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Charming and fashionable seaside town, which grew from an old fishing and shipbuilding centre.

Charming and fashionable seaside town, which grew from an old fishing and shipbuilding centre. Fishermen still haul their boats up the steep shingle beach, and sell their catch each morning. The wide High Street has attractive Georgian buildings housing independent shops, galleries and restaurants. Try the fish and chips – some of the best in the country. Visit the 16th C. Moot Hall and the fine hilltop church – where the famous composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) is buried. He started the annual music festival held each June.

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Aldeburgh tourist information centre, suffolk.

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Opening Times

Always check with the venue directly for up-to-date information including opening times and admission charges as they may be subject to change

Nearest Venues

Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

116 metres*

Aldeburgh Moot Hall and Museum, Suffolk

125 metres*

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

166 metres*

Aldeburgh, Suffolk

170 metres*

Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

320 metres*

Aldeburgh Baptist Church, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

346 metres*

*Distances are calculated in a straight line from the current venue, please allow extra time/distance based on available paths or roads.

Guide to Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh is perfect for the seasoned traveller who likes their beach holiday understated and cultured. With a long pebble beach, a seafront promenade lined with pastel-coloured houses, and a charming high street filled with smart stores, this area attracts visitors who adore its genteel and laid-back charm.   

Not only seaside and shingle, Aldeburgh also has a great selection of arts festivals throughout the year, mainly due to the influence of its famous composer son, Benjamin Britten, who started the trend with a classical festival in the 1940s. Added to that, a handful of excellent seafood restaurants, some friendly pubs, and a couple of delightful cafes will be sure to show visitors that Aldeburgh has so much more to offer than many typical seaside resorts.  

After a long stroll down Aldeburgh’s charming seafront, around the yacht club, and back, there is nothing better than to pay a visit to the famous fish and chip shop, frequently labelled the ‘best in the world’! People travel from far and wide to savour these culinary delights whilst sitting on the beach watching the tide slowly roll in.  

• Things to do in Aldeburgh   
• Places to eat and drink in Aldeburgh  
• Aldeburgh beach life   
• Aldeburgh walks
• Dog-friendly Aldeburgh   
• Shopping in Aldeburgh  

Aldeburgh events and festivals  

Where to stay  , things to do in aldeburgh .

From family fun to celebrating the town’s most famous son, Benjamin Britten, there’s plenty to do for everyone in Aldeburgh. From summer days on the beach to rainy days in the famous Aldeburgh Cinema, no matter when you visit this wonderful coastal town.   

The Red House  

You can’t visit Aldeburgh and not pay homage to its famous son, Benjamin Britten. Make sure you visit his former home and studio, The Red House . The home, which he shared with partner Peter Pears is open during the summer months. Nestled in a beautiful 5-acre garden, the farmhouse is home to their collections and archive, alongside a gallery space, museum shop, and outdoor café.  

The whole family will enjoy a trip to the Red House, with interactive exhibits, trails, and activities aimed at younger visitors.  

Opening hours : 11am–5pm Thursdays to Sundays from 30 March to 29 October

Price: Adults £10, under 16s free  

Aldeburgh Cinema  

For over 100 years Aldeburgh Cinema has been entertaining residents and visitors to the town. This unique half-timbered movie theatre still has original features including Art Deco furniture. From larger releases to indie flicks, filmed art exhibitions, and theatre productions on the big screen, it’s a perfect way to spend some time whilst in Aldeburgh.  

Opening Hours: Performance dependent  

Price: Performance dependent  

Aldeburgh Treasure Trail  

Families will love the Aldeburgh Treasure Trail , an excellent way to discover the area! A self-guided treasure hunt will lead you all around the town and offer fascinating insights into its history. Perfect for anyone aged 6 to 106, the loop trail should take around 2 hours to complete.  

Price : £9.99  

Places to eat and drink in Aldeburgh

The beautiful coastal town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk is all about good food made locally. Whether you’re looking to step out for a quick, hearty breakfast or want a sophisticated, sit-down dinner, Aldeburgh has something for every visitor.   

No trip to Aldeburgh would be complete without tasting some of the famous fish and chips. Aldeburgh is the king of fish and chips, boasting three amazing shops; The Aldeburgh Fish & Chip Shop , The Golden Galleon , and The Upper Deck . Each is slightly different with its own unique character, all with the same great taste with their freshly caught fish and locally grown potatoes. You can have them wrapped to enjoy at home or eat them the Aldeburgh way: sat on the sea wall watching the waves breaking against the pebbles. Either way, they’re delicious!  

The Lighthouse Aldeburgh  

Don’t miss The Lighthouse where fresh fish dishes and pan-fried scallops are popular choices; vegetarians needn’t worry as they offer a great selection of non-meat dishes too. As part of the landscape for over 25 years, locals and tourists flock to this popular spot.  

Food service hours: 12pm–3pm and 6pm–9.30pm daily  

The Mill Inn  

If you’re looking for hearty food washed down with a pint of local ale a visit to The Mill Inn is in order. Famous for its in-house American smoking oven, this popular Aldeburgh pub is a great place to try both traditional pub grub alongside specials such as King Rib Racks and Beef Brisket.  

Food Service Hours: Monday closed. Tuesday–Saturday 12pm–2pm and 6pm–8.30pm. Sunday 12pm–2pm.  

Aldeburgh beach life  

Probably the most famous of Suffolk's beaches , Aldeburgh is a lovely shingle and sand beach which backs right onto the town. Whether you’re enjoying a winter walk along the shore with the pups, or a hot summer's day swimming and sunbathing, make sure you visit The Scallop, a sculpture that is a tribute to composer Benjamin Britten who walked almost daily along the stretch of coastline between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness.  

Dog friendly: Dog ban from 1 May to 30 September on the main town beach  

Lifeguard service: None 

Car parking: Car parks can be found at either end of the beach

Facilities: Public WCs are available at Aldeburgh Fort Green  

The best Aldeburgh walks

Aldeburgh to thorpeness  .

This beautiful 6.5-mile circular walk takes you from Aldeburgh to the magical village of Thorpeness and back again. Enjoy the coastal path, and the famous sights you’ll see along the way: the Scallop, the Martello Tower, and the House in the Clouds. The journey back to Aldeburgh takes you along the old railway line.  

Length: 6.5 miles   

Difficulty: Easy   

Nearest parking: Fort Green Car Park, IP15 5DE

Access: Moderate - follows mostly footpaths, routes can be muddy in places, and there are short stretches along roads

The Sailors Path Loop – Aldeburgh to Snape Maltings 

A longer walk – just over 12 miles – is to Snape Maltings. The Sailor’s Path was once used by stranded mariners who had to get to Aldeburgh from the River Alde and it takes you through woodland, marsh, and freshwater dykes, home to all sorts of wildlife including orange-beaked oystercatchers and cheeky otters.    

Length: 12.4 miles   

Difficulty: Moderate  

Nearest parking: Fort Green Car Park, IP15 5DE 

Access: Moderate - uneven terrain, gravel paths, and roads

Dog-friendly Aldeburgh

Four-legged friends will love their Aldeburgh holiday. With our huge range of dog-friendly properties in the town, along with dog-friendly beaches close by and pubs and restaurants that welcome pups with open arms, Aldeburgh makes a perfect holiday spot for furry family members.  

Aldeburgh Beach is a lovely place to be able to walk your dog during the off-peak times of the year. Dogs are unfortunately not allowed on the main stretch of the beach from 1 May to 30 September, however, for the rest of the year, they are perfectly welcome so you and your pooch can enjoy quality time by the sea at any time of the day. Sizewell Beach is not far from Aldeburgh and allows dogs to roam on its sands all year round. This is perfect for people who come on holiday at peak times and want a good walk with their beloved family pet.  

For a well-deserved pint after exploring Aldeburgh, make sure you call into The White Hart , where dogs are welcomed with open arms and a doggy biscuit. For food and drinks in a warm and friendly atmosphere, take a trip to the Railway Inn , where dogs can join you while you eat and drink.  

Shopping in Aldeburgh

The town is centred around a Georgian high street which has seen very little change over the last century. With a brilliant selection of shops lining the streets, including popular stores such as Fat Face, Joules, Quba, and Crew Clothing, there are also some delightful little boutiques offering arts and crafts as well as those selling excellent local Suffolk produce, including Russell and Newnes, and Salter and King Craft Butchers .  

A favourite in the high street is the wonderful Aldeburgh Bookshop . Filled with a superb selection of all sorts of different genres, it is known as one of the best independent bookshops in the UK.  

Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival  

Rated as one of the best in the UK, the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival brings together Suffolk’s best food and drink producers. From the Family Meadow to the Seafood Stage, there are cooking classes, demonstrations, and chances to sample and buy a myriad of tasty treats.  

Aldeburgh Festival  

If you are visiting in June, head to The Aldeburgh Festival , founded by Britten back in 1948. Hugely popular with both locals and visitors alike, this festival is an exquisite celebration of music, art, film and culture.  

Aldeburgh Carnival  

The award-winning Aldeburgh Carnival is thought to have been running for over 170 years so there’s no doubting its popularity! Held over three days in August, the carnival has a huge range of events to watch or participate in, from 10k races to live music, lollipop hunts to donkey rides on the beach, culminating in the Carnival Procession on Carnival Day. Perfect classic family fun!   

If you fancy visiting this holiday resort, why not do it from one of our coastal cottages? Head out to the beach from one of our family-friendly beach houses and return late in the afternoon for a tasty BBQ. Kids will delight in presenting their precious beach treasures to one another while parents indulge in a sundowner or two as the sausages sizzle on the grill.  

Or cheer up the winter months holed up in a cosy coastal cottage with a significant other and the dog , where days out walking the scenic coast and cosying up in front of a roaring fire are standard. Whatever you are looking for in Aldeburgh, peruse our collection and you’ll find it here. If you are looking for a place to stay for the carnival or food festival, or just want a few quiet days away, we'll have just the place for you.  

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information at the time of writing, please ensure you check carefully before making any decisions based on the contents within this article.

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Aldeburgh is a pretty coastal town on the river Alde and enjoys breathtaking views both seawards and following the river Alde inland towards Orford . Its name comes from ‘Alde Burgh’ meaning “old fort” and the town’s history is closely linked to the changes time and Mother Nature have wrought to the coastal map.

Aldeburgh was once an important Tudor port and its shipbuilders were responsible for Francis Drake’s ‘Golden Hind’. But over time the River Alde silted up taking its toll on the town’s fortunes, and coastal erosion swept away the heart of its old town. Some historic buildings have survived the centuries, such as 400-year old Moot Hall (picture below), the Norman Church and a Martello tower.

