The best farm stays near Thetford

The shade of Norfolk’s Thetford Forest provides a complete contrast to the vast, flat and open Breckland that surrounds it and camping or glamping in the area gives you the opportunity to experience both. Thetford Forest is the UK’s largest manmade lowland forest with 19,000 hectares to explore. It’s a peaceful, place where you can enjoy back-to-nature camping and active days of walking, cycling and wildlife watching. Naturally, it’s a fantastic place for active family camping holidays and, as with the rest of Norfolk, campsites are not hard to find in Thetford. There are farm-based sites and woodland sites where you can camp among trees, back-to-basics sites with rustic facilities and places with electric hook-up and modern conveniences. For truly luxurious camping, try glamping in Thetford. Norfolk is a particular highlight on the glamping scene and there are shepherd’s huts, cabins, safari tents, yurts and more tucked away in the Brecks, The Broads by the coast and in woodland. We’ve sought out the very best camping and glamping sites in Thetford for the Hipcamp collection so whatever type of camper you are, there should be something to suit you.

Things to do in Thetford during a camping holiday in the area naturally revolve around Thetford Forest. A great place to start your exploration of this lowland pine forest is at High Lodge where you’ll find a café, bike hire, Go Ape! tree-top adventure and the start of walking and cycling trails. It’s also a great place to discover on horseback. And there’s wild swimming on offer in the Little Ouse at St Helen’s Picnic Place.

The market town of Thetford is just outside the forest and has modern shops for picking up camping supplies and a museum dedicated to TV comedy show, Dad’s Army, which was filmed there. The town was the birthplace of Thomas Paine who wrote on the abolition of slavery and was instrumental in helping America achieve independence. You can learn about him and the history of the area at the Ancient House Museum. There’s older historical sites here too, including Grimes Graves – a prehistoric flint mine that’s looked after by English Heritage. Located between the historic cities of Cambridge and Norwich and close to the market town of Bury St Edmunds, Thetford is a great base for a camping holiday if seeing the headline sights of East Anglia is on your holiday wish list. For more information on things to do in the area, take a look at the Cool Places guide to Norfolk.