Great Yarmouth? for a holiday? No way!

It has all the worst things about the English seaside. It's a tasteless, soulless, down at heel, unattractive city, where the sea is usually grey, the sky is grey, the seagulls are grey... you get the picture.

But actually, I like Yarmouth. It was a great medieval city, and a great maritime port; and though bombers got a lot of it in WW2, it's still got some fascinating relics of the past. The largest parish church in England, St Nicholas, and the Tolhouse, a medieval civic hall with prison below.

There are a few Rows still surviving - the narrow streets running off the three main thoroughfares, which gave medieval Yarmouth the shape of a herring with little fishbones and a big spine. Appropriate, since it was the North Sea herring fisheries that made Yarmouth's fortune.

And South Quay retains a feeling of wealth, with fine Elizabethan and later houses. There are some good pubs too - the Oliver Twist, St John's Head and Mariners all serve real ale. On the other side of the river, you can see the port, huge silos and stark quays brooding gloomily over the grey river. The merchants here may have built fine houses, but they could always see where their wealth had come from - and even today this is a working port. (In fact, construction work has just begun on a new outer harbour to serve the offshore industry in the North Sea.)

The market place is huge, and renowned for its chip stalls. You won't find anything particularly interesting or tasteful here, but it's a real, busy market, and well worth hanging out for a while just to watch the passing trade.

Head up to the Hippodrome for a taste of the Victorian and Edwardian seaside. This palatial circus-tent-in-stone still hosts shows - occasionally something unexpected, such as a performance of Purcell's opera, Dido & Aeneas. The Golden Mile may be a rather poor place these days, but there are still some marvellous old buildings from the great days of the English seaside. And it's lovely when the sun shines - which admittedly is not very often...

Yarmouth isn't a tasteful place. It's not a trendy seaside resort, like Brighton, or upmarket like Southwold, further down the coast. But it is an interesting place to wander round.