To find out all about the strange, circular look out buildings known as Martello Towers which are a feature of the East Anglian coastline, take a look at our article on Martello Towers, and to book a stay in the Landmark Trust’s Martello Tower on the Aldeburgh Coast (pictured below) please click on the link above.

Aldeburgh had to wait until the 19th Century fashion for beaches and craze for sea air brought back visitors in quantity, establishing it as a popular seaside resort.

Today Aldeburgh is famous for many things – good food, great fish & chips, Aldeburgh Music, Maggi Hamblings’ Scallop on the beach, as well as a vibrant art and music scene. There are several Art Galleries in the town including one from Caroline Wiseman based in the iconic South Lookout. Keep an eye on Art Exhibitions for details of current Exhibitions.

The historic Jubilee Hall built in 1887 and nestled on the seafront, is home to the Aldeburgh Literary Festival which takes place every March, as well as many other music, performance, theatre, festivals, talks, fairs and more throughout the year. The Jubilee Hall has played an important part in the cultural history of Aldeburgh and continues to promote and support the arts, click on the link above to find out more and see what’s on.

Check out Special offers from Aldeburgh Hotels

Aldeburgh is also famous as the home of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears. There are many reminders of his life about the town and you can visit St Peter and St Paul’s Church in the town where he is buried.

Every June a classical music festival takes place at nearby Snape Maltings. This festival was founded by Britten along with Eric Crozier and Peter Pears in 1948. It has taken place ever since and is a fitting tribute to the three.

One of the most controversial monuments celebrating the life of Benjamin Britten is ‘The Scallop’, created by local artist Maggi Hambling. This sea shell sculpture sits on Aldeburgh’s beach to the north of the town. There have been petitions to have the shell removed as some see it as a blot on the landscape which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but others feel it is a perfect reminder of Britten and a good tourist attraction!

Far from being a ‘look, don’t touch’ piece of art, visitors are encouraged to sit on the Scallop and watch the sea. Britten himself loved the view so much he took a walk on the beach every afternoon.

For weekend seadogs Aldeburgh has a very active yacht club and teaches sailing to juniors and adults. There are also two popular golf courses, all-weather tennis courts, a boat lake and, of course, excellent swimming.

Aldeburgh’s strong local community shares activities and knowledge with the visitor, providing poetry and arts and craft residential courses. The pretty high street has craft, food and antiques shops, independent boutiques as well as some national chains, plus a myriad of pubs and an independent cinema.

Be sure to put the Aldeburgh Market on your to visit list, situated on the High Street, a few yards from the seafront, this fantastic Deli offers extensive fish counter, fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy items from local suppliers including milk, cheese, yoghurts, freshly baked bread plus many more hand made and locally sourced products, there’s even an award winning fish restaurant providing the freshest meals.

Aldeburgh certainly won’t disappoint those looking for an active break. The River Alde itself offers opportunities for sailing. There are centres nearby that offer horse riding and even llama trekking. Bird watching is another local past time with RSPB Minsmere and Havergate Island both close at hand. Please see RSPB in Suffolk.

Another of Aldeburgh’s claims to fame is one to sample at mealtimes. The town’s fish and chip shop has been owned by the Cooney family since the 1970’s and was described by ‘The Times’ as ‘possibly the finest on the East Coast’. What better way to end an active day than with some local fish and chips?! See Aldeburgh Fish & Chips to find out more.

There are a number of excellent hotel and accommodation options to choose from in Aldeburgh, such as –

The Brudenell Hotel, Aldeburgh which is literally a pebble’s throw from the beach.

The White Lion Hotel, Aldeburgh has 38 cosy and inviting bedrooms some with sea views as far as the eye can see.

A short walk from the town centre and blue flag pebble beach at Aldeburgh is the The Fairway Bed & Breakfast an Adults Only bungalow. Ample off-road parking, a King Size en-suite room which includes a delicious full English Breakfast. Perfect for a peaceful getaway.

Or for self catering options, try Aldeburgh Basecamp Glamping accommodation right beside the sea is a perfect choice for families. The fully equipped units contain everything you need including cutlery, crockery, cooking utensils, quality bedding and fluffy towels, and your pooch is also welcome!

Suffolk Cottage Holidays based in Woodbridge , have an amazing choice of around 200 charming self-catering holiday cottages and houses in beautiful coastal and countryside locations throughout Suffolk including Aldeburgh, Orford, Southwold, Woodbridge, Lavenham and Harwich. Their friendly, knowledgeable staff will help you find your perfect property in no time.

Aldeburgh Self Catering Cottages from Best of Suffolk Self catering in Aldeburgh couldn’t be easier with everything you need on your doorstep, and Best of Suffolk have a wide range of Aldeburgh holiday cottages for you to choose from so check them out here today.

For a list of accommodation and things to do in Aldeburgh, please also see: A Guide to Aldeburgh Hotels Accommodation in Aldeburgh Aldeburgh Attractions Visit Aldeburgh What do you love about Aldeburgh? Please send us a review to [email protected] .

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During the 16th century the coastal town of Aldeburgh was a very important port on the east coast, with a flourishing ship-building industry at nearby Slaughden. The men of Suffolk served with Sir Francis Drake in the Golden Hind and the other sailing ships built here. The area's important maritime industry fell into serious decline once the River Alde silted-up and its lower reaches are now mainly a haven for yachts and pleasure craft.

The town's long straight shingle beach is still used for launching its colourful little fishing boats; albeit in much smaller numbers these days due to over-fishing in the English Channel. If you're up early enough you can watch the catch being landed on the beach. If not, you can still buy freshly caught fish and shellfish from the old black tarred fishermen's huts along the beach front.

Aldeburgh has a mixture of architectural styles. Fine Georgian houses line the main high street, which boasts two of the best family run fish and chip shops in Suffolk, plus a number of excellent shops and eateries. The seafront has many quaint little cottages and several properties that date from the First World War. Along the seafront is an odd looking square built tower, with a spiral iron staircase running around the outside, that was once used used as a look-out.

The half-timbered Moot Hall , is the town's most striking building. It dates from the early 1500s when the town was at its most prosperous. An outside staircase leads to an upper floor containing a small local history museum.

The church of St Peter and Paul stands on a hill overlooking the town. Most of the stone and flint structure is 16th-c, apart from the 14th-c west tower. The very long south porch has three entrances. Inside is the original 14th-century font, a stall, a 17th-c pulpit and several 15th to 19th-c monuments. Its main treasure is a spectacular stained glass window by John Piper, depicting three Britten oratorios.

Benjamin Britten moved to Aldeburgh in 1947, when, along with the help of tenor Peter Pears, he founded the internationally renowned Aldeburgh Festival , in the town's tiny Jubilee Hall. As the festival grew in popularity it was moved up-river to Snape Maltings , where a large purpose-built concert hall was created, within a former barley malting complex.

Content by Steve B

Attractions and Things to do in Aldeburgh

Summer visitors to Aldeburgh can enjoy boat trips on the River Alde and pleasant riverside walks by the wildlife rich reed beds and marshes.

This small 16th-c timber-framed and brick building has been used as a council meeting place for hundreds of years and still houses the Town Clerk's office.

The upper floor houses a small local history museum, with old maps and prints on display.

Opening times: Apr, May, Sept, Oct: daily 2.30-5pm; Jun to Aug: daily 12-5pm - Small Admission Charge Location: Aldeburgh (sea front), Suffolk, IP15 5DS - Tel: 01728 454666 - Website

Snape Maltings

Opening times: daily from 10am Free entry to shops and craft area. Charge for concerts. Location: Snape Maltings, Near Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP17 1SR - Tel: 01728 688 303 - Website Facilities: parking, craft stalls, galleries, shops, restaurants

Martello Tower

The Martello Tower at Slaughden is one of many defensive structures built along Britain's east coast in 1808-12, to defend against a possible invasion by the French.

Restored and run as holiday apartments by the Landmark Trust.

Not open to general public

Map of Aldeburgh

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The best things to do in Aldeburgh, Suffolk

By Condé Nast Traveller and Jon Canter

As I write this, I feel euphoric. I've just emerged from the sea, off the Suffolk coast at Aldeburgh. Yes, it's May, but the North Sea's never as cold as you think it's going to be – or, I admit, as warm. Nevertheless, from April to October you can easily immerse yourself in it for minutes on end, without swearing. You don't have to breaststroke the length of the beach to experience the natural high. This morning I didn't swim anywhere. I simply plunged in, did a couple of hundred bicycle kicks and let the current take me as far as the north lookout tower, where I got out and strolled back down the beach to where I'd left my clothes. Is that swimming or cheating? Who cares? All I know is, it left me with a huge, renewed appetite for life, love, beauty, truth and, above all, scrambled eggs.

Aldeburgh is my favourite place in England for a holiday. I don't say that lightly. So far (at time of original publication), my Aldeburgh holiday has lasted just under 900 weeks. My wife and I came here in 1993 and we haven't gone home yet. We've brought up an entire daughter here, from crying baby to wailing festival-goer. So that's what they mean by the holiday of a lifetime.

If we've loved living here that long, you'll love it for a week or a fortnight. Anything less is too short. Aldeburgh (pronounced 'Awld-bruh', to rhyme with 'Marlborough') is a subtle place whose spell takes time to work. Its very name means 'the old defended place' and it defends itself against the gaudy, the flash and the instant. If there were stalls by the beach selling tourist tat (perish the thought!), the hats would say 'Kiss Me Slowly'.

It's a mere 90-minute drive from London , provided you set off at four on Sunday morning. Otherwise, it takes an age – or, more accurately, an age and a half, since the A12 passes through villages built for travellers on horseback, not travellers in hatchbacks. But it's worth it. Aldeburgh itself is eminently walkable, but for trips elsewhere – you can't come to the Suffolk coast without going crabbing at Walberswick – a car's a necessity. Yes, there are buses, but every time I see one I'm tempted to take a photograph to prove they exist. Along with your car, bring a pair of walking boots and some sea-shoes, as the shingle is torture on bare feet. (Walk to the sea in a dressing gown and sea-shoes and you'll pass for a native.) No need to bring a bike, though: there are plenty of places to hire them.

