Feed your inner travel bug from Norwich!

You're probably reading the title of this blog and thinking what is this even about, well let me tell you, as a Norwegian and someone with a bit of a travel bug, Norwich isn't too far from home and quite central contrary to popular belief. Like another blogpost, a lot of people have never heard of Norwich, nor do they know where it is, but believe it or not, there's an international airport just 20 minutes outside of the city centre and a busy train station just 10 minutes away.

With a train station in the neighbourhood the opportunities are endless. Fancy a quick day trip to the bustling capital, London? Hop on the train for just under 2 hours and there you are. I'm not quite sure exactly how many trains go to London from Norwich a day, but there tends to be a direct train every hour if not bi-hourly, but there are countless connections a day that might take a little bit longer, but do end up being cheaper in some cases! If you plan on using the train often then I'd definitely recommend getting a railcard, it will save you so much money than you originally may think. I have a friend who got the three year railcard for £70 and broke even with his first train trip, if that's not convincing enough then I don't know what is. 

Now my personal favourite feature of Norwich is the international airport (travel wise). As someone who no matter how hard they try can never quite get the "travel light" memo, I am always lugging an obscene amount of bags around with me. The airport in Norwich has been a blessing in disguise, I say that because I didn't actually know about the airport until a while after I had accepted my place at UEA. 90% of the time I fly from the UK, I fly from Norwich airport. It's possibly one of the smallest international airports I have been to with a mere 5 gates (one of which is exclusively for helicopters going to the offshore rigs), but it makes traveling to and from Norwich a breeze. Admittedly I've only ever flown to Exeter to visit a friend and Amsterdam for my layover back home, but I've never had any problems. I can arrive an hour before my flight and still have plenty of time to drop off my bags at the check-in counter, make my way through security, and have a browse through the newly renovated duty-free. 

Traveling to and from my life at UEA has been so much easier than I ever anticipated and to be honest, it has allowed me to explore more than I thought it would have. Keep in mind, I'm the kind of person who would rather save my money from nights out and stay in instead so that I can (on a tight student budget) still afford to travel. There are so many ways that you can be smart with the money you do have, book in advance, and use smart booking websites, although I never settle for the first deal I find, there is always something better out there 😉