After trying glamping for the first time last year at Bumblebarn in Sheringham, we wanted to go again but somewhere different. This year we decided to give a Mongolian yurt a go in Cromer for John’s birthday.
Where is The Grove
Situated in Cromer, The Grove is a 10-15 minute walk away from the town center, or about 20 minutes from Cromer train station. There are a few different buses that also stop within a 5-minute walk from The Grove too. Check the Sanders website for more information.
The Grove
95 Overstrand Road
Cromer
Norfolk
NR27 0DJ
Facilities at The Grove
The Grove also offers hotel rooms, cottages and a brand new Shepherd’s Hut (in 2022) along with the 5 Mongolian Yurts. We have actually stayed in other accommodation at The Grove a few years ago and you can read a review of that stay here.
What is there to do?
When staying at The Grove you also get to use some of their other facilities. The two main benefits for us are the use of the pool and the play area. When you travel with children, even if it’s a couple of towns over, it’s so important to find somewhere with family-friendly facilities.
Unfortunately, we did not receive an email we should have before our stay meaning we were not made aware of certain procedures. Swimming needed to be booked in 45 minutes slots and not knowing this meant we had very little choice in times and it ruined a lot of our first day in wasted time. Our experience of swimming at The Grove was a bit of a mix. While the pool was lovely and warm we experienced issues with booking slots as mentioned already and staff making mistakes that meant our bookings were not what they were supposed to be.
There is plenty of green space available around the grounds so you could play football, frisbee etc. or even spread out with a picnic blanket and relax if you wanted to. There are also woods at the back of The Grove which are lovely for a walk and they lead to the beach.
Where to eat
The Grove has it’s own restaurant inside the hotel as well as Sundown, which serves tapas and pizza. Both get extremely busy so it’s worth booking a table if you want to eat on-site. We’d made other plans during our stay so we didn’t eat at either option. However, I have had afternoon tea at The Grove before and it was delicious!
Access to the beach
One of the great things about staying at The Grove is the proximity to the beach. A short walk through a small area of woodland will lead you to the cliff edge where there are (steep) steps that take you right down to the beach. This area of the beach is away from Cromer Pier so quieter than the beach areas that are closer to town.
Showers and toilets
The Grove has plenty of shower and toilet facilities for those glamping in the yurts. You can find shower and toilet facilities at the back of the swimming pool and you can also find the washing up area here as well. There was a good mix of toilets on their own as well as some with showers in the same room which was actually great for families needing that bit of extra space.
Staying in a Mongolian yurt
We, or more specifically me, are not campers. Not in the traditional sense anyway. While I can cope with using a shower block and even a shared toilet, I need to sleep somewhere off the floor and with a bit of space to move around.
Sleeping arrangements
Our yurt could sleep 6, with a double bed in the middle and bunk beds on either side. The bunk beds didn’t feel particularly stable enough for Erin to be on the top bunk so she was on the bottom and she was quite happy with that. The bunk beds all had sleeping bags instead of duvets and Erin thought that this was great. The double bed was incredibly comfortable and actually, I think more comfortable than my own bed at home.
Cooking facilities
Each yurt has it’s own covered picnic table, fridge and gas hob. There is also a charcoal BBQ if you want a more authentic camping experience with food. The yurts come fully stocked with everything you could need such as pots and pans, plates and cutlery etc. It was kept nicely in a big box inside the yurt and there’s also an inventory so you know what should be there.
We were out for most of our stay so didn’t cook anything but it was really helpful to have a fridge just for us so we could keep things like milk and drinks cold.
What’s the space like?
Our yurt was actually huge and we had so much space to move around and to put our things. We used the spare set of bunk beds to lay out or clean clothes etc. on the top bunk and other bits and pieces on the bottom. Our suitcase fit perfectly underneath the beds and it meant we could chuck our dirty clothes in as we went and save time packing on the last day.
Did we enjoy our stay?
Unfortunately, we were met with quite a lot of issues during our stay. Along with issues with swimming and information not being sent, we had inconsiderate neighbour guests and a local event kept us awake with loud music until 1am one night.
We did make complaints during our stay and unfortunately, they weren’t handled to a satisfactory level. In fact, after complaining things actually got worse on our last day, which led to me emailing the owner of the business. Since then I have spoken to the owner to discuss the things that went wrong during our stay.
While The Grove Glamping has lots of potential, our experience here was less than perfect and caused more stress and upset than enjoyment. At £330 for two nights, we all expected more.
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