Stacey Lastoe

Becky Lucas

Liz Humphreys

CNT Editors

Bring your golf clubs too. I'm not a member of the bold trousered fraternity, but my pal Stephen, who's on the committee, assures me that Aldeburgh Golf Club is a well drained, sandy-soiled course that's ideal for visitors, especially the nine-hole course, which requires no handicap certificate or booking – you just turn up. With Aldeburgh Yacht Club you need to plan ahead and take temporary membership. It's a thriving club with a clubhouse that's the best place in town to watch the sun go down, gripping your pint of Adnams like a halyard. (If you don't know what a halyard is, ask a sailor. They're not hard to find.) 'Better a bad day on the water than a good day at the office' reads a typical sailing T-shirt. I suspect, judging from the yacht-club car park, that a lot of members have had very, very good days at the office.

The Regatta in August is a high point in the Aldeburgh calendar. But then most months have high points in the Aldeburgh calendar: there's the Aldeburgh Literary Festival in March, the two-week Aldeburgh Festival in June, the Snape Proms and Aldeburgh Carnival in August, the Children's Film Festival in October and the Documentary Film Festival and Poetry Festival in November . The newly expanded Snape Maltings complex holds concerts all year round. I'd definitely advise you to plan your holiday to coincide with one of these festivals. But it's only fair to warn you that if you come in August, you'll be part of the Aldeburgh Parking Festival.

Aldeburgh's very much a canine paradise. Contact Aldeburgh Lab Hire, who'll rent you a black or golden labrador. No, hold on, I made that up – although it's just the kind of business that middle-aged City folk, having made their pile, retire to Aldeburgh to start up, if they don't opt to teach yoga. This is the edge of England. This is where you come to reinvent yourself (or fall off). There's an entrepreneurial buzz about the place, particularly where food is concerned. For a cutting-edge picnic, go to Slate on the High Street and buy up all you can.

The first thing you must do is visit The Aldeburgh Museum, housed in the Tudor Moot Hall, to see the maps and paintings and stuffed birds and Roman cooking pots ('a smear inside one was found on analysis to be porridge,' reads the label). It will give you a sense of the town's history as a fishing port and fashionable Victorian seaside retreat. But the museum is not a haunt, unlike the nearby terrace of the Wentworth Hotel, one of the best mooching and lunching spots in town (try the crab sandwiches). That's what I want to offer up, in a spirit of local knowledge: haunts. Places to go and go again. Places that will burn themselves – no, warm themselves – into your soul. To that end, let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of Aldeburgh, as bordered to the south by the Martello Tower and the north by Thorpeness.

You're in a corridor between the North Sea and the River Alde, which would flow into the sea here if it weren't for the shingle bank. This is a haunt that truly haunts: once upon a time, this corridor was Slaughden, a port with a hundred fishing boats. Residents used to open their back and front doors to let the sea flow through. The last house, aptly named The Hazard, was washed away by the sea in 1936. You're walking through a watery ghost town.

Take the footpath just past Slaughden Sailing Club and walk down the river wall. Boat trips, which last an hour, will take you from Slaughden Quay downriver to Iken and Snape, but it's the walk that counts. Walk along the river wall as far as it will take you, then through the meadows and the town's allotments. I've seen herons, egrets, oyster-catchers, owls and avocets. Sometimes I've seen none of them but it doesn't matter; just to be part of this landscape is exhilarating. This is one of the great Aldeburgh walks, along with the Sailor's Path to Snape, the beach walk to Thorpeness and its inland parallel, the North Warren walk through the RSPB Nature Reserve, which takes you up the disused railway line. It's one of the few reasons to be grateful to Dr Beeching for carving up the railways in the 1960s.

The beach walk to Thorpeness will take you past Maggi Hambling's stainless-steel Scallop, a memorial to Benjamin Britten, who lived in Aldeburgh for the last 30 years of his life and founded the Aldeburgh Festival. If the Martello Tower was built to repel invading hordes, the Scallop was built to attract them, at which it's been a great success. Love it or hate it, you'll keep coming back to it.

It's now to Aldeburgh what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris : unmissable. Thorpeness itself is a whimsical village, a kind of Edwardian film set. You'll be tempted to wander round the backs of the houses, to see if they have backs at all. The Meare – a boating lake no more than three feet deep, complete with islands inspired by Peter Pan – is a must. Bring a child or get in touch with your inner one. Then have lunch at The Dolphin Inn before exploring the antiques emporium which, like Aldeburgh's Snape Antiques & Collectors Centre, seems to have an infinite number of rooms.

But don't stay indoors too long. That's not what Aldeburgh is about. This is an activity holiday, punctuated by wonderful food and drink. The tennis courts, near the allotments, have been beautifully rebuilt and are a snip at £2.50 per hour. With luck you might encounter local legend Christine Janes, formerly Christine Truman, the Wimbledon finalist (this isn't the kind of place where you'd find a Premiership footballer and his bling-encrusted WAG). I was thrilled when I first glimpsed Christine in the High Street, having only ever seen her, as a boy in the late 1950s, on my parents' television. It was the first time I'd seen her in colour.

Haunt the tennis courts, then Aldeburgh Fish & Chip Shop at the southern end of the High Street. On a Friday or Saturday evening, the chip-shop queue is the only place to be. That's right, I'm actually recommending a queue. First of all, after a day's walking, cycling, swimming, sailing, golfing or playing tennis, it's wonderful to be virtually stationary. (In summer, half an hour is not an unusual wait.) Secondly, all of Aldeburgh society meets here. Dress code: deck shoes, pink or blue shorts, Crew T-shirt. Thirdly, it's well worth the wait, not just for the food but for the service. Brenda Wells is an Aldeburgh goddess, an unfailingly benign and smiling presence as you change your mind from three large cod and two small chips to three medium cod and two large chips, then back again. Don't underestimate her batter-wouldn't-melt-in-the mouth attitude. Calm under pressure is a Suffolk characteristic. It's one of the stress-reducing reasons to take your holiday here.

Eat your fish and chips alfresco, on the sea wall or on the beach. Eating is a primary beach activity, along with hammering a windbreak into place and then settling down behind it for hours on end with a good book – or a good bad book, which is often more enjoyable. The Aldeburgh Bookshop, at the far end of the High Street, is a terrific haunt. What the owner Johnny James doesn't know about books his wife Mary does, much to Johnny's irritation. It has superb stock, a wonderful atmosphere and armchairs. No wonder it has been awarded Independent Bookshop of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Now you're in the High Street, go over the road and check out what's on at Aldeburgh Cinema. It's extraordinary that a town of a few thousand can support an independent arthouse cinema , complete with an art gallery upstairs. Evening showings start at about 7.45pm, which means there's plenty of time afterwards to sample Aldeburgh's watering-holes. The Mill is pleasing and unpretentious, The White Hart, locally known as the Potty Bar, is wonderfully snug. I'll have you know that the Aunt of Florence of Florence and the Machine lives here. It's somehow very Aldeburgh that we should have the Aunt.) But the place with the holiday spirit is The Cross Keys Inn, not so much for its cave-like interior as for the tables and chairs outside, which give out onto Crag Path. On a Saturday night everyone gathers here, because the Adnams beer is glorious and the flirting opportunities unbeatable.

Crag Path, which runs along the beach, is a promenading haunt: sociable and always entertaining. It's everything you want from a seaside promenade: a row of mismatched Victorian and Edwardian houses, as quirky as they're beguiling. Check out Fantasia, a pink and white house with an emerald-green roof, which stands alone, is one room deep and has a wonderful doll's-house air; and the grand, double-fronted Strafford House, with its flagpole and the legend '1770 1864 1900'. Presumably the builders went off to do other jobs in between.

Aldeburgh's three hotels – The Wentworth, The White Lion and The Brudenell – are all on (or off) Crag Path. The Brudenell would be my pick, not just because it is closest to the beach, giving you more sea from its sea-view rooms, but because its inland-facing rooms look out over the marshes, so you can't lose. Of course, there are other ways to stay in Aldeburgh. Self-catering in a house on Crag Path is an excellent idea; Best Of Suffolk has houses for rent. Laurel House is a terrific B&B, run by people who know and love the town.

The restaurant at The Brudenell Hotel is the one to which I'd constantly return. First of all, it's the only one with a proper sea view. Nowhere else can you eat a fish while looking straight into its home. The head chef, Justin Kett, leaves no fish unturned in his search for distinctive flavours. The seared scallops with celeriac purée are – well, they're searing, aren't they?

But you mustn't leave Aldeburgh without sampling The Regatta. Rob Mabey, the owner, is a passionate and burly man, one of the few restaurateurs I'd back in a wrestling match with Gordon Ramsay. His halibut is God's chewing gum. I'm also partial to the mezze and the oysters at The Lighthouse, and have been eating their Wicked Bread & Butter Pudding since Tony Blair came to power. The damn thing just won't quit the menu, for good reason. For coffee , I'd plump for Munchies or The Aldeburgh Market, a café with a fish counter and greengrocer attached. It sounds like the worst of both worlds, but turns out to be charming. A coffee in The Market can easily morph into a very good-value lunch.

On the day you leave, I recommend two places for souvenirs: O&C Butcher, on the High Street, is a ladies' and gentlemen's outfitters from the golden days when the latter held the door open for the former. A pair of mustard-coloured leisure trousers for sir? Lingerie for madam? These souvenirs will last you longer than the ones from Dean Fryer. Dean, a Rick Stein Food Hero, is one of the fishermen who offer a fresh daily catch from the half-dozen surviving fish huts that line Crag Path. Buy yourself a cold bag and fill it with one of his special offers – 5lb of cod fillet, say – then take it home and freeze it in portions. Every time you revisit it, you'll be in touch with the true spirit of Aldeburgh. But I would say that. We bought the house in which the great man grew up.

This article was originally published in May 2010 and has been updated and fact-checked in February 2021

WHERE TO STAY IN ALDEBURGH

The brudenell hotel.

The Parade (+44 1728 452071; brudenellhotel.co.uk )

The Cross Keys

Crabbe Street (+44 1728 452637; adnams.co.uk )

Martello Tower

The Landmark Trust (+44 1628 825925; landmarktrust.org.uk )

The Wentworth Hotel

Wentworth Road (+44 1728 452312; wentworth-aldeburgh.com )

The White Lion Hotel

Market Cross Place (+44 1728 452720; whitelion.co.uk )

Best of Suffolk

(+44 1728 638962; bestofsuffolk.co.uk )

WHERE TO STAY IN THORPENESS

The dolphin inn.

Peace Place (+44 1728 454994; thorpenessdolphin.com )

WHERE TO EAT & DRINK

Aldeburgh fish & chip shop.

