Travel - A weekend in Aldeburgh and Southwold, Suffolk

February 10, 2015


Have you been to Suffolk before? It's on the coast just below Norfolk and really not very far from us. We've been a couple of times now, the last was in June 2012. We were living in London, both feeling a bit bored of the city and felt like a spur of the moment getaway somewhere nice, a change of scenery! It was a Thursday night and we called a few hotels asking about last minute late availability for the following night, I'm never spontaneous like that always preferring to book stuff months in advance! But it paid off and we got a last minute room rate at The Crown in Southwold for a night and had a lovely couple of days at the seaside.


We got up early on the Friday morning driving across London and escaped the city! Within a couple of hours we were walking along the beach in Aldeburgh.


Aldeburgh is a charming little upmarket seaside town with a big shingle beach, sweet seaside cottages, fresh fish shacks, nice interior sailing and clothes shops and organic delis to browse around. You can walk from here along the coast to Thorpeness a quirky old village which we did with it's house in the clouds, past the famous shell sculpture before coming back for lunch. {We didn't this time but in the past have always stopped at Snape Maltings, a nice place to visit if you're in the area}


 



The sun came out as we got back from our walk, so we bought a picnic lunch from the deli and sat on the beach to eat it. The town seemed really quiet that day, I guess weekends and school holidays would be a lot busier.

 

After the morning in Aldeburgh, we drove up the coast to sunny Southwold, an old Georgian market town with lots of lovely shops, good pubs, beach huts and a pier. It was especially beautiful with the bright blue sky and bunting. 



We checked into our hotel, or pub with rooms the award winning Crown on the high street. It's owned by the Adnam's brewery chain as is most of the town. We were given a beautiful room in the attic with a separate lounge and bathroom across the hall. It was perfect for a night's escape from London and so nice to breathe fresh sea in for a couple of days. 


It was too glorious to stay in so we went straight to the beach. Southwold's got some brightly coloured beach huts so of course I couldn't resist taking some photos of them. Beach huts have featured on here quite a lot lately haven't they? The pier is a classic Victorian style with your traditional fish and chips etc. The Great British Seaside! 




After an afternoon on the beach and looking around the town we called ahead to book dinner at The Westleton Crown, a few miles down the road. We have a TimesPlus card that offered two for one on dinner there and it had good reviews. K Mid and Wills had been there just a couple of weeks before for their anniversary and if it's good enough for K Mid... 

The food was truly delicious, it was a couple of summers back so check more up to date reviews but I'm sure it's still just as lovely today. Really summery, fresh local ingredients - Suffolk asparagus, fresh fish and rhubarb. It was amazing value with the two for one offer.




The drive back to the hotel was beautiful as the sun was setting across the fields and a river. 




The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel before walking to the other side of Southwold looking at the lighthouse and found some more beach huts, these ones were on a gorgeous sandy beach. We kept walking and reached a little harbour with working fishermen and then looped back to the town through some fields before heading back into London.




Sometimes short breaks are the best ones and there really are some lovely places in England.

We're always looking for new places to visit if you have any suggestions?

R <3 xx

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2 comments

  1. the new forest...we live right by it & love it! a truly beautiful place or if you've been already another family fav is lulworth cove on the south coast. wonderful! x

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    Replies
    1. Ooh yes love Dorset and Lulworth, Durdle Door is so beautiful! Thanks xx

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