Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens

The tigers here are what stop you in your tracks. Thrigby Hall, just outside Great Yarmouth, is a wildlife park built around big cats - proper Asian ones, with actual teeth - plus monkeys, reptiles, and birds spread across the grounds of a Victorian country house. You can walk round at your own pace, which beats queuing for hours at a proper zoo.

It's very much a family operation rather than a slick corporate setup, and that works in its favour. The enclosures are decent sized and the animals don't look miserable, which is more than you can say for some places. Kids tend to get a solid two to three hours out of it before they're bored - long enough to feel like a proper outing, short enough that you're not knackered by the end.

The tigers are undoubtedly the draw, but the reptile house and the birds often get overlooked and are genuinely interesting. There's a café on site, so you can grab a sandwich without driving back to Great Yarmouth, which is essential if you're staying at one of the nearby holiday parks like Haven Caister-on-Sea or Clippesby Hall.

Timing-wise, early morning is when the big cats are most active. Summer weekends get rammed, so if you can go midweek do. It's worth an afternoon if you're already in the area for a seaside break, though I wouldn't base a whole trip round it. Admission is paid entry, so factor that into your costs.