Come to Norwich this summer and you’ll find a host of great experiences. From gin and cheese walking tours, and giant T.rex sculptures, to outdoor entertainment in a secret Victorian garden and a self-guided literary trail celebrating Norwich’s 10th UNESCO City of Literature anniversary year. And with Norwich being a compact city and easy to navigate, once here everything can be reached on foot.
The City’s Plantation Garden is a genuine secret attraction: it’s an oasis, built by the Victorians in an old quarry in the city centre. Start your Saturday here in perfect peace, with an hour of outdoor guided meditation. Or enjoy a Sunday afternoon where local volunteers serve homemade teas whilst you sit back and relax to live musical entertainment. On summer evenings in the Garden book tickets to outdoor performances like Stel & Wes Fight the Flood – a puppet show for families, whilst original costume drama Paradise Lost and Found, tells the story of Plantation Garden itself.
Want to explore the city using your eyes and ears? Then try the Wandering Words trail. At each of five locations in Norwich, listen on your phone to immersive audio recordings of poems and soundscapes. Five writers who have a connection with Norwich have responded creatively to celebrate Norwich’s 10th year as a UNESCO City of Literature.
Local food and drink is always a story in Norwich. So, take a Cheryl Cade Friday Cheese Tour or an afternoon Gin Tour, and over a few hours, hear historic tales from this medieval city, whilst sampling some of Norfolk’s best local produce around.
Norwich once had a pub for every day of the year. Sadly, this is no longer true however take a History and Hostelries Tour with local guide Duncan and visit real ale city pubs, supping pints as you go. The tour follows the pace of the group so expect it to take four hours or more!
Or book tickets for The Great Market Tour. Over 1.5 hours’ walk in and around Norwich Market with Paul Dickson to learn the history of its 940 years and visit the market stall Norwich is famous for. Food samples available where possible, and cup of tea included!
Head Out, Not Home returns for its 9th summer. This is free Covent Garden style street entertainment on Sunday afternoons across Norwich. Summer ’22 presents a record number of acts from street theatre, and circus skills to harpists, jazz, rockabilly and folk music.
For a self-guided, interactive, detective experience, download Mayor, Murder, Mystery from City Escape Games. This game will take you all around Norwich solving clues, so you sightsee too along the way. Or maybe discover the underground Tudor hidden street, which lay undiscovered for years beneath The Shoebox at the foot of Norwich Castle’s mound.
This summer find 55 giant T’rex sculptures around Norwich on the GoGoDiscover Trail which is also presenting 24 Steppe Mammoths across Norfolk at locations in the Broads and on the coast. And in the countryside leading from Norwich city centre discover acres and acres of beautiful woodland, wild meadows and green open space bursting with nature at both Whitlingham Country Park and along The Marriott’s Way. Here you can walk, run and cycle to your heart’s content.
At their new home in Norwich’s Art Nouveau Royal Arcade make your own recipe gin to take home at Gyre & Gimble’s Gin Academy. Over two hours using aromatic botanicals, hone your secret recipe, whilst sipping their own locally distilled gin with tonic. Their adjoining bottle shop is pretty tempting too.
An afternoon is never more fun than taking traditional afternoon tea in glorious Georgian surrounds. At The Assembly House this summer take a Wizard of Oz themed tea including ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow Gateau Opera’ and ‘I’ll Get You My Pretty Cupcake’.
Evenings can be spent dining at some of Norwich’s most exciting independent restaurants such as 3AA Rosette restaurant Benedicts, or George Woods’ eatery Brix and Bones where George cooks over open fire. And enjoy drinks outdoors by the river Wensum at The Ribs of Beef or Norwich Playhouse. Or drink and eat having picked up deli treats from Norwich Market or Jarrold by taking a picnic up to Mousehold Heath where you find wonderful sunsets and views of the Norwich skyline for miles.
Full information about summer in Norwich can be found at www.visitnorwich.co.uk.