226 High Street (+44 1728 452250)

The Lighthouse

77 High Street (+44 1728 453377) l The Mill Inn, Market Cross Place (+44 1728 452563; lighthouserestaurant.co.uk )

163 High Street (+44 1728 454566; munchiesreadymeals.co.uk )

171 High Street (+44 1728 452011; www.regattaaldeburgh.com )

138 High Street (+44 20 3603 4736); slatecheese.co.uk

The White Hart

222 High Street (+44 1728 453205)

WHERE TO SHOP

The aldeburgh bookshop.

42 High St (+44 1728 452389; www.aldeburghbookshop.co.uk )

The Aldeburgh Market

170-172 High Street (+44 1728 452520); thealdeburghmarket.co.uk

O&C Butcher

129-131 High Street, Aldeburgh (+44 1728 452229; www.ocbutcher.co.uk )

Snape Antiques & Collectors Centre

Snape Maltings (+44 1728 688038); snapemaltings.co.uk/shops/antiques

Thorpeness Emporium

Aldeburgh Road, Thorpeness (+44 1728 454639; thorpenessemporium.co.uk )

Aldeburgh Cinema

51 High St (+44 1728 452996; aldeburghcinema.co.uk )

Aldeburgh Festival

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape (+44 1728 687110; aldeburgh.co.uk )

Aldeburgh Golf Club

Saxmundham Road (+44 1728 452890; aldeburghgolfclub.co.uk )

The Aldeburgh Museum

Moot Hall, Market Cross Place (+44 1728 454666; aldeburghmuseum.org.uk )

Aldeburgh Tourist Information Centre

152 High Street (+44 1728 453637); thesuffolkcoast.co.uk

Aldeburgh Yacht Club

Slaughden Road (+44 1728 452562; aldeburghyc.org.uk )

DAY TRIPS FROM ALDEBURGH

A handsome and secluded village at the mouth of the River Ore. Visit the medieval castle, feast on oysters at the justly famed Butley Orford Oysterage, do a circular walk of the town then take a ferry to the nature reserve on Orford Ness, a spit of land once used as a weapons-testing site, now owned by the National Trust.

Address: Butley Orford Oysterage, Market Hill, Orford; Orford Ness ferry, Orford Quay Telephone: +44 1394 450277; +44 1728 648024 Website: nationaltrust.org.uk

The ship-burial site of East Anglia's Anglo-Saxon kings. The shipburial site itself is, let's face it, a big mound of earth. But it's the life-sized recreation of the burial chamber and its contents that thrills, as well as the enchanting 200-acre estate in which it sits.

Address: Sutton Hoo, Tranmer House, Woodbridge IP12 3DJ Telephone: +44 1394 389700 Website: nationaltrust.org.uk

STAVERTON PARK AND LAKES

A good alternative to the wide-open sea: The Thicks in medieval Staverton Park is an ancient woodland containing some of England's oldest oaks and tallest holly trees. A wonderful place to get lost for hours: dense, spooky and beautiful. Afterwards, reward yourself with a drink at the nearby Oyster Inn.

Address: The Oyster Inn, Butley, Woodbridge Telephone: +44 1394 450790

Bigger than Aldeburgh, Southwold is perched on a hill with the sea below the cliffs, so it's dramatic in a different way. The recently refurbished pier is a joy to visit, with eccentric homemade slot machines designed by Tim Hunkin, Suffolk's very own Heath Robinson. Eat at The Crown or The Swan, browse the clothes shops and delis, then walk to South Green, the grandest and most imposing place in Suffolk, and on to the tarred sheds of Black Shore at the mouth of the River Blyth.

Address: The Crown Hotel, 90 High Street, Southwold; The Swan Hotel, Market Place, Southwold Telephone: +44 1502 722275; +44 1502 722186 Website: thecrownsouthwold.co.uk ; theswansouthwold.co.uk

Published in the May 2010 issue of Condé Nast Traveller magazine. Updated and fact-checked in February 2021.

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• 1 Understand
• 2.3 By train
• 2.4 By plane
• 3 Get around

Aldeburgh (pronounced /ˈɔ:lbrə/ (ALL-bre)) is a coastal town in east Suffolk , England . It has a long pebble beach, fresh seafood, several curious landmarks and an interesting history of survival against being swept away by the North Sea.

Understand [ edit ]

The town is best known for being the home of composer Benjamin Britten, who was founder of the annual Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. A lot of properties in the town are second homes. Many visit for the Blue Flag shingle beach.

• Visit Aldeburgh website

Get in [ edit ]

By car [ edit ].

Aldeburgh is approximately 30 miles (48 km) NE of Ipswich , 30 miles S of Lowestoft , 32 miles SE of Diss and 45 miles E of Bury St Edmunds . The town is connected to the London (Blackwall Tunnel) to Lowestoft A12 main road via the A1094 (8 miles).

By bus [ edit ]

• Bus 64 and 65 operated by First Norfolk & Suffolk [dead link] each run half hourly services from Ipswich .
• Bus service 251 operated by BorderBus runs between the town and Leiston , Saxmundham , Halesworth

By train [ edit ]

The nearest railway station is 52.2147 1.490692 1 Saxmundham , a 15-minute drive west of Aldeburgh. It sits on the line between Ipswich and Lowestoft , operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.

By plane [ edit ]

Aldeburgh is far too small to have its own airport. Even Ipswich , the nearest large town, does not have a commercial airport. The nearest airports with regular scheduled flights are Norwich International Airport ( NWI  IATA ) 45 miles to the north. And London Stansted ( STN  IATA ) airport, a hub for several European low-cost airlines, 75 miles to the west.

Get around [ edit ]

With a distance of 2.5 km between the Scallop and the Martello Tower, Aldeburgh is small enough to walk around.

See [ edit ]

• 52.182 1.61 1 House in the Clouds is a fantastical 1910 creation. The neighbourhood was being made over into an "olde worlde" holiday village, but it needed modern amenities like running water, and a couple of ugly towers and tanks to boost the water pressure. One became a standard stone tower, but the other was disguised as a house perched atop an apartment block. The water tank was removed in 1979 and the entire tower has been converted into accommodation, sleeps 10+1. Lots of stairs, no lift.
• 52.154274 1.603573 3 The beach , IP15 5BD ( OS Grid ref TM 4660 5679 ). Stretching north past Thorpeness and south into Orford Ness, it is almost exclusively shingle (pebbles), except for small tracts of rough sand between breakwaters. ( updated May 2017 )
• 52.164403 1.587954 4 The Red House , Golf Lane, Aldeburgh IP15 5PZ ( About 3/4 mile/1.2 km inland ). Home of composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears from 1957. Musical events, art exhibitions. Guided tours available. Opening hours vary - see website. ( updated Mar 2017 )

• 52.160224 1.606102 5 The Scallop , Thorpe Rd, IP16 4NR . A 2003 stainless-steel sculpture by Maggi Hambling commemorating Benjamin Britten, who lived in Aldeburgh from 1947 until his death in 1976. The 4-m-tall piece is made of two interlocking broken scallop shells. The main upright shell as cutouts reading "I hear those voices that will not be drowned", taken from Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes . It is meant to be enjoyed both visually and tactilely, and people are encouraged to sit on it and watch the sea. ( updated May 2017 )

• 52.1375 1.5978 9 Martello Tower , Slaughden Rd IP15 5NA . The unique Martello Tower (knows as tower CC) is 4 towers joined together and the largest and northernmost of 103 defensive towers built between 1808 and 1812 to resist a Napoleonic invasion. Suffolk at one time had 18 towers. Many have been destroyed (e.g. pulled down for their masonry) whilst others converted into homes or put to other uses. This tower is now used as holiday apartments. The Martello Tower is the only surviving building of the fishing village of Slaughden, which had been washed away by the North Sea by 1936.  

Do [ edit ]

• Walk through and around the marshes along River Alde near the marina and Martello tower.
• See the site and read the plaques describing the history of the nearby fishing village of Slaughden, which was washed away by the North Sea by 1936. Near the Martello Tower at Slaughden Quay are the barely visible remains of the fishing smack Ionia. It had become stuck in the treacherous mud of the River Alde, and was then used as a houseboat. In 1974 it was burnt, as it had become too unsafe.
• 52.154385 1.602781 1 Model Boating Pool , Crabbe St . free . ( updated May 2017 )
• Aldeburgh Carnival is next held 13-15 Aug 2022.
• 52.154096 1.601788 3 Aldeburgh Cinema , 51 High St , ☏ +44 1728 454884 , [email protected] . Full programme of films, live screenings and special events. ( updated Mar 2017 )
• 52.1538 1.6024 4 Jubilee Hall , Crabbe St , ☏ +44 7980 748547 , [email protected] . Music, theatre, dance, comedy, lectures, conferences, educational events. ( updated Mar 2017 )

Buy [ edit ]

Buy fresh locally-caught seafood from the fishing huts along the beach near the Moot Hall.

• 52.1569 1.5926 1 Tesco Express ( Convenience Store ), Saxmundham Rd , ☏ +44 345 610 6365 . M-Sa 8AM-10PM, Su 9AM-7PM . ATMs ( updated May 2017 )
• 52.157 1.5919 2 Co-op ( Supermarket ), 8 Saxmundham Rd , ☏ +44 1728 451458 . M-Sa 7AM-9PM, Su 10AM-4PM . ATMs. ( updated May 2017 )

Eat [ edit ]

• 52.14944 1.60081 1 The Fish and Chip Shop , 226 High St , ☏ +44 1728 452250 . Tu W 11:45AM-2PM, Th 11:45AM-2PM & 5-8PM, F 11:45AM-2PM & 5-9PM, Sa 11:45AM-2PM & 5-8PM, Su noon-2PM . Described in The Times as "possibly the finest on the east coast". ( updated May 2017 )
• 52.1517 1.6013 2 Prezzo ( Italian Restaurant & Take-away ), 146 High St , ☏ +44 1728 454452 . Daily noon-11:30PM . ( updated May 2017 )
• 52.15329 1.60157 3 The Lighthouse ( Restaurant & Café ), 77 High St , ☏ +44 1728 453377 . M-F noon-2PM & 6:30-10PM, Sa noon-2:30PM & 6:30-10PM (from 6PM in Aug), Su noon-2:30PM & 6:30-10PM . ( updated May 2017 )

Drink [ edit ]

• 52.15253 1.60145 1 Cragg Ststers Tearoom , 110 High St, Aldeburgh IP15 5AB , ☏ +44 7813 552181 (mobile) . ( updated May 2017 )
• 52.15272 1.60199 2 Ye Olde Cross Keys ( Pub & Food ), Crabbe St , ☏ +44 1728 452637 . M-Sa 11AM-midnight, Su noon-midnight . ( updated May 2017 )

Sleep [ edit ]

• 52.1375 1.5978 1 Martello Tower , Slaughden Rd IP15 5NA . Holiday home run by the Landmark Trust, sleeping 4. £500 - 2000 .  
• 52.1554 1.6028 2 The White Lion Hotel , Market Cross Pl, Aldeburgh IP15 5BJ , ☏ +44 1728 452720 . Check-in: 2:30PM , check-out: 11AM . Seafront townhouse with stylish, modern rooms, a casual bar and brasserie, plus free hot breakfast. £145 . ( updated May 2016 )
• 52.1791 1.6149 3 Coxswains Cottage , Thorpeness ( Leiston (2 miles) & Aldeburgh (2 miles) ). A 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom self-catering holiday cottage. £299-799 per week . ( updated May 2017 )
• 52.156 1.603 4 The Wentworth , Wentworth Rd, Aldeburgh IP15 5BD , ☏ +44 1728 452312 . Comfy traditional hotel on beach, relaxing atmosphere. B&B double £120 . ( updated Jul 2020 )

Connect [ edit ]

As of Mar 2023, Aldeburgh has patchy 4G from EE and Vodafone, excellent signal from O2. 5G has not reached this area.

Go next [ edit ]

• Visit Ipswich , or take a ferry to Orford Ness for marshland hikes and recent military history.
• In June, attend the Aldeburgh Festival at Snape Maltings.

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A weekend guide to Aldeburgh

By: Author Monica

Categories UK

Aldeburgh. This may be a new destination to many of you as this beautiful town on Suffolk’s long and picturesque coastline is somewhat of a hidden gem. But if you’re looking for a weekend break with long pebble beach, delicious seafood, intriguing landmarks, and a distinctive time-warped charm then Aldeburgh may be the place for you!

Aldeburgh and its surrounding attractions are perfect for both families and couples hoping for a mixture of adventure, relaxation, and indulgence from their weekend escape. Whether you find this in the pretty coastal scenery and surrounding landscapes, the hypnotic sounds of the sea, or the fantastic range of boutique shops that line the Aldeburgh streets; you’re sure to be charmed by this gem on the Suffolk coast.

How to get to Aldeburgh

Whenever possible, I’d recommend driving to Aldeburgh. If you have your own car you’ll have more flexibility to explore once you arrive.

If you don’t have a car available then it’s really easy to get to Aldeburgh by train. You’ll get the train to Saxmundham and then take another train from there. Check out Greater Anglia for more details about the local trains. Book your ticket to Saxmunham as far in advance as possible for the best fares.

Where to stay

You can’t go wrong with a holiday cottage for your weekend in Aldeburgh. You’ll have the space for everyone to spread out and relax and the option to cook for yourself if you’d like. Check out Suffolk Secrets for some gorgeous options, whether you’re looking for something cosy and quaint or spacious and modern. I’ve got my eye on this one called Shoreline which is right on the beach and has a lovely area to eat dinner or enjoy a glass of wine while looking out to sea!

Top 10 things to do in Aldeburgh

Pay a visit to the Red House

One of the most famous aspects of Aldeburgh’s history is the iconic Suffolk composer, Benjamin Britten. The Red House was once the home and studio of Britten and today it is open to the public, showcasing where musical magic came to life. A gallery, library, and pretty gardens can also be explored during a visit to the house.

Celebrate the life of Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival

A festival celebrating music and arts, primarily classical, and founded by Benjamin Britten in 1948. The Aldeburgh Festival is the most popular event in the town’s annual calendar. It’s hosted in June and feels like a celebration of Britten’s achievements, and there’s no better way to experience this than by catching a performance of one of Britten’s works.

Walk the Sailor’s Path

Offering the perfect morning walk on a countryside trail between Aldeburgh and Snape, the Sailor’s Path is a hotspot for birdlife. Of the various species on display, the headline acts are the oystercatchers with their distinctive orange beaks.

Catch a concert at Snape Maltings

If you won’t be in Aldeburgh for the festival then make sure you check out the concert hall stages at Snape Maltings as there’s lots going on throughout the year. Several musical triumphs are showcased, from opera to contemporary performances. Check out the listings before you set off for your weekend away.

Check out Martello Tower

Located at the southern end of Aldeburgh’s beach, Martello Tower was built in the early 1800s as part of a defensive expanse against an invasion by Napoleon. The tower is an interesting landmark to visit, and looks rather imposing sat along the beachfront.

Relax on the beach

This goes without saying, especially in the summer when the temperatures rise and the beachfront is bustling. Grab yourself a deck chair, an ice cream and a good book and enjoy a good old fashioned beach holiday. Whether you want to admire the historic buildings on the beachfront or just lay back and relax to the sounds of the waves; Aldeburgh’s beach is an undeniable draw during a weekend visit.

Decide if you love or loath The Scallop

Dividing locals and tourists alike since its unveiling in 2003; this stainless-steel sculpture is dedicated to Benjamin Britten and set on the beach that he loved to walk along. Some find the sculpture to be a bit of an eyesore, though others find it quite visually striking, yet pleasing. See what you think! – If you don’t like it, there’s a perfectly good sea to admire just behind it.

Shop till you drop at Aldeburgh’s independent shops

Aldeburgh has a surprisingly good shopping scene for such a small town. In addition to a number of high street favourites such as Crew Clothing and Fat Face, there are also a several great independent shops on the streets of Aldeburgh too. You’ll find clothing, crafts, and plenty of local produce to take back home with you.

Visit Thorpeness

Thorpeness is a great place to spend the afternoon. It’s a pretty village located two miles to the north of Aldeburgh, and best reached via a scenic country path walk. As well as boasting another appealing stretch of beach, the village is home to a family-friendly boating lake called The Meare. Here you can hire out a boat and go exploring on the water, darting between little islands and keeping an eye out for birdlife.

Head out on the Eastbridge Pub and Dog Walk

You don’t have to have a dog and be a lover of pubs to enjoy this walk (though it may help), with many embarking on this famous local trail with the aim of absorbing some of Suffolk’s most beautiful countryside. Kicking off at the Eels Foot pub in the hamlet of Eastbridge, the walk features numerous landscapes, including meadows, forest, and beach.

Off the beaten track

Aldeburgh and its surroundings, shrouded in an artistic and culturally-rich vibe, are home to many secrets and surprises throughout the year. From the quirky and charismatic to the historic and cultural, whether you’ve come as a couple, a family, or a group of friends, it’s easy to delve into the layers of Aldeburgh’s identity.

For a touch of charm and history all in one, catch a film at the Aldeburgh Cinema . The cinema in itself has a rich history, having screened films since 1919 and previously been co-run by Benjamin Britten himself. Much of the cinema’s original design has been retained, such as the beautiful art deco lights in the auditorium.

More family fun can be found in the form of the Aldeburgh Treasure Trail , presenting a unique way for the entire family to discover the local area, and maybe a pot of gold or two if you’re lucky (figuratively speaking unfortunately). This ‘treasure hunt’ is full of clues and information that will lead you around the town and introduce you to some of its primary attractions or hidden secrets, creating a fun and interactive way for the little ones to enjoy exploring a new place!

Where to eat and drink

Seafood predictably takes centre stage when it comes to the culinary scene in and around Aldeburgh, with fresh seafood available in abundance. But it isn’t all cod this and sea bass that, in fact, you may be surprised at the diversity and the quality of Aldeburgh’s flavoursome offerings.

For the sake of tradition, you can’t turn down the classic. Fish and chips is taken seriously in these parts, and for many, those served up at the Aldeburgh Fish and Chips Shop are among the best in the UK. Providing the perfect lunchtime snack or warming beachside supper since 1967, you can decide for yourself if these are the best fish and chips that have passed your lips.

Located in Snape Maltings, you can enjoy some fine food alongside your arts and culture by paying a visit to Café 1885 . Overlooking the House & Garden, the café offers some great local produce across its all-day brunch and lunch menu, which changes every month to coincide with the local Farmers’ Market.

If it’s a traditional pub lunch or dinner you’re after, you can’t look beyond The White Hart . Here you can enjoy a range of British pub meals, but The White Hart is perhaps most famous during the summer when it opens a wood-fired pizza oven in its beer garden – perfectly wash downed with a pint of local Adnam’s ale.

Speaking of Adnam’s ale, the iconic Suffolk brewer is best enjoyed at The Mill Inn, one of the brewery’s pubs, which is also another great place to head for a pub meal. The drinks continue to flow at DP’s Bar with its art deco décor and regular live music. The bar’s wide selection of beers, wines and spirits go hand in hand with some of the best Thai food in Suffolk. For a warming drink when the sea air is a little chilly, most locals head to Cragg Sister’s Tearoom . Here you can get your mitts around a seemingly endless array of teas, and if you’re feeling extra cheeky, you can treat yourself to a filling cream tea – a UK break wouldn’t be the same without one!

Monday 19th of July 2021

Thanks for this great guide to Aldeburgh. I went there many moons ago and your guide has inspired me to return, especially to walk the Sailor's Path and try to spot some wildlife.

Saturday 3rd of April 2021

Great overview - and thanks....

Cathy (Mummytravels)

Wednesday 2nd of May 2018

Off to stay in Aldeburgh shortly and just stumbled across this post - I am taking notes!

Nicole at Bon Voyage Bombshells

Thursday 18th of May 2017

Amazing article! This place looks amazing. I'm one of those who never heard of Aldeburgh. Thank you for the guide and for the recommendation. I would love to pay a visit sometimes.

Discover Aldeburgh's maritime past and cultural links

Aldeburgh, suffolk.

A favourite holiday destination since Victorian times, Aldeburgh on Suffolk’s Heritage Coast is also a magnet for musicians, artists and writers.

Take a stroll along the Sailor’s Path, a six mile gentle trail that makes its way through the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Once travelled by honest sailors, it also attracted the odd smuggler who would lurk along the path, ready to assail anyone who discovered them.

From there, head to Snape – the landscape which charmed and inspired one of Britain’s greatest composers, Benjamin Britten. Pass by the iconic stainless steel scallop on Aldeburgh beach created by controversial figure, Maggi Hambling CBE, and spot the imposing figure above the Martello Tower by Sir Anthony Gormely to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Landmark Trust, all before heading for a well-deserved spot of comfort at The Brudenell or The White Lion Hotels.

Content provided by Visit Suffolk

• Find out more about Sailor's Path and plan your visit
• Find more coastal breaks in Suffolk

For more local tourist information:

• Aldeburgh Tourist Information Centre
• Email Address [email protected]
• Contact Details 01728 453637

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Home » Travel Guides » United Kingdom » England » 15 Best Things to Do in Aldeburgh (Suffolk, England)

15 Best Things to Do in Aldeburgh (Suffolk, England)

By the North Sea, the town of Aldeburgh is on the Suffolk coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and will forever be tied to Benjamin Britten.

The composer, most famous for the opera Peter Grimes, moved here in the late-1940s and quickly thought up the Aldeburgh Festival, an enduring opera and classical music event every June.

Aldeburgh Beach is a wide strip of shingle, tracked by twee fishermen’s huts where you can still buy fresh fish.

Aldeburgh’s hinterland is all wide open skies, reedbeds and marshes on the Alde River.

The tidal estuary abounds with birdlife, from the thousands of wintering wildfowl to waders like redshanks and lapwings in spring.

It is in this environment that Britten founded the Snape Maltings arts complex, home of the Aldeburgh Festival.

1. Aldeburgh Beach

If you’re put off by some of the tackier aspects of the English seaside, Aldeburgh’s quiet working shoreline is from a simpler time and looks a bit like a Constable painting.

This beach is shingle, mixed with some sand, and changes dramatically according to the tide.

Behind is the Crag, a seafront path is lined by rows of elegant properties, and as you idle along you’ll see the many fishing boats sitting on the shingle, hauled in at high tide.

These vessels serve establishments like Ash Smoked Fishes, a wooden smokehouse on the beach preparing delectable smoked salmon, trout, kippers, juicy prawns, as well as a range of fish/seafood rolls and pies.

2. Aldeburgh Festival

Across two weeks in June, the Aldeburgh Festival was founded in 1948 by Benjamin Britten.

In its first years the festival took place at venues around Aldeburgh before moving to the converted Snape Maltings in 1967. This arts centre has a capacious main hall, allowing for large scale opera productions.

Each year there are performances by a host of high-profile artists and ensembles, as well as a series of masterclasses by important figures from the world of opera or classical music (tenor Mark Padmore and conductor Antonio Pappano in 2019). The festival has three artists in residence who curate a different part of the festival.

As a hint of what to expect, the 2019 edition was curated by Austrian composer Thomas Larcher, tenor Mark Padmore and Canadian soprano/conductor Barbara Hannigan.

Larcher’s opera, The Hunting Gun received its UK premiere at the 2019 festival.

3. Snape Maltings

Most of the Aldeburgh Festival’s programme happens at this Victorian malthouse converted by Britten and his partner the tenor Peter Pears into an 832-seat performance venue in the 1960s.

Previously barley would be turned into malt at this humongous complex for the brewing process to be shipped off to London or Europe.

Along with the Snape Maltings Concert Hall in that main hall, there’s an array of smaller structures like the Hoffmann Building housing studios and rehearsal space and the Britten-Pears Building a former barley store now containing the Holst Library, a recital room and more rehearsal space.

Even outside the Aldeburgh Festival there’s a feast of opera and classical music at Snape Maltings.

You can also see what’s on at the three galleries, and peruse an array of shops like the upmarket Food Hall, stocking artisan goodies and local seasonal produce.

4. The Red House

In 1957 when Britten’s career was in full flight, he moved with Peter Pears from the waterfront to this beautiful 17th-century house.

The couple would spend the rest of their lives at this property, which had belonged to the artist Mary Potter (she moved into Britten’s old house). Calling on contemporary documents and the recollections of people who visited, the Red House looks as it did when Britten was living here.

Most memorable are the composition studio where Britten wrote War Requiem, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Noye’s Fludde, and the library (often used for recitals). A gallery was built in the 90s over Britten’s open-air swimming pool, with exhibitions acquainting you with Britten’s life and music.

A Peter Grimes hut celebrates Britten’s most famous work, while there’s a fun Noye’s Fludde dress up area for youngsters.

The Red House puts on regular talks, recitals and special exhibitions, as well as workshops for youngsters.

5. The Long Shop Museum

In the mid-19th century the agricultural machinery, trolleybus and steam engine manufacturer Richard Garrett & Sons built Leiston Works, an enormous factory in the namesake village close to Aldeburgh.

Infused with the sights, scents and sounds of the Industrial Revolution the Long Shop itself has a large central space below fitters’ galleries on the upper floor.

Here and at the works’ outbuildings you can inspect historic steam traction engines and rollers, as well as a water tower with a well 148 metres deep (the deepest in Suffolk). Kids can dress up like Victorian workers and try making moulds with the works’ pattern boxes.

There are lots of interesting stories to uncover, like the life of Elizabeth Garrett (1836-1917), the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain and later the first woman in the country to become a mayor (of Aldeburgh). Come on one of the regular “Steam Ups” to see the rollers and tractors brought back to life.

6. Aldeburgh Museum

The Moot Hall on Market Cross Place in Aldeburgh is a captivating Tudor half-timbered building, used as a meeting hall for more than four centuries.

The building went up in 1520 and was then remodelled in the 1650s.

The Baroque sundial on the facade is from that time, bearing the date 1654. The Moot Hall would be something to keep in mind even if it didn’t house the town’s local museum.

When we wrote this article in 2019 the museum was temporarily closed for renovations, due to reopen later in the year.

In the inventory are Roman and Anglo-Saxon artefacts, tools from the local fishing and shipbuilding trades.

You can dip into the history of the lost village of Slaughden, and the women executed for witchcraft in Aldeburgh and other Suffolk towns in the 17th century.

7. Aldeburgh Cinema

Now more than 100 years old, Aldeburgh Cinema was built as an extension to a Victorian High Street shop, and so has a quaint Mock Tudor facade.

This is one of the oldest continuously operating cinemas in the UK, rescued by the community in the 1960s when it was threatened with closure, and going strong ever since.

You can catch independent films and well-reviewed new releases, as well as plenty of classics.

At the time of writing in 2019 there was a Billy Wilder season for instance.

Aldeburgh Cinema also screens performances from cultural institutions like the MET Opera and National Theatre.

In November the cinema stages the Aldeburgh Documentary festival, which has been attended by the likes of Sir David Attenborough, Asif Kapadia and Louis Theroux.

8. Thorpeness Meare

In the early 20th century, the barrister and railway magnate Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie turned a simple fishing hamlet north of Aldeburgh into his own private holiday village.

This quickly grew into a resort, with homes built in Mock Tudor and Jacobean styles around a country club golf course and tennis courts.

Thorpeness Meare is a boating lake here created from the remnants of an Elizabethan shipping haven that had silted up.

Covering 60 acres, the lake was dug by hand and is never more than a metre deep as Ogilvie wanted it to be used by children.

The Ogilvies were friends with J. M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan, and around the islands, creeks and coves you’ll happen upon names like Wendy’s Home, Pirate’s Layer and Captain’s House, while there’s a crocodile lurking by the water.

Dinghies, punts, rowboats, canoes and kayaks are all for hire at the lake.

9. Martello Tower

By the River Alde, on the isthmus leading down to the Orford Ness shingle spit there’s a sturdy Napoleonic era defensive tower.

This is the northernmost of more than 100 Martello Towers on England’s coastline, put up between 1808 and 1812 to prepare for an invasion.

This structure is unusual among Martello Towers for its quatrefoil plan, and is the last building standing in the village of Slaughden, which has been completely lost to the sea.

In 1971 the Landmark Trust took over, reinforced the tower and eventually turned it into holiday accommodation.

10. Scallop

A talking point on Aldeburgh Beach, a few steps north of the town centre, Scallop is a sculpture dedicated to Benjamin Britten by Maggi Hambling.

Scallop has been here since 2003 and has aroused a lot of controversy, particularly in its first few years when it would be vandalised.

The work is two connecting scallop shells, both fragmented, and can be climbed or used as a seat (try coming here early to watch the sunrise). An interesting detail about Scallop is how it changes according to where you stand.

From the south, looking away from Aldeburgh it takes the form of a seabird, while looking back to the town, you can discern the outline of two men in a boat.

This is a nod to Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, and on the curve of the upright shell you can read, “I hear those voices that will not be drowned”, a line from the same work.

11. Leiston Abbey

The ruins of a mostly 14th-century abbey for Premonstratensian canons are in peaceful countryside north of Leiston.

The abbey was founded at the end of the 12th century and had to be rebuilt following a fire in 1379 before being dissolved in 1537. After the house was suppressed the land was turned into a farm, and a farmhouse was built in the nook of the nave and north transept.

The rest of the site was allowed to fall into decay, but even after 500 years there’s a lot to discover.

After passing through a 16th-century gatehouse you’ll find the cloister, with remnants of a lavatory on the south range.

The refectory is in good condition, as is the undercroft below, which has a preserved pointed window.

You can also see what’s left of the sacristy, chapter house and warming house in the cloister’s east range.

But maybe most impressive is the church, where the north transept arch and crossing tower survive to an unusual height.

12. RSPB North Warren

Pretty much all of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB is a paradise for birdlife, and there’s a reserve maintain by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds moments from Aldeburgh.

North Warren is heathland, grazing marsh, woods and reed-beds.

In winter this is among the only regular wintering site for tundra geese in the country.

A multitude of other geese, swans and ducks can be observed at North Warren in this season, but there’s something to see in all other seasons.

Take spring, when redshanks and lapwings peck around the wet grassland, while hobbies and marsh harriers can be sighted in the reed-beds and the woods are filled with nightingales and warblers.

13. River Alde

At Snape the River Alde broadens from a little stream into a great tidal river on its way to the north sea.

In Tudor times this was a port, and ships were launched from the Alde to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588. To get a feel for this huge expanse of water, mudflats and saltmarsh you can visit Iken Cliff and walk the path to Iken Church, a mile or so along the estuary.

Bring binoculars, as you may see godwits, avocets, wigeons and many more waterfowl and wildfowl, depending on the season.

For more of an adventure Iken Canoe rents out canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards on the River Alde for up to an hour or a half day.

14. Aldeburgh Golf Course

The Alde Estuary curves past this acclaimed golf course, and you may detect the scent of salt on the breeze while you play.

Established in 1884, Aldeburgh Golf Course is very highly rated, but also feared for its tapered fairways through prickly gorse shrub, which can often mean an out of bounds ball stays lost for good.

For seasoned golfers the Championship Course is as beautiful as it is tricky and grants occasional views of the North Sea when you’re not concentrating on avoiding the rough.

For beginners and high handicap players the River Course, a nine-hole par 32, is a laid back round overlooking the marshes and their wealth of birdlife.

Summer green fees are £80 (£85 on weekends) for the Championship Course, and £12 (£15 on weekends) for the River Course.

15. Fish and Chips

We’ve talked about Aldeburgh’s vibrant culture, coastal scenery, birdlife and history, but this seaside town has another string in its bow: Fish and chips.

Aldeburgh is often hailed as one of the best places to enjoy this comforting British delicacy.

The company, Aldeburgh Fish and Chips started as a single shop on the High Street, and now has three locations (Aldeburgh Fish & Chip Shop, Golden Galleon and Upper Deck), employing more than 30 people in the town.

The original owners, Cecilia and Horace Clooney, took over the shop in 1967 from a Yorkshireman, who taught them to fry using beef dripping instead of oil.

This basic method hasn’t changed in more than five decades, even if the technology has evolved using high efficiency ranges and triple filtration.

If you go to the shop on the High Street you can use the benches outside the neighbouring White Hart pub, providing you buy a drink.

15 Best Things to Do in Aldeburgh (Suffolk, England):

• Aldeburgh Beach
• Aldeburgh Festival
• Snape Maltings
• The Red House
• The Long Shop Museum
• Aldeburgh Museum
• Aldeburgh Cinema
• Thorpeness Meare
• Martello Tower
• Leiston Abbey
• RSPB North Warren
• Aldeburgh Golf Course
• Fish and Chips

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15 things to do in Aldeburgh

Fancy a trip to the coast? Find seaside walks, cosy pubs, incredible fish and chips and more great things to do in Aldeburgh, Suffolk

Aldeburgh is the setting for a classical-music-heavy arts festival every June, but the Suffolk seaside spot is worth a visit even if that’s not your jam. It’s packed with little knick-knack troves and boutique shops, and has a handful of great food destinations too. What’s more, you can plonk yourself down on Aldeburgh’s long, stony beach, safe in the knowledge that you won’t have to share it with a ton of strangers.

RECOMMENDED: Explore nearby Cambridge , Southwold or Lavenham

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A perfect day in Aldeburgh

You may have just arrived, but head out of town in the direction of a four-metre-high scallop shell on the beach. The sculpture, dedicated to famous former resident, composer Benjamin Britten, is a gentle ten-minute stroll away from the centre.

Soak up the vibes

Aldeburgh is a great place for pottering, and there are plenty of potential pit stops along the High Street and seafront . Aldeburgh Beach Lookout hosts artists for regular residencies and the 100-year-old Aldeburgh Cinema is one of the country’s oldest working cinemas.

Stop for lunch

No picnic? Don’t despair. Slate delicatessen has everything you need for a seaside feast – the chorizo scotch egg is a must. For a sit-down session, make a beeline for The Lighthouse . It serves fine fare without the stuffy service, and all of the ingredients are locally sourced – any fresher and it’s still swimming in the sea.

Splash the cash

Pop in to Burnett & Company to gawp at its Scandi homeware. If you want to dress like a local, bag yourself some coastal garms at O&C Butchers or Collen & Clare . Don’t forget to visit the Adnams brewery shop for some alcoholic essentials.

Drink like a local

There are three traditional pubs in Aldeburgh, all owned by Southwold-based brewery Adnams. The White Hart Inn – with its welcoming bar staff, fantastic beer and gin selection, and cosy fireside spots – is the best of the bunch. Secure yourself a booth or settle in the beer garden if the early spring sun has got its hat on.

If you only do one thing

It’s worth making the pilgrimage to this Suffolk seaside town for the fish and chips alone. Aldeburgh Fish & Chip Shop and  The Golden Galleon are owned by the same family, so opt for whichever has the shorter queue. After securing your haul, take a short walk to the beach and enjoy your treasure with views out to the sea – just beware of the dive-bombing seagulls.

And if you spend the night, wake up here

There are hundreds of holiday rentals in Aldeburgh, but if you want a hassle-free home for the night, head to The Wentworth at the end of the High Street. It’s close enough to stumble back to if you’ve been left pale after one too many Suffolk ales, and rooms have big double beds to sink into after a long day of lounging on the beach. Opt for a sea view to wake up to the meditative spectacle of shingle beach and waves. Once you’ve had your daily quota of Zen, float down to the restaurant and tuck into some smoked haddock or an excellent cooked breakfast. From £95 a night. 

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Suffolk in the spring: Aldeburgh’s art, food, beach – and big skies

Now’s the time to enjoy Suffolk’s sandy North Sea coastline – and its new seaside hotels

T here’s a light breeze cutting across the North Sea as we step out on to Aldeburgh beach and make our way across the shingle towards the distant silhouette of Maggi Hambling’s Scallop shell. The 13ft high steel sculpture, a tribute to the composer Benjamin Britten who lived and worked in this Suffolk seaside town, will mark its 20th birthday this year. It ruffled feathers when it first appeared but, two decades on, it feels as much a part of this coastal landscape as the beached fishing boats and piles of lobster pots.

With perfect timing the sun appears from beneath a low bank of clouds, turning everything golden. In summer you’re likely to find the Scallop being used as a climbing frame or windbreak – which is exactly what Hambling intended – but today we have only the seagulls for company as we slowly circle it, the low rays of afternoon sunlight playing on its rippled surface.

Spring is the perfect time to visit Aldeburgh. Its huge beach and even bigger skies still retain a mournful beauty and it’s not too cold or crowded either. On the colourful high street, shops and cafés are doing a brisk trade. Nowhere more so than The Suffolk , a brand new restaurant-with-rooms recently opened by George Pell, a director of London’s L’Escargot . Pell fell in love with the seaside town in the summer of 2020 while running a seaside off-shoot of L’Escargot. When the freehold of the 17th century building on the high street came up for sale, he swapped Soho for Suffolk permanently.

The restaurant, Sur-Mer, opened last summer to great acclaim. Six stylish guest rooms followed in January and have been booked up ever since. Rooms take their names and colour palettes from local beauty spots – ours is Orford Ness, after the wild shingle spit south of Aldeburgh, and is decked out in restful shades of sea green which echo the North Sea views from the window. There’s pretty wallpaper, soft white bedlinen, antique furniture, a Roberts Radio and a huge bathroom stocked with L’Occitane products.

You’ll also see local placenames on the restaurant menu, which showcases Suffolk’s excellent produce – from Butley Creek oysters and dressed Suffolk crab to Baron Bigod cheese from Fen Farm Dairy . On a Saturday night, the place is buzzing with a mix of weekend visitors and locals, and it’s easy to see why. My starter of seared scallops with pickled fennel, followed by halibut fillet with a lobster velouté is beautifully cooked and delicately flavoured, while my daughter makes short work of half a grilled native lobster with garlic butter and fries.

The next morning we drive to nearby Snape Maltings . This complex of Victorian industrial buildings on the banks of the River Alde is home to a world-leading concert hall and a cluster of independent shops, galleries and cafés. It’s been on my radar for a while but previous visits to Aldeburgh have always been in summer when the pull of the beach outweighed any desire to explore further afield.

From the Maltings, we set out across the marshes to the hamlet of Iken , where the ancient church of St Botolph seems to float like a ship on the surrounding wetlands. As we follow the boardwalk through shivering reeds and muddy creeks alive with the sound of curlews and other waders, it’s easy to see why Britten was so inspired by this landscape. The Red House , the home he shared with his partner Peter Pears, is still closed when we visit (it has since reopened) but this proves to be the only downside to our pre-season break – and the perfect excuse to come back soon.

Joanne O’Connor stayed as a guest of The Suffolk ( the-suffolk.co.uk ). Double rooms from £192 a night B&B

Three recently opened hotels with a sea view

The Caban, Pendine Sands, Carmarthenshire In the early 1900s, the seven-mile-long beach at Pendine Sands was a favoured spot for motor racing and several world record-breaking attempts were held here. The Caban is a new family-friendly beachfront property, with 14 rooms and a restaurant with sea views. It’s next door to the new Museum of Land Speed, which will open in early summer. From £120 a night, cabanpendine.wales

No 42 by GuestHouse, Margate, Kent Boutique hotel group GuestHouse will open its first seaside outpost in Margate in June. Housed in a Victorian seafront building, some of the 21 rooms will have sea views and private balconies. Expect record players in rooms, a spa, rooftop bar and beachfront café serving organic food. From £155 a night, guesthousehotels.co.uk

The Tongue Hotel, Sutherland This former 19th century sporting lodge has had a major overhaul and will reopen this spring with 19 guest rooms and a refurbished restaurant and bar serving seasonal Highland produce. With breathtaking views over the Kyle of Tongue, it’s the perfect stopover on Scotland’s scenic North Coast 500 route. From £149 a night, tonguehotel.co.uk

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Tourist Information and Visitor Information Points

Located within shops, libraries, attractions and pubs, the Tourist Information Centres and Visitor Information Points across The Suffolk Coast stock a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit. 

Click on this handy pocket guide to East Suffolk and download a wealth of information and inspiration to help plan your trip:

Tourist Information and Visitor Information Points (VIPs) are located at the following locations:

VIP Suffolk Hideaways, 161 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AN

VIP Beccles Books, 1 Exchange House, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9HH

VIP Beccles Library, Blyburgate, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9TB

VIP Station Cafe, Beccles Train Station, Station Road, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9QJ

VIP Bear & Bells, 11 Old Market, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9AP

VIP Sportstore, 33 New Market, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9HE

VIP Beccles Quay Cafe & Deli, The Quay, Fen Lane, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9BB

VIP The Art Trading Company, 55 Earsham Street, Bungay, Suffolk NR35 1AF

VIP Bungay Library, Wharton Street, Bungay, Suffolk NR35 1EL

Tourist Information Point, Felixstowe Library, Crescent Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk IP11 7BY 

Tourist Information Point - Beach Hut, The Promenade, Sea Road, Felixstowe, Suffolk IP11 2AG

VIP Halesworth Library, Bridge Street, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 8AD

VIP The Angel Hotel, Thoroughfare, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 8AH

Tourist Information, St Stephen's Church, St Stephen's Lane, Ipswich, IP1 1DP 

VIP Leiston Film Theatre, 74 High Street, Leiston, Suffolk IP16 4BZ

VIP The Long Shop Museum, Main Street, Leiston, Suffolk IP16 4ES

VIP Lowestoft Library, Clapham Road South, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 1DR

VIP Lowestoft Railway Station, Denmark Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 2EG

VIP Lowestoft Arts Centre, 13 St Peter's Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 1QA

VIP Kirkley Centre, 154 London Road South, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 0AZ

Oulton Broad

VIP Yacht Station, Bridge Road Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 9JS

VIP Oulton Broad Library, 92 Bridge Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 3LR

VIP Southwold Library, North Green, Southwold, IP18 6AT  

VIP Southwold Boating Lake and Tearoom, North Parade, Southwold IP18 6BN

VIP Post Office & Southwold Food & Drink, High Street, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6AA

VIP Westleton Village Hall, The Street, Westleton, IP17 3AD

Tourist Information Point, Woodbridge Library, New Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk

Things to see and do

Visitor Information Point - Long Shop Museum

One of Leiston's Visitor Information Points is located within the Long Shop Museum, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point - Leiston Film Theatre

One of Leiston's Visitor Information Points is located at Leiston Film Theatre which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Oulton Broad - Oulton Broad Library

One of Oulton Broad’s Visitor Information Points is located within the library, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Halesworth - The Angel Hotel

One of Halesworth’s Visitor Information Points is located within the popular Angel Hotel found in the heart of the town on the Thoroughfare.  It's open from 10am - 11pm every day of the week.

Visitor Information Point Beccles - Station Cafe

One of the town’s Visitor Information Points is located within the café at the Railway Station, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Southwold - Southwold Library

One of Southwold’s Visitor Information Points is located within the town’s library, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Southwold - Southwold Boating Lake and Tearoom

One of Southwold’s Visitor Information Points is located at the Boating Lake and Tearoom , which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point - Bear & Bells

One of the visitor information points for Beccles is located within Bear & Bells Pub/Restaurant, stocking a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point - Sportstore

One of the visitor information points for Beccles is located within Sportstore, stocking a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Woodbridge - Tourist Information Point

Tourist Information including a range of leaflets and guides to help during your visit are available within Woodbridge Library.

Felixstowe - Tourist Information Point

Tourist Information including a range of leaflets and guides to help during your visit are available within Felixstowe Library.

Visitor Information Point Lowestoft - Lowestoft Library

One of Lowestoft’s Visitor Information Points is located within the town’s library, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Lowestoft - Lowestoft Railway Station

One of Lowestoft’s Visitor Information Points is located within the town's Railway Station where you will be able to find leaflets and guides for many of the great things to do and see in the area.

Visitor Information Point Halesworth - Halesworth Library

One of Halesworth’s Visitor Information Points is located within the town’s library, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Bungay - Bungay Library

One of Bungay’s Visitor Information Points is located within the town’s library, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Beccles - Beccles Library

One of the Visitor Information Points in Beccles is located within the town’s library, which stocks a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Beccles - Beccles Books

One of the Visitor Information Points for Beccles is located within the independent bookshop Beccles Books, stocking a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Bungay - The Art Trading Company

One of the Visitor Information Points for Bungay is located within the Art Trading Company retail outlet, in the heart of the town on Earsham Street.

Visitor Information Point Lowestoft - Lowestoft Arts Centre

One of the Visitor Information Points for Lowestoft is located within the town’s heritage action zone, stocking a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

Visitor Information Point Lowestoft - Yacht Station

There is a visitor information point located within the Yacht Station which can be found on the boulevard in Oulton Broad.

Visitor Information Point Lowestoft - Kirkley Centre

One of the Visitor Information Points for Lowestoft is located within The Kirkley Centre, stocking a range of leaflets and guides containing useful information to help you during your visit.

PLAN YOUR FUTURE TRIP TO THE SUFFOLK COAST IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME

The attractions and hotels, along with bars, cafes and restaurants in Suffolk are following the strict Public Health England and World Health Organisation guidelines to maintain public safety at all times, and are closed. The advice is not to travel at all - even to campsites, caravan parks or second homes whether for isolation purposes or holidays. People should remain in their primary residence to avoid putting extra pressure on local services. For now, please enjoy our website and look for inspiration for your future trip to the Suffolk coast so you are ready to visit as soon as we re-open! For more information on social distancing visit www.gov.uk/social-distancing

A Pocket Guide To Aldeburgh

REBECCA DICKSON

WHERE TO STAY

The most exciting opening in Aldeburgh this year is The Suffolk. Following a hugely successful pop-up, L’Escargot Sur-Mer, George Pell opened The Suffolk in August after a sensitive refurbishment of the historic building. Now, there’s a 60-cover restaurant named Sur-Mer, a rooftop terrace with sea views, a wine bar, 12 and 24-seater private dining rooms and – as of late November – six elegant bedrooms. All come with super king beds topped with Lansdowne Cashmere mattresses and the décor takes its inspiration from the surrounding area, with room names including ‘Orford Ness’ and ‘The Butley’, and a green and purple colour palette inspired by the native Elephant Hawksmoor moth. Bedroom furniture has been sourced from local antique dealers and all rooms come with Roberts radios. Guests will find a shared pantry on the first floor stocked with pre-mixed cocktails and nibbles, which are included in the room rate.

Tucked away just outside Aldeburgh, Five Acre Barn is one of the country’s most architecturally appealing B&Bs. The restored 19th-century barn acts as a communal area, while a zig-zagging extension houses five bright bedrooms. Pairing an idyllic rural setting with well-crafted modern materials, this spot is available to rent by the room or in its entirety.

For an atmospheric stay, The Martello Tower – the largest and most northerly of a chain of towers in England built to keep Napoleon out – has been transformed into a rental. The quatrefoil-shaped building stands at the foot of the Orford Ness peninsula, between the River Alde and the sea. The landmark is a good place for a family or a group of friends that want a shared experience – the bedrooms are screened from the central living area but not fully divided, so guests have a sense of being in a larger space. The stone-flagged battery on the roof is a great place to open a bottle of wine and watch the boats race from the nearby club.

Wilderness Reserve is an 8,000-acre estate of woodland and lakes in Saxmundham, one of Aldeburgh’s neighbouring towns. Doxie is its newest addition. The property has its own natural swimming pond and country views. Perfect for a romantic weekend away, Doxie sleeps two in a cosy double bedroom with an open-plan kitchen/living area featuring a cool twisted brick fireplace. Relax in the outdoor hot tub built into the patio, cook local produce on the Big Green Egg , and unwind in the sauna and steam room. As with all Wilderness Reserve properties, guests can also book a range of experiences, from falconry to kayaking.

Elsewhere, Kip Hideaways has a number of properties in the area. The Gallery is a pared-back and light-filled hideaway for four guests near wild meadows and coastline in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, while Castle View in nearby Orford is a lovely, well-stocked bolthole for a weekend exploring the Suffolk coast.

WHAT TO EAT & DRINK

No trip to Aldeburgh is complete without fish and chips. The Golden Galleon , The Upper Deck and The Aldeburgh Fish & Chip Shop are all owned by the same family. The latter occupies a prime position on the south end of the high street. Regularly voted one of the best in the country, here you’ll find some of this area’s best fried cod, haddock, plaice and scampi – plus, the chips are made with local potatoes. On a Friday or Saturday evening, the queue is the only place to be.

Back to The Suffolk . Its pop-up name ‘L’Escargot Sur-Mer’ is a nod to the owner’s connection to Soho institution L’Escargot, so you know the food at the team’s seaside spot is going to be good. In an old coaching inn, a standalone bar is the place for cocktails such as sea buckthorn margarita with tequila, triple sec, lime juice and sea buckthorn purée; and a coral spritz of rosé, rhubarb syrup, blackberry purée, sage and club soda. Next-level bar snacks include oyster thermidor; smoked mussel tempura; and black ham and baron bigod croquettes. In the restaurant itself, expect to sample the likes of lobster bisque with crab toast; dressed Suffolk crab with pickled cucumber; BBQ monkfish tail and samphire; and crab linguini followed by local Pump Street chocolate delice with salted caramel and hazelnut.

On the high street, you’ll find The Lighthouse . This local favourite has been around for over 25 years and offers a relaxing atmosphere across two dining rooms and a courtyard in the summer months. Head chef Guy Welsh ensures the ingredients are as local as possible – much of the fish comes straight from the North Sea, meat is provided by KW Clarke in Bramfield, and even the salad leaves come from an individual grower in Thorpeness. As well as great takes on classics (think platters of oysters, smoked salmon cured in the restaurant’s own gin, and a fish pie), The Lighthouse serves a decent selection of wines and local beers.

Just down the coast, Pinney’s of Orford is well worth a visit. Given its coastal environs, this is another restaurant where seafood is the star. Served in an uncomplicated style, menu hits include half a dozen plump Butley oysters; homemade smoked salmon paté; griddled prawns with hot and smoky garlic butter; and skate with brown butter. Marble café tables, playful artwork, a location on the market square and a daily changing chalkboard menu all add to the charm.

The pretty town is an old fishing centre and fishermen can still be seen hauling their boats up the steep shingle beach to sell their catch each morning. Whatever the weather, the beach is well worth a stroll along. One of the seafront’s most recognisable features is a giant scallop shell that rises from the shingle. Made by local-born artist Maggi Hambling, the sculpture is a tribute to composer Benjamin Britten who lived in Aldeburgh and walked along the stretch of coastline between here and Thorpeness every day.

If you want to learn more about Britten, head to The Red House , which once belonged to him and his partner Peter Pears. Now, it's a small but fascinating museum with a lovely five-acre garden to explore. The farmhouse is home to the couple’s collections and archive, alongside a gallery space, shop and outdoor café. Children will enjoy following the Garden Discovery Trail and learning about the nature.

The town is also home to the annual Aldeburgh Literary Festival and multiple galleries. One of our favourite spots is Aldeburgh Beach Art House , which exhibits paintings and sculptures by some of the most eminent artists – think Picasso, Matisse, Emin, Frost and Blake – with many works for sale (viewing is by appointment only). Isolated on the beach, the Art House is the home of art dealer Caroline Wiseman, who first spotted the tower while taking her morning swim in the sea in 2010. Now transformed, its Aldeburgh Beach Lookout welcomes a new artist, poet, performer, musician or thinker each week as artist in residence, and each residency culminates in an exhibition of new work.

Aldeburgh’s high street is lined with attractive Georgian buildings housing independent shops, galleries and restaurants. One of the best stores is Aldeburgh Bookshop , which has been run by John and Mary James for the last 20 years. You can find just about everything here – ideal if you’re after a holiday read. O&C Butcher is a must for fashion fans and stocks everything from American Vintage to Falke , Levi’s , Selected Femme and Scotch & Soda . For a true Aldeburgh souvenir, head to Fishers Gin Distillery , which looks over the shingle beach. Its gin