If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP136.88), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
The flint-lined buildings that once housed Langham village’s glass-blowing factory have been shaped into something just as artful: modern-minded North Norfolk hideaway the Harper. Updated by the Cutmore-Scott family, its interiors now have primary-hued velvet couches, flashes of red brick, industrial design elements (a nod to owner Sam’s engineer grandfather) and sleek four-posters in most rooms. And service is as forward-thinking as its style, welcoming muddied dog-walkers and urbane cocktail-clinkers alike. Go ‘gillying’ and coast-walking, play pool in the Den, feast on the best of land and sea, and end your day with English wines by the fire pit in the tree-shaded terrace.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A Harper 75 cocktail (with gin, English sparkling wine, lemon juice, and sugar syrup) for each guest
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £164.26, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates include breakfast for all room types except the Cottages, where you can pre-order a Continental hamper for £15 a day, or head to Stanley's for a cooked breakfast (from £25).
Also
There are two accessible rooms (101 and 103) set on the ground floor of the hotel.
At the hotel
Games room; bikes to borrow for free (subject to availability); and free WiFi. In rooms: LED TV, digital radio, Nespresso coffee machine with Roar Gill pods, tea-making kit, minibar with pre-mixed cocktails, air-conditioning, Irene Forte Skincare bath products, and flip-flops (for the spa). The two cottages have a full kitchen and utility room too.
Our favourite rooms
The Harper may be an ample country home, but there’s not a dust-ruffle or heavy gilded frame in sight; decor is modern, down to the clean-lined four-poster beds most rooms have. And, sometimes size does matter, when you’re presented with Big, Bigger and Biggest rooms – the last of which satisfyingly lives up to its name. And, if you’re visiting as a group or with the kids, granny and grandad, the mother-in-law, etc, in tow, the Cottages are secluded standalone hideaways with their own kitchen and utility room for longer stays.
Poolside
With leafy courtyard views, the pool at the spa is lined with smooth stone, features Roman steps and has a hot tub tucked into one corner. It's open daily from 7am to 10pm for private 30-minute bookings only (subject to availability), during which time you'll have use of the pool, sauna, steam room and hot tub to yourselves.
Spa
Ease your coastal-walk-worn muscles in the clean-lined modern spa, which has a pool, Jacuzzi for bubbly soaks and a range of Irene Forte Skincare massages and facials (including prenatal pampering). An acupressure-styled ‘Head in the Clouds’ or ‘the Harper Trio’ focusing on your back, neck and shoulders will work wonders; polish off with a mani-pedi.
Packing tips
Bring buckets, spades, inflatable flamingo rubber-rings… And clothing you’re not too precious about for splashing in rock pools, mucking about on sightseeing boats and fishing for crabs.
Also
There are lots of nods to both the building’s past as a glass factory (notably the ‘Blow me away’ sign in Ivy’s lounge) and owner Sam Cutmore-Scott’s mechanic grandfather, with industrial touches.
Pet‐friendly
Your four-legged friend can stay for £25 a room a night (a bed can be provided). Pets are allowed in the Bar, the Yard, and Ivy's, but not in Stanley’s. And for very mucky pups (or wellies) there’s an alfresco bath tub to use on returns from walkies. See more pet-friendly hotels in Norfolk.
Children
Little ones are welcome to stay. There are several family rooms and two cottages suited to multigenerational trips. You’ll need to provide distractions, but the North Norfolk coast is awash with seaside fun.
Best for
Whether babes flopping on the beach or teens learning to land board, there’s something for all ages here.
Recommended rooms
The Family Room is well-configured for broods of four, or for more privacy, your own kitchen and perhaps a few more beds, the Cottages are charming.
Activities
There’s a lot of outdoorsy fun to be had: playing in the sand or paddling in the shallows; partaking in blustery watersports; ‘gillying’ and fishing; wildlife spotting; boating, kayaking and canoeing; or tackling the Holkham Hall high-ropes course.
Swimming pool
Kids can use the spa pool, although parents will need to supervise. Families might prefer a private 30-minute session (book in advance, subject to availability).
Meals
Food is unpretentious here, and the ‘all day, anywhere’ menu has picky bits and classic favourites that kids will enjoy. And, if you’re in a Cottage you can cook to their whims.
No need to pack
Bring any essential baby kit, beloved toys and tech for a rainy day.
Sustainability efforts
The Harper runs on eco-friendly biofuel, sustainably grown wood or electricity (no gas), with heaters and water kept toasty with biofuel pellets. Low-energy LED lights are fitted throughout, the pool has a heat-exchange air-circulation system to keep excess warmth from being pumped into the atmosphere, paper usage is kept to a minimum, coffee pods are British-made and biodegradable, and there are chargers for electric vehicles onsite.
The Yard’s fire pits and fairy-lights are very inviting. Otherwise, bask in the coloured light that streams through Ivy’s stained-glass windows on a comfy couch.
Dress Code
This is more Belstaff than Barbour, and swap muddy tweeds for rich colourful fabrics.
Hotel restaurant
You can tell beamed, red-brick-lined table d'hôte Stanley’s doesn’t take itself too seriously by the smiley cracked-egg sign hanging on the wall. Top and tail your meal with the house-made sourdough and chocolate petit fours, but what comes between is determined by that season’s bounty from the land and sea. It could be duck breast with burnt quince; dover sole, brown shrimp and beurre blanc; Norfolk rib-eye in béarnaise; and perhaps honey madeleines with raspberry and orange in tonka-bean custard for dessert. And breakfasts here are brown-butter waffles slathered in clotted cream or very full Englishes washed down with mimosas and Bloody Marys. Or tuck into venison burgers or kimchi and truffled Baron Bigod sandwiches on a leather or velvet buttonback in Ivy’s lounge. The bar menu can be served in the Yard, a lovely lavender-scented alfresco space with olive and fig trees and views of the 14th-century tower, plus a fire pit for chillier nights. Be sure to secure a table there for the 'six o'clock savouries' when free snacks are dished out to guests.
Hotel bar
The Harper’s Bar may be a more modern take on a countryside watering-hole, but you’ll still feel more than comfortable settling here with a paper and a pint. Go upstairs and you’ll find Ivy’s, an equally laid-back lounge, where you can take afternoon tea, or linger over a book by the wood-burner. Alongside bottled local beers (a selection from Duration or Barsham ales), you could try a Countryside cosmopolitan (with vodka, Cointreau, cranberry and lime) or salted-caramel espresso martini, or get to grips with Ivy’s wine dispenser; and be sure to soak them up with seasonal bites, such as katsu fried chicken or mac and cheese with pumpkin, Baron Bigod and gingerbread crumb. And the Den acts as a snug to the main bar, with a pool table, cards and board games, and a 120-inch screen for movie nights or sports events.
Last orders
Breakfast is from 7.30am to 10.30am. An all-day menu is available 12.30pm until 10pm; dinner in Stanley's or the bar is from 6.30pm until 10pm, and last orders for both is 9.30pm.
Room service
No need to leave your comfortable four-poster – an in-room menu runs from 7.30am to 10.30am for breakfast, then from 12.30pm to 7pm.
The Harper is set in the remarkably fair, pebble-dashed village of Langham in North Norfolk, close to fields of happily grazing sheep.
Planes
Norwich Airport, which has a few direct routes to Europe, is the closest, about an hour’s drive away. Otherwise, London’s big four (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton) are within two to three hours’ away by car.
Trains
Sheringham (or Sherngham) Station on the Greater Anglia line is the closest, a 20-minute drive away. From London Liverpool Street, you can connect via Norwich.
Automobiles
To see more of the coast’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and dive down in the Broads, wheels will be essential. There’s free parking at the hotel (you’ll need to use spaces marked with an ‘H’), plus Tesla and Pod Point chargers (the latter are £2.50 an hour even when full, so be sure to move it for other guests to use once done).
Worth getting out of bed for
Langham is a village of flinty cottages, a listed church and peaceful pastures. It’s darling indeed, but also gives you easy access to the North Norfolk shore and its Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Dubbed the ‘champagne coast’ for its grand houses and luxury stays, pleasures around here are simple and timeless too: walking rugged trails (staff can provide maps), building sandcastles, collecting shells… The stretch between Wells-next-the-Sea (a 15-minute drive away) and Brancaster is especially picturesque, with rolling dunes, pristine sands and pine forest; Brancaster Beach is famous for kite-surfing, and land boarding or buggying; and Holkham Beach is simply famous – you may have seen it at the end of Shakespeare in Love or Annihilation, or in All Saints’ Pure Shores video. Nearby, you can also walk across the mud flats to the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve, an unpolished haven with salt marshes and shingle. Come June to September, head to Morston Quay to hop on a boat and seek out seals basking in the sun (if you want to catch pups, take a frostier trip out come Christmastime). In Cley-next-the-Sea, a windmill rises above quaint terracotta-tiled houses, notable for being in singer James Blunt’s family for generations. And you’ll find a smokehouse, indie bookshop, deli (ideal for picnics if the hotel hasn’t packed you one already), and tea shops in the surrounding streets; plus the area is known for its sea bass and mackerel fishing. From here, walk the Norfolk Coast Path, which leads onto the Peddars Way National Trail at Holme-next-the-Sea. Go ‘gillying’ or crab-hunting at Wells-next-the-Sea (find nets, lines and bait at the Gilly Hut), check out the happenings at contemporary arts centre Wells Maltings, then ride the teeny Wells & Walsingham Light Railway to the sand. Come over all Bridgerton at Palladian-style Holkham and Houghton Halls, or Jacobean-Georgian Felbrigg Hall and mediaeval Oxburgh Hall in the fenlands.
Local restaurants
If you’re getting a taste for stylishly updated historic houses, book dinner at 17th-century Morston Hall, where the seven-course tasting menu changes daily, but could include Cromer crab ravioli, minted Norfolk poussin, or white chocolate and apricot tart with nutmeg cream. The restaurant at Blakeney House similarly showcases local produce over multiple courses, with the likes of quiche Lorraine in a cheddar custard; duck confit on a cheese waffle with brown sauce; and milk-chocolate blondie with malted-white-chocolate mousse and miso caramel. And for fish and chips, Platten’s in Wells-next-the-Sea fries up the day’s catches.
Local cafés
Cookies Crab Shop on Coast Road in Holt has been a seafood institution for decades, and Hatters does both savoury and sweet afternoon tea.
Local bars
Scope out the Harper’s sister pubs; the closest is the Langham Bluebell, a friendly village hangout. It pulls a mean pint, but its menu – with curried mutton and mango salsa pies, lime-braised short rib with chimichurri, sea-bass with passionfruit and samphire – is yet another reason to visit, as is its Sunday roast. And towards the coast, deep in the countryside, there’s the Morston Anchor for fish and chips with pints of ale from local Woodford’s or Lacons breweries.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this contemporary countryside hotel in Langham Village and unpacked their seashells and sprigs of wild samphire, a full account of their crabbing and seal-spotting break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Harper in Norfolk…
Sam Cutmore-Scott, who runs North Norfolk stay the Harper, earnt his hospitality stripes at his family’s boutique wedding business Harper Weddings. His new hideaway however, is more ‘just come back from a walk along the shore’ than top-hats-and-tails chic, with inviting spaces and two hideaway cottages for multi-generational trips. The ‘champagne coast’ may be as well known for its stately-home stays as it is for dunes, salt marshes and seals, but this offers a forward-thinking alternative with modern interiors of exposed red brick, boldly hued velvet couches and leather buttonbacks, sleek four-posters, and irreverent artwork – with friendly, yet not overbearing, staff to match. And the flinty buildings of Langham village’s former glass-blowing factory have also been given industrial touches as a nod to Sam’s mechanic grandfather Stanley (after whom the restaurant is named), while Ivy’s lounge honours his grandmother. Spend hours playing pool in the Den knocking back bottles of local beer, read the paper by the coloured light streaming in through bird-motif stained glass, tuck into kimchi and Baron Bigod brie toasties or cheesy-mustardy scones on the leafy terrace, until it’s time for digestifs by a fire pit. The Cutmore-Scotts once again prove adept in getting people to say ‘I do’.
