Quote: Sandringham Camping & Caravanning Club site is located on the Sandringham Estate, very close to Sandringham House. As it is a C&C club site, it does not have lots of attractions for children and young families, and so is an ideal base for a quieter holiday in Norfolk.

The site is a large one, with 275 pitches available for caravans, camper vans, tents and trailer tents. There are two toilet blocks with the usual shower, washbasin, toilet and hairdryer facilities, along with disabled and family facilities. There is a small shop adjacent to the site, although I don’t believe it is run by the site management.

Access to the site takes you past the gates of Sandringham, but there are a few different ways of approaching the site, and I have to be honest, I could never quite get my bearings when we were driving in and out of the site! However there is one road which is to be avoided, as it is spectacularly bad quality and very bumpy. I wasn’t there when my parents arrived (I took the train to Kings Lynn and met them there) but that is the road they took to enter the site, while they were towing the caravan, and from what they told me, I think that is the road that the site information told them to take.

Although large, the site is fairly quiet and does not feel vast. It is wooded, and most pitches have a tree or two beside them, which gives a feeling of privacy. Of course the peace and quiet depends on the people, but I find that C&C club sites are quieter than non-club sites as they don’t cater quite so much for younger guests. As I say, the site is very peaceful – the noisiest thing was the woodpigeons! There are heaps of them, and I think we must have been there during mating season as they were all getting a bit frisky. My dad got a bit distressed one night as out of all the trees in the site, one pair of woodpigeons started flapping about in the tree directly above the barbecue.

The weekend that we were there was very hot, in early July, and of course that meant we glad of the trees for shade. The site is fairly flat, with just a few gentle slopes here and there.

The facilities on the site were average C&C club facilities. What did strike me however was the number of showers compared to the number of pitches. Of course the club will be conforming to whatever regulations there are about the number they have to provide, but a total of seven showers from women (unless there were more in another block I never found) didn’t seem much. When the site is full, there would be at least 275 women staying (assuming every pitch has a couple on it), along with children. Seven showers don’t seem a lot to go round. Saying that however, I only queued twice, and not for long.

The toilet blocks were clean and quite modern, if rather uninspired. My main fault would be that there wasn’t a lot of room to squeeze into the shower cubicle and close the door behind you, as there was a bench and partition on one side, unless you actually stepped into the shower itself. Also, there were no washbasins for use beside the toilet cubicles, just the ones in cubicles themselves – which only had curtains to cover them, not doors. I always used the shower, but if it had occurred to me to use a washbasin, I would have been put off by the fact that curtains don’t offer such secure privacy as doors.

There is plenty to see in the area, the main attraction for us being a visit to Sandringham itself, but there are bird reserves on the coast, beaches, and lots of other attractions – you can pick up leaflets at the site.

My main issues with the site were having to squeeze into the shower cubicles and the curtains on the washbasin cubicles, so all in all not bad – I think my favourite site is still Chertsey, but Sandringham was certainly a nice place to spend a long weekend in summer. If you’re planning a camping/caravanning trip to the area, I would recommend it.

From journals Sandringham and Surrounding Area