The setting for Lovejoy and Arthur Ransome’s best-loved children’s tales, Suffolk is known as a food lover’s heaven and home to some fabulous beaches, quaint wool towns and rolling scenery.
Whether you’re a couple seeking to escape from city life or a family looking for adventures, the county has something for everyone. Here’s our pick of the top five…
Southwold
Stretching out into the waves on Suffolk’s picture-perfect coastline is Southwold Pier, built in 1900, with two restaurants, two cafes, three shops and the unmissable ‘Under the Pier Show’ post-modern amusement arcade.
Enjoy an ice cream looking out to sea before you venture off to explore the fishing port’s iconic white lighthouse – and don’t forget to pop into one of the many Adnam’s-owned local pubs for a pint of their beer, which has been brewed in the town since 1872.
Snape Maltings
One of the few remaining Maltings complexes in Britain, the striking brick and slate buildings built by Newton Garrett in 1854 are now Grade II listed and home to a concert hall, independent shops, a gallery and food hall.
It’s perfect for pottering. Foodies should catch the Farmers Market on the first Saturday of the month, while music lovers will enjoy the acoustics of Benjamin Britten’s high ceilinged concert hall which plays host to a range of classical music year round.
Bury St Edmunds
Home of Suffolk’s only cathedral (unless you count Blythburgh’s Cathedral of the Marshes, but officially that’s only a church), Bury St Edmunds has other proud claims too – it’s said to be where the barons met back in 1214 to swear to enforce the next year’s Magna Carta, it has a beautiful Abbey, the glorious Abbey Gardens – and The Nutshell, a pub which claims to be the smallest in Britain.
Aldeburgh fish and chips
Close to Thorpeness and Snape Maltings is arguably the best place on the Suffolk coast to stop for fish and chips – with one family running both The Golden Galleon and the Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop.
Get yours to take away and stroll along the promenade, which is lined with pastel-coloured 19th century holiday villas, up to the pebble beach with fisherman’s huts selling the day’s catch. Keep an eye out too for the controversial sculpture by Maggi Hambling, the Scallop.
Lavenham
Billed as England’s ‘finest medieval town’, Lavenham was ranked the 14th wealthiest town in the country during Henry VIII’s reign because of its wool trade. It’s changed little over the centuries, with more than 300 buildings listed as being of historical importance.
Crooked, half-timbered houses threaten to tumble into narrow streets and the pretty market place is home to the National Trust-owned white Guildhall and yellow Little Hall. It’s a perfect base to explore the surrounding Suffolk countryside.
Photo credits: REX
Where’s your favourite place to visit in Suffolk? Share your favourites in the Comments box below.