How dog-friendly is The Victoria hotel and restaurant?

July 26, 2024 | The Victoria | 9 minute read

The Victoria, Holkham’s four-star hotel and restaurant, situated at the gates of Holkham Park and overlooking the nature reserve, is well-loved, by humans and dogs alike! Ten of the twenty bedrooms welcome dogs, and recently, Zip and Diesel – both 15 months old – came to stay and review the hotel! Let’s see what the two pups got up to during their stay at one of the most dog-friendly hotels in North Norfolk…

Thanks to owner, Flo, for translating their woofs and barks into this review!

Let’s meet the reviewers:

Hi! We’re Zip and Diesel but our human parents affectionally refer to us as the boys, the doggos, or most commonly the little rascals. We were treated to a one-night break at The Victoria in July and would love to tell you all about it, because it was such a dog-friendly stay!

Arriving at The Victoria

After a short drive through North Norfolk, as soon as our seatbelts were unbuckled and we leaped out of the car, our parents led us to the fenced puppy playground which is adjacent to the car park of The Vic. This meant that we could stretch our legs and burn off some energy running round the trees before entering the hotel. We loved sniffing all the smells of the past dogs before us as well as the bunny rabbits and the squirrels who call Holkham their home. It also gave us a chance to relieve ourselves after the drive and there were two well-positioned dog bins provided; one in the grassy dog park and one in the car park, which we heard our parents say was very convenient.

Diesel and Zip in the fenced off grassy dog area, sat in front of a tree

After we smelled all the smells, our parents went to collect our luggage from the car, and we headed to the hotel to check-in. We were met in reception by Jen, who gave us plenty of fuss (which is something we never turn down) and collected the key to our dog-friendly room.

We bounded up the two flights of stairs to Hanging Fallow (Room 9) and were led into what we thought could have been heaven. We had been provided with our very own bougie dog bed to share which is perfect as we love snuggling up to each other when we go to sleep. And that’s not it! We were given two dog bowls, two bags of yummy doggy treats which our parents told us were made from game from Holkham Estate, and two dog towels to clean our sandy paws after having a run on the beach! We thought Christmas had come early! We are two very lucky boys.

Tasty treats!

Dog-friendly restaurant

After getting settled in our room, our parents announced we were going down to the restaurant for dinner; they dressed up and put their best clothes on. We’re perfect as we come so had to wait until they had glammed themselves up before heading on down. They had already given us our dinner in the room so we were super duper excited to be getting a second dinner in the restaurant and couldn’t wait to see what the chefs were going to cook up for us! When we had all sat at the table, we soon realised that the dinner was not for us but for our humans. Whilst this was disappointing news that we weren’t to secure a second supper, it wasn’t all bad as the restaurant team hadn’t forgotten about us! They had placed treats on the table and a water bowl underneath. It was great that we were able to have a drink with our parents.

During dinner, members of the restaurant team – Sarah, Inês, Georgia and Ben – gave us head scratches and butt rubs and made us feel like the most important boys.

As rescue dogs and only recent additions to our people’s family, our people were a little worried of how we would react in the restaurant; it was our first time inside a public setting, and we were nervous at first but were soon made to feel comfortable due to the kindness of the team, we even said hello to the group of four on the table beside us.

Although we calmed down pretty quickly, our owners were still a little anxious, but the addition of Yeray’s cocktails soon put the concerns in our people’s mind to ease. We sat incredibly well throughout their three-course meal and truly earned the title of ‘good boys’.

A tower of dog treats upon a napkin on a table laid for dinner

Having returned to our room, we were a little cheeky (what’s new?) and tried out the bed that our humans would be sleeping on, it was so comfy that we didn’t want to get off but after being tempted off with the dog treats, we settled on our own bed and fell into a deep snooze.

Zip and Diesel on the double bed in Room 9

A very dog-friendly breakfast

Even though the chefs weren’t at our beck and call in the evening, the next morning when we went down for breakfast, as well as serving up our human’s food, they cooked us up some delicious dog sausages too. We are now hoping to get served these at home.

The boys and their dog sausage

Visiting Holkham Park and beach

After checking out of the hotel, we went and explored the local area of Holkham, which is perfect for dog walks!

We started off by walking up to Holkham Park and wandered around the deer park. We saw so many beasts and birds roaming the land and were even able to watch the sheepdogs with their farmers herd the sheep! Our mum and dad pointed out the deer in the park and said that was the venison used in our delicious doggy treats.

After having walked from The Victoria, through the North Gates, past the Monument, Hall, Obelisk, down to Longlands and back up past the lake, we then continued our trek towards the beach. We have never been on a beach before, so it was amazing that our first time was on what’s apparently one of the best beaches in North Norfolk, or even the UK!

We had such fun running on the sand and dipping our paws in the sea. We wanted to go all the way into the water, but our people wouldn’t let us because they said they would get their shoes wet. We can’t wait for the day we can be let off the lead so that we can run and race each other on the beach.

Diesel and Zip sat on the grass with Holkham Hall in the background

We absolutely loved our stay at The Victoria and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the sights across Holkham. We’d love to come back as they take care of people’s furry friends here; we were treated like kings!

We’d recommend staying (whether you have dogs or not) and you can find out more here.

More dog-friendly recommendations in North Norfolk

It’s not all about us! Some of our friends (who live with The Victoria team) have shared their favourite things to do in the local area.

Freckle, Bella & Izzy (Lauren’s Dogs) all love walking in the deer park at Holkham, like we did. They especially like the route around the lake.

Giles (Kim’s dog) loves to run around on Holkham beach. In this picture, he is staring at a group of seagulls which is another thing he loves to do!

Meg and Willow (Jen’s dogs) both love to run on the beach in Wells-next-the-Sea as well as swim in the sea.

Lee’s dog Isla’s favourite place to go is the pine woods, as she loves to run around underneath the trees.

Read more about The Victoria hotel and restaurant here.