The village is situated within the Norfolk Broads on the south side of a loop in the middle reaches of the River Bure.

[5] It is considered to be the second most difficult on the Broads to navigate (after Potter Heigham) and a pilot station sits on the Hoveton side of the river to assist boaters for a fee: £12 each way per boat.

Scrub was cleared and a stretch of piling installed, allowing sedge, reed, and rush to grow back.

During the course of the work in 2004, volunteers came across an unexploded Second World War hand grenade in the dredgings, which was exploded by an army bomb disposal team.

[7] Wroxham is often called the Capital of the Broads, an accolade that may, with some merit, be challenged by Hoveton, where the majority of local businesses and boatyards are situated; it has been the primary centre on the Broads for boating holidays and excursions from the late nineteenth century, when expansion of the rail network had made access to the area easier.

[10] The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a grade I listed building and stands at the top of a steep slope above the River Bure.

It has a high tower and a famous Norman (12th century) south doorway, stained blue, with seven orders and three shafts, described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as 'barbaric and glorious'.

[11] In the churchyard is the Trafford Mausoleum, mediaeval in appearance but built in 1831 to designs by the architect Anthony Salvin.

A brick and pantile manor house to the south east of the church has stepped gables showing Dutch influence, and a panel dating to 1623.

A picturesque red brick grade II listed cottage dating from about 1820 abuts the churchyard.

[5] George Formby, the early twentieth-century entertainer, once owned a riverside home in Beech Road, off the Avenue, a thatched house called Heronby, built in 1907.

On the west side of Norwich Road stands the large former village inn, The Castle, which has been converted into flats.

In his book Coot Club (1934), he describes the busy scene on the river at Wroxham Bridge with numerous boats, a wherry, punts, motor cruisers, and sailing yachts, jostling for a mooring.

It is a stop on the Bittern Line between Norwich, Cromer and Sheringham, with services operated by Greater Anglia.