which is just off the main shops heading towards the seafront. It has shops which sell buckets and spades, t-shirts with the latest trendy slogans on, souvenier rock, fudge and shortbread selections, shell ornaments and much more of the usual 'tacky' stuff that holidaymakers (especially the children) like to take home as reminders of their holidays. One shop which did catch our eye though was a Chinese shop and no I'm not thinking of food (for once). Inside was a vast treasure trove of gorgeous dragons, hand painted screens, amazing swords, amazing themed chess sets and beautifully made hand crafted jewellery and clothing. It was probably just as well we didn't have much room in the car what with the 3 kids and their many clothes (although I was tempted to try to leave my bloke behind so I could have a set of the screens). The prices were reasonable and I was extremely surprised to find such a quality stock amongst so much of the rubbish in other establishments (no offence meant by this - I love looking through the cheap stuff too).

There are 3 supermarkets which we found round about Great Yarmouth although there are probably more. Tesco's can be found at Pasteur Road, Sainsburys is at St Nicholas Road and Asda is at New Acle Road. Plenty of choice whichever you prefer shopping at. We were self catering and found another Tesco's just on the outskirts of Caister which was smaller but had a good selection of food. There is also an Iceland store at the Market Gates shopping centre too if you are looking for frozen food.

We did manage to venture onto the sands although the tide was quite a bit out and as we weren't expecting as good weather as we got no buckets and spades were packed this time. However my son did have fun searching for elusive shells which seemed to be missing from the sandy area near Britannia Pier and wasn't too disappointed to only find some unusually tiger coloured stones and an old crab's claw instead (he seems to have a fascination for these). Most of the area was clean and tidy although nearer to the Pier there was a lot of empty beer cans and cigarette ends so we swiftly moved along again which was a shame as my son wanted to play hide and seek under the pier. It was a pleasant walk though but shoes were needed as their is a lot of shingle on the beach.

We didn't actually go into Yarmouth for any of our entertainment at night as we had all the entertainment we needed on site but wandering around the centre we saw lots of pubs advertising that they had live bands on in the evenings and there are plenty of shows to be seen depending on the time of year. If we hadn't had the kids with us we would probably have explored this more.

Daytime Activities - Look out for a free brochure called What's On in Greater Yarmouth as this has lots of money off tokens for some of the activities mentioned below. Some will entitle a child to get in free with an adult and some have a value of between 25p and £1 per person usually up to a total of 6 people. It also has lots of information of opening times and where to find places in it.

It is £4 for adults and children although my son got in free and was given his own special plastic club and bright orange ball to keep him happy. The rest of us got a putter and a token to choose from blue, red, yellow or green balls. We were also given a score sheet booklet which had details of the par of each hole (thats how many shots it should take you to sink the ball in the hole for the beginners out there) and a Pirate's Cove pencil.

As for the course itself you have to use obstacles such as planks of wood to get balls to go round corners and then there are tunnels which drop your ball through to another level. There is also a water hazard at one of the hole's and my daughter had to fish her ball out at one stage. This caused much amusement from the rest of us of course. On the final hole your ball drops into the hole and gets locked away in a treasure chest and you can return your clubs to the front desk. It took us an hour and a half to get round what with the 5 of us and we felt it was excellent value for money as we had a great time making fun of each other when we missed what looked like the simplest of shots but turned out that the ground around the hole was on a slope.

The Model Village, Railway and Gardens is £4 for adults and £3.50 for children although under 3s are free and is another place that is lit up when it starts to get dark although at this time of year it closes at 5pm. There are many things to look at and kids will love spotting the miniature funfair and seeing the firemen at work. There are also cricketers playing on the green and many unusual people to look out for like the bank robber and the streaker. It takes around an hour to walk through this attraction as well as having a go in the old fashioned penny arcade museum. There is also a lovely tea room and a gift shop too.

Pictures of Great Yarmouth (England)

marine parade area

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The Sea Life Centre is a great one in Yarmouth and has a host of interesting marine life to watch. My favourites are always the seahorses and the rays and this year there is a new Seahorse Breeding Centre and you can learn all about the process here. There are also the the Touchpools where you can have a feel of certain creatures such as starfish, The Lost City of Atlantis and the amazing site of the piranhas. There are also talks and feeding displays throughout the day and you can take note of these on the notice board at the front entrance. I have to drag my bloke out every time we visit a place like this and my son loves anything to do with fish since Nemo came out (there are clownfish too for fans of these colourful creatures).

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The Pleasure Beach is unfortunately only open at weekends at this time of year so we didn't manage a visit this time but all day wristbands are available to buy or you can get tokens for 50p each. However most rides do require a up to 4 tokens so this can be an expensive way to do it. Wristbands are either £13 or £15 depending when the park is open to. There are over 70 rides to choose from including the big rollercoaster and log flume to the less frightening tea cups.

You can see how rock is made at the Rock Shop in Regent Road as well as being able to choose from over 70 varieties of rock and novelty items at factory prices. This is the world's largest rock shop.

There are also open top buses to view the sites of Yarmouth from and lots of amusement arcades to visit if you like that sort of thing.

I know this is about Yarmouth itself but I though I would just mention a place we visited this year and a couple of other places that might interest you if you are in that area.

There are lots of animals to see and there is a petting area included although be very careful of the goats as they tried to escape every time someone opened the gate and they could be a little bit frightening to smaller children. Some of the other animals there are donkeys, miniature horses, tamarins, wallabies (which had some very cute babies), and owls. There is also a reptile house and a koi carp pond where you can get a large handful of fishfood for 20p to feed them with. This delighted my son as they came up for a bite with their mouths wide open.

Toad of Toad Hall - Sit in a car and go travel round an area filled with scenes from the stories.

Cups and Saucers - Sit and spin in this small ride which makes you just as dizzy as some of the more 'dangerous' rides at theme parks

Pettitts Railway - Takes you round the park to see all the attractions as you sit back and relax.

The last part of this trip was the show by the clown called Bubbly Bingo who does some simple magic tricks and tries to involve a member of the audience as well as creating some massive bubbles too. Although the day we went their was only a small number of visitors to the park (great cause it meant no queuing) he put on a brilliant show. There are usually 3 shows a day so you can choose which one to attend however on quiet days they bring this down to 2 shows.

Other places nearby that may be of interest are Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park which was unfortunately closed at this time of year, Caister Castle Car Collection where a vast amount of vintage vehicles are on view, Suffolk Wildlife Park, Sutton Windmill and Broad Museum and Fritton Lake Countryworld which has lots of outdoor activities. There really is something for everyone in this area and we are only sorry we didn't manage to visit more than we did - another holiday at some point round here is definately in order.