Burntfirs Plantation

The walk through Burntfirs Plantation starts properly quiet, which is half the appeal when you're staying nearby in Diss. You're in the Norfolk-Suffolk border country here, and this isn't some manicured forest park with colour-coded trails and interpretive boards. It's a genuine working woodland - tall conifers mixed with older broadleaf trees, the floor soft with needles and last year's leaves.

What makes it worth the detour is the sense of being properly remote despite being just outside town. The plantation has that character you get in East Anglian woods - manageable size (you won't walk for hours getting nowhere), decent tracks underfoot, and the kind of light filtering through the canopy that makes everything feel a bit timeless. Walkers will find it refreshing; it's the antidote to the manicured nature reserve circuit. Kids will get a kick out of it for an hour or so, though they might find it a bit gloomy if the weather's turned.

There's no visitor infrastructure to speak of - no café, no car park fee signs visible, no crowds. Take the basics and respect it as working land. The best time is autumn when the deciduous trees show, or early spring before the conifers get too dense overhead.

If you're based at Arthur's Retreat just down the road, this gives you a proper woodland walk without driving all over Norfolk. It slots in well with a couple of hours spare rather than being a whole-day destination, which is exactly what works from a motorhome site.