Travel the season

Journey planner

There's plenty of festive fun to be had with First Bus!

Whether you're looking for the best hot chocolates in town, searching the city for Christmas presents or heading to your local theatre to enjoy a classic panto with family..."He's behind you!!"... you can do it all and more with a £2 Single bus ticket.

Travelling in a group? We're pleased to introduce our new Festive Five ticket on the First Bus App for just £10! Available to purchase from the 1st to 31st of December, our Network Festive Five allows unlimited travel for five people of all ages, all day. Perfect for those work-dos, or going Christmas shopping with your mates! Please note that this ticket will only be valid on the day of purchase. Please see our website for full T's & C's.

Simply download the First Bus App to plan your festive adventure, track your bus live on a map and buy your £10 Festive Five ticket before you travel. The ticket will only be valid for travel on the day of purchase. You'll find it under Norfolk & Waveney Network tickets.

Please note that routes 509, 510, 511, school, and contract services are exempt from this offer.

Over Christmas and New Year, our buses may be operating to different timetables than usual. Please click here to head over to our dedicated page with all the details you need.

Discover Christmas in Norfolk & Suffolk

Watch a festive show at Norwich Theatre Royal, or Ipswich’s Regent Theatre

This year, the region's theatres are packed with all the festive shows you could ask for!

Experience mischief with Dr Seuss' The Cat in The Hat (Norwich) or head over to the land of Fairytales with Jack & The Beanstalk (Ipswich). Join Joe Tracini in Aladdin (Norwich), or discover why Eloisa Scrooge is the world's worst boss in Ghosted (Norwich).

Click here to book tickets for Norwich, and here for Ipswich.

Find the perfect present

Ensure you’ve bought for everyone, and visit one of Norfolk and Suffolk’s shopping centres. Chantry Place, Market Gates, and Sailmakers are all top destinations with plenty of small independent and larger high street names to visit meaning you’re bound to find the ideal gift, and whats more, you can catch our buses to get to all three!

Have a wobbly skate at Winter Wonderland

Open Friday to Monday each week between the 22nd November and 5th January, Norwich’s Winter Wonderland is back for another year at the Royal Norfolk Showground. Enjoy a magical winter experience with outdoor ice skating, a classic funfair and plenty of food and drink options. Then, check if you're on the nice list with a visit to Santa's Grotto. Make sure you book tickets in advance, it's very popular!

It's also open on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and then every day from Friday 27th December until the 5th January.

It's easy to get there; our Excel services A, B, and C stop right outside!

Download our FREE First Bus App

Have everything you need to travel at your fingertips:

Plan your festive journey
Buy your tickets on the app
Track the bus to your stop

Nightingale Drive/Beech Avenue - 29

Until May 12th, service 29 will not be able to serve Nightingale Drive or Beech Avenue due to a burst water main.

Services are diverted along Sandy Lane to resume the route on Fakenham Road.

Bernham Road, Hellesdon (37/37B)

From Monday 21st April to Friday 25th July, Bernham Road in Hellesdon will be closed to enable Norfolk County Council to carry out footway reconstruction works, which will have a severe impact on our Purple Line 37/37B services.

In the Hellesdon area, these services will be split in half on Monday to Saturdays daytimes - with one bus an hour operating a loop of Bush Road, Raymond Road & Reepham Road, and one bus an hour operating a loop of Coppice Avenue & Woodland Road. Please see the timetable below (or attachment) for details on bus times on either side of the loop during this closure.

Evening services (shown below as serving both Bush Road & Woodland Road Stores) will operate both loops to serve as many stops as possible during these times where services operate less frequently.

Services south of The Bull roundabout, and all other Purple Line services are not affected by this, and will continue to operate at the same times as now.

Please view the temporary timetable attached below for bus times from either side of Hellesdon during this closure.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to your journey, but we are not responsible for issuing roadworks permits and can only work around these closures.

A47 Postwick-Great Yarmouth (7/X1)

Due to National Highways work to decrease the speed limit between Postwick & Great Yarmouth, there will be evening closures between Monday 17th March & Friday 23rd May between 20:00 & 06:00 each night.

Postwick to Acle - 17th March to 21st March:
Affected services will operate via South Walsham Road, Salhouse & Postwick Interchange in both directions. The regular stops in Acle will continue to be served.

Acle Straight - 17th March to 23rd May:
Affected services will operate via Filby & Fleggburgh, apart from Monday 24th March to Friday 28th March - where they will be escorted through the closure due to sewer works in Filby.

We apologise for any inconvenience & delay this may cause to your journey.

Great Yarmouth - Market Gates Improvement scheme

From Monday 6th January 2025, the majority of stops at Market Gates will be suspended while work to convert the bus station to 2-way operation takes place. This work is expected to be completed by the May but works may take longer than planned.

There will be lane closures through Market Gates applying to all traffic, which will happen in phases.

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This notice describes the initial position from 6th January until the end of service on Sunday 9th March.

Services 1, 1A, 8, X1, X11, 901 towards JPH/Belton/Lowestoft	These services will operate as normal route to Market Gates, then continue to Regent Street, where the taxi rank is currently located, which will be the main stop for buses towards Gorleston. This will effectively be one long stop (combining the current stops B and C)
Services 1, 1A, 8 towards Caister/Martham	These services will operate as normal route to Stonecutters Way, then continue to Howard Street North, to the front stop opposite the Police Station.
Services X1, X11, 901 towards Norwich	These services will operate as normal route to Stonecutters Way, then continue to Howard Street North, to the rear of the stops outside the Police Station, which will be the main stop for buses towards Norwich.
Services 2, 3, 3B towards Bradwell & Burgh Castle	During this first phase, these services will depart from Stand A (this will be redesignated as Stand F on the shelter for this phase of the works) in Market Gates, outside Poundstretcher. Route is then via Regent Road and King Street, rejoining normal route at St Georges Theatre.
Service 7 towards Norwich/J.P.H.	This service will use the rear of the stops outside the Police Station on Howard Street North on journeys to Norwich, along with Services X1/X11. (The 2320 journey from Norwich will call at Regent Street on its way to Gorleston)

Our services from Martham, Caister & Norwich only will allow passengers to alight at Market Gates. This stop will be to drop passengers off only, all boarding passengers must continue to use the temporary stops as detailed below.

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From Monday 10th March, the works will move onto their next phase - this will entail a further change to our stopping arrangements.

Services 1, 1A, 8, X1, X11, 901 towards JPH/Belton/Lowestoft	These services will operate through Market Gates using the Troll Cart lane, then onto Deneside. Buses will serve the currently disused bus stop on Deneside, by the pet shop. This is instead of the Regent Street stop, that they will no longer serve.
Services 1, 1A, 8 towards Caister/Martham	These services will operate as normal route to Stonecutters Way, then continue to Howard Street North, to the front stop opposite the Police Station.
Services X1, X11, 901 towards Norwich	These services will operate as normal route to Stonecutters Way, then continue to Howard Street North, to the rear of the stops outside the Police Station, which will be the main stop for buses towards Norwich.
Services 2, 3, 3B towards Bradwell & Burgh Castle	These services will operate through Market Gates using the Troll Cart lane, serving a temporary stop just south of "Fish'o'licious". This is instead of the Poundstretcher stop, that they will no longer serve.
Service 7 towards Norwich/J.P.H.	This service will use the rear of the stops outside the Police Station on Howard Street North on journeys to Norwich, along with Services X1/X11. (The 2320 journey from Norwich will call at Deneside on its way to Gorleston)

From 20:00 on Saturday 26th April & Sunday 27th April, services 2/3/3B will not be able to serve the stop near to "Fish'o'licious" due to resurfacing works, and will instead depart from Deneside like other services.

We apologise to all customers affected by this disruption to your bus services.

We will confirm details of stopping arrangements after these works are concluded within the next couple of months.