Pool, hot tub, gardens and grounds
Sandcastle Manor is full of rooms, but there’s another one outside. Pipe your playlist to the external speakers as you soak in the seven-seat hot tub, explore the one-acre garden, and play croquet and volleyball on the lawns. Or splash around in the heated outdoor pool. Where’s Mundesley beach? Across the paddock and down the ramp.
Enjoy sunset dinners out on the terrace with space for 30 with steak from Mundesley’s and the waves washing the beach below. Keep the kids happy with inflatable fun from the guys at Bounce Back Castles. Wrap up a fabulous day by planning another around the firepit.
Living spaces
The sofas are soft and squishy, the brick inglenook fireplace comes piled high with toe-warming logs, and the music from your playlist floods every room. While away an evening playing pool in the games room, or breaking out board games the whole family can enjoy.
Wrap up a long day in the cinema room watching a full Sky package, Netflix, Now TV or Amazon Prime Video (all provided) on the 80” TV in the cinema room, or stay sociable with your chef and watch the 55” TV in the kitchen seating area. Stream and surf on the superfast Starlink broadband.
Cooking and dining
Cook on five electric ovens in two kitchens and stock up your six fridges and three freezers – count ‘em – with supermarket deliveries or yummy treats from Dudley’s bakery, Mundesley’s Butchers, Aylesham Market, Country Pickings, and fresh crab and lobster from the mobile Lobster Pot service.
If you’d like the pros to put it all together for you, call up the experts from Norfolk’s Edge, a private dining service customised to your exact requirements. Pick from a one-off celebration, a fully catered break, or drop-off, pre-prepared meals to fill your fridge. Top off that experience with cocktail classes or wine and gin tasting from Van Vino.
Treat yourself to takeaways from The Catch in Mundesley for fresh fish and chips or the New Sage for Chinese. Get down to the Gunton Arms for great gastro washed down with lovely art and a buzzing atmosphere. Try their sister pub, The Suffield Arms, for tapas and cocktails.
Head to The Shambles for a breakfast café, coffee house, bistro, swanky restaurant, or cocktail bar – whatever you want it to be. Book a table at The Ship Inn – owners of The catch – for great Sunday lunch, paninis and more. Or read the great reviews and race down to The Vernon Arms for steaks, stroganoff and scampi.
Bedrooms
If you enjoy those sleep apps that send you off to a backdrop of washing waves, you’ll love the real thing. High on the cliffs above the Norfolk coast, you’ll doze like driftwood in hotel-standard beds throughout. Sandcastle Manor sleeps 22 in eight or nine delightful bedrooms.
The en-suite master bedroom sleeps two in an Emperor bed and comes with a view of the sea. It will take a cot. En-suite bedroom two, Taupe, can sleep four in a kingsize bed with a wall divider that hides bunks. Bedroom three, the Blue Room, has a superking or twins, a sea view and a shared family bathroom.
Bedroom four offers twin beds, sea views and a bathroom shared with bedroom three. Bedroom five provides a double bed with sea views and a bathroom shared with bedroom six, a superking or twins with a sea view. At the top of the house, en-suite bedroom seven accommodates four single beds.
On the ground floor, family-friendly bedroom eight sleeps four in a kingsize four-poster bed plus a double sofa bed. There’s an en-suite bathroom and a glimpse of the sea. Bedroom nine, equipped with bunks, sits off bedroom two.
Children welcome
Kids love the seaside and Sandcastle Manor… well, the clue’s in the name. By the time the A roads have become B roads, the salt will be in the air and the gulls will be calling. It’s time to make some childhood memories. And it can all begin at the bottom of the garden, with a ramp down to Mundesley Beach or a walk along the coast path.
Back in that garden, there’s a full acre to explore, while mum, or probably dad, get to grips with the barbecue and pizza oven. Maybe they organised some inflatable fun from the team at Bounce Back Castles. Or maybe you just had fun learning croquet or practising your volleyball skills.
Older kids can spend their evenings lolling in the seven-seat hot tub with mum and dad. Kids of all ages will love the games room for endless frames of pool. And everyone can get together at day’s end in the cinema room to catch a full Sky package, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Now TV. Stream away on the fast Starlink Wi-Fi.
Escape the scourge of the screen with good old-fashioned board games or just cards and charades around the squishy L-shaped sofas. All while warming your toes by the fire to the soundtrack of your playlist beamed through speakers to every room in the house. Get together around the firepit to rate the day flaming fabulous.
What people say
Basking seals at Blakeney Point
Head through the back garden gate for the Norfolk Coastal Path. Get massaged and manicured at The Spa at Dunston Hall. Pop some beer and gin at Poppyland Brewery. Or head back into history at Norwich Cathedral. Kids can meet tigers at Thrigby Hall, steam along The Poppy Line, or boat it out to Blakeney Point to watch basking seals.
