Norfolk Broads Cruising Guide

Working out how far you can travel on your holiday is not easy if you've never done it before. To give you an idea of distances, you could set off from Coltishall at the northern most point on the River Bure at 9am and arrive at Great Yarmouth, the outlet to the sea at around 3pm in the afternoon if you did the trip without stopping. Similarly, you could make the journey from Yarmouth to Norwich on the River Yare in around 8 hours.

But if you did that much cruising at one stretch you would not only be missing out many fine villages worth stopping at, you would also not experience the "kick back and relax" feeling that the Norfolk Broads has to offer. The compromise is to set aside time for cruising and time for exploring. A one hour cruise in the morning followed by a lazy lunch at a riverside hostelry before moving on for another couple of hours is enough to allow you time to explore the many villages which line the rivers of the Norfolk Broads.

The map and distance charts below should assist you in planning a route for your cruise. Bear in mind that the cruising times shown are based on an average speed of 5mph - the sort of cruising speed you will settle down to, and that these times can be affected by tides the nearer you get to Great Yarmouth. If it's with you, you will arrive faster - if it's against you, your journey time will slow a little.