My wife and I stayed for a weekend. The room was great the building was lovely, the parking was not ideal and you have to walk to the Hoste arms for your breakfast and other meals - about a half mile walk.

Other than that it was great, lots of little shops and places to explore in and around Burnham and Ideally positioned to explore the whole of the Norfolk coast.

My wife was aproaching her 50th birthday, and since you only reach your half-century once, I wanted to give her a "Wow Factor" experience. The converted Victorian Railway carriage was everything that I hoped for - including antique furniture and fittings, brass bedstead, loads of sumptuous velvet, and a huge LCD TV. An amazing two-night stay included excellent meals (1 x dinner, 2 x breakfasts), and lovely walks around the village. (Note: it is a 5 minute walk from the railway carriage to the Hoste Arms for meals. Lovely if the weather is fine and dry, but I can imagine that this could be a problem if the weather is wet/windy.) Dinner was eaten within earshot of the kitchen, and the sound of frenetic activity was quite distracting. On the otherhand, the railway carriage itself was unbelieveably quiet and restful, and had everything that we could possibly need, including an amazing "old-meets-new" walk-in shower, and a quirky copper wash basin.

Unable to book a suitable room at The Hoste we were offered a room at The Railway and we were not disappointed. We had asked for a room to accommodate 2 adults and a child and expected a 'put you up' in a double room
The room we were allocated was a double room with a room off it having two single beds and dressing table.
The room (as others that family members were staying in) was very tastefully decorated. The sheets beautiful Egyptian Cotton and lovely white fluffy towels. There was more than adequate wardrobe space and an ironing board/iron and hairdryer.
Various teas, coffee, hot chocolate, bottled water and biscuits were available in the room.
The bathroom was clean although there was some evidence of damp on the ceiling but nothing major.
Parking spaces available on site.
The lunch, evening meal and breakfast at The Hoste were superb and all staff were helpful, friendly and polite.

We stayed at the Railway Inn which is part of the Hoste Arms and Vine House for 3 nights, Sunday through to Wednesday when they had quite a good dinner, bed and breakfast deal on. Lets talk about the Railway Inn first:

Our bedroom was on the top floor (of which there are 2 rooms). The room itself was a reasonable size although the shower room was very small. A few niggly things that shouldn't be the case when paying what we paid for this type of accommodation:

1. My pillowcase had spots of somebody else's blood on it
2. The pillow underneath didnt have a pillowcase on it and was stained
3. The water bottles werent replaced each day
4. The blind mechanism had broken so we couldnt close and open the blind

It is also worth noting that the Railway Inn is situated next to a very noisy petrol station. We were woken up very early each morning with engines revving and people shouting. It seemed to be the meeting point for boy racers, both day and night which was a shame.

Evening Meals at the Hoste Arms:

We opted for the dinner option where there are no restrictions and no extras to pay which is fantastic news as hotels always try and get you on this one. It was a 3 course meal and I have to say, both myself and my husband had some fantastic dishes there. The portions sizes are crazy though - far too much! For instance, I ordered vegetable spring rolls served on a bed of noodles one evening (bearing in mind I had just eaten literally half a pint of soup and bread) and it came with FOUR full sized spring rolls! Again, it makes a nice change for a restaurant to be so generous, but I felt the starter and main course were just a little bit too big, and I love my food, believe me! Very good ingredients though and nicely presented. The service was a bit hit and miss. We had to wait for quite some time for our order to be taken for a drink, never mind the food. The waiters/waitressers are continually "running" around and I found this a little unsettling when sat in the main restaurant as they were running past our table non stop which gave me indigestion! We opted to be moved back into the smaller room (near the kitchen) which was much nicer, quiet and relaxed and no running waiters!

Breakfast was good with the usual buffet of cereals and fruit but again, the service let it down a little. We had to ask continually for things such as:

1. Can I have a teaspoon with my coffee cup please?
2. Can we have some butter to go with the toast you brought over 5 minutes ago?
3. Can we have some tomato sauce to go with the fried breakast you delived to us 5 mins ago?

The staff in the morning seemed a little dazed and sleepy but then again, I noticed that most of the staff at breakfast were the same staff as the evening so no wonder they were tired!

Burnham Market itself is very quaint, although not alot there. Not one other restaurant to have dinner at other than the Hoste Arms! Thank goodness we went with the dinner option otherwise we would have had to drive out to nearby restaurants.

All in all a good trip - Decent hotel at the Railway Inn, great food at the Hoste Arms. Not much happening in Burnham Market!