: Californian Dreaming.

Byline: William Leece

PUT your hand on your heart. Do you really know Britain? We certainly don't. When the family car headed east towards Norfolk, we were travelling to a land known to us only from photographs and guidebooks - and you could say that of any part of the world .

Our destination, believe it or not, was to be California. Look it up on the map and it's there, five miles or so north of Great Yarmouth, the legacy of a local who joined the gold rush 150-odd years ago and then brought the name back with him.

California UK-style is a far cry from its American counterpart. On an unseasonably grey week in early summer it can have a back-of-beyond feel to it as the wind off the North Sea sharpens its teeth. Which is where a company like Park Holidays can prove its worth. There can be few more trying times for a holiday than a wet week by the seaside.

Once you've booked with an all-inclusive company like this, there's not much more to cough up for even if the weather turns bad. Accommodation is in an immaculately-clean centrally-heated caravan complete with gas cooker and microwave and the site includes so many things to do that the little ones will take some shifting to go out and see the scenery.

They slipped into the daily routine with the ease of seasoned professionals. Late breakfast, watch childrens' TV. An hour in the swimming pool, then lunch. There's a resident fish and chip shop for that. Then grumble because mum and dad want to see something of the surrounding countryside. This is new territory after all.

In the end a compromise is reached. The junior members of the family will co-operate when bribed with the promise of 100 2p coins each to blow in the campsite slot machines that evening. It's hardly the material of Gamblers Anonymous, and it buys a good deal of harmony.

A ten-mile radius round California certainly brings in a choice of attractions to satisfy most people. Great Yarmouth is both a typical seaside resort and a working port rolled into one. The seaside caffs and amusement arcades are as neat and tidy as you can hope to see, and the beach looks commendably clean.

But the feeling won't go away that Yarmouth may have been at its best 100 years ago as an elegant town by the water, before the days of mass tourism arrived.

Never mind. For those of a slightly more serious disposition, there's Caister Castle barely a couple of miles from California. This was the home of Sir John Fastolf, the original of Shakespeare's Falstaff, and later of the Paston family, whose intimate letters can bring the 15th century alive in a most remarkable way.

The castle goes easily on the history lesson, though, and for many the main attraction will be the Motor Museum, one of the finest collections of cars and motorcycles to be found anywhere. The best value afternoon out, though, surely has to be one of the simplest. Five miles away is the Norfolk Broads centre of Potter Heigham, where for pounds 12 you can hire an electric boat and take to the waters.

Five minutes up the river and you are in a different world, of reed beds, water fowl and windmills. The boat is simplicity itself to drive - well within the capability of an older child under supervision - and half an hour out of Potter Heigham will take you to the hamlet of Thurne Mill, virtually inaccessible by road but a major centre for those whose joys are to be found messing around on water.

Tourism stands alongside agriculture as one of the pillars of the Norfolk economy, and everyone we encountered seemed to be well aware of this. The standards of courtesy and service were as high as I have ever encountered in this country.

Even the sea front greasy-spoon caffs were well-run and welcoming. The boat hire man must have sent off tens of thousands of trippers in his days, yet he was as good-humoured as he probably was the day he started in the job. Similarly country pubs and their customers provided a genuine welcome and the children well looked-after in proper family rooms.

Only the California Cliffs site itself was in any way a slight let-down. Norfolk, as everyone knows, is pretty flat and the sight of regimented rows of caravans, excellent as they were inside, was at times a bit depressing.

Fall in love with the place and you can actually buy a caravan on the site from just under pounds 6,000. Annual fees start from pounds 1,800 and for this you get free use of the site's recreation and entertainment facilities and an unlimited supply of bottled gas for heating and cooking.

facts

Park Holidays prices vary according to the time of year and the size of the caravan or chalet. Brochures available from most travel agents, of from freefone 0800-138 0053.