Widescreen vistas of salt marshes and big skies rush to this family-friendly, quayside hotel. Helmed by Emma Stannard, with ‘universally friendly and efficient staff’, the north Norfolk grand dame is approaching its centenary. The inside, however, hits a contemporary note, with soothing greens, creams and greys, nature prints, comfy seating, and log fires, plus those ‘wonderful estuary views’. Holidays can be busy with families but the upstairs lounge is a tranquil retreat. Bedrooms are ‘comfortable’ and ‘tasteful’. ‘Mine was no less attractive for being just slightly down at heel,’ says a regular reader this year. ‘It had all one could want.’ More expensive rooms have more still, proper coffee, perhaps a four-poster, a balcony, a garden patio. Interconnecting rooms suit guests with children. Adam Thompson’s locally sourced dishes, served ‘attentively and pleasantly’ in the stylish restaurant, include the likes of grilled plaice, mash, roast fennel, courgettes, chive butter sauce. Breakfast ‘has something for everyone’. Indoors, a games room, a heated pool; outdoors, a windswept coast, seal-watching, crabbing, ochre beaches. (Susan Willmington, AW, PR, and others).