By Paul Knott
Glamping during the colder months doesn’t have to be a chilly experience with Experience Freedom, especially when you’re staying in a safari tent at The Sandringham Estate. All of these snug spaces have wood burning fireplaces that keep your tent feeling toasty when the mercury begins to drop.
Admittedly, anyone would have reservations about how warm these safari tents actually are once the ominous ‘feels like two degrees’ notification popped up on my weather app.
However these were quickly extinguished, unlike the roaring fire that myself and my two-year-old son were able to conjure up (from a distance!) to keep the tent nice and warm across our three-night-stay at Sandringham.
Some of the best things to do around the Sandringham Estate campsite include the land the campsite is situated on. This is all the more apparent having always lived in a busy city, where the noise of late night revellers or early morning runners heading out for a jog is the soundtrack to outside noises. The joys of staying within the secluded and peaceful Sandringham Estate was only disturbed by nearby wildlife chirping as the sun rose.
With miles of walking available in the area, it’s the perfect location for a peaceful stroll or cycle in the stunning countryside. With many routes marked out for all levels to enjoy with maps and advice freely available from the site managers at reception.
If you were to visit the Sandringham Estate itself, there’s plenty to enjoy, from the house and gardens (not open during the winter months), the delicious cafe which caters to all appetites, and one of the most impressive children's playgrounds a parent will ever see. There are also well marked walking routes straight from the car park of the grounds itself.
We were lucky enough that our October half term break fell during Halloween. We were able to carve a pumpkin with their ‘Pumpkin Soup’ themed event, which was quite common with Sandringham putting on Christmas events as well as shows across the summer months as well.
If you want to venture a bit further afield, spending the morning crab fishing at Wells-next-the-Sea will entertain members of your family young and old.
Or, perhaps a walk or relax on Holkham Beach is more of what you fancy? You can tie this in with the many shops, cafes or pubs that frequent the stylish Burnham Market that’s the epitome of winter.
If you prefer the home comforts of cooking back at your safari tent, each one is fully equipped with all the utensils, cutlery and crockery needed to cook a meal. This even includes wine glasses if you wanted to have an evening drink either tucked up under a blanket watching TV, which frequent every tent. The veranda is also a delight, taking in the stunning landscapes that you are pitched up in.
Most importantly of all, every safari tent is equipped with a dishwasher, because who wants to wash up when they are on holiday? If you want to take it easy with a takeaway, the campsite often has food trucks visiting from pizza trucks to curries, which we took full advantage of when the fish and chip van pulled up to the site on Friday night.
This may have seemed like a great idea at the time, but getting up to do the Sandringham Estate parkrun was as much a battle of mind than just body after the previous night's takeaway. But knowing the feeling of coming back to a private hot and powerful shower back in our safari tent certainly helped push me round the five kilometre course.
The Sandringham Estate is a place you can head to whatever the weather, and staying in a safari tent will top off your Norfolk holiday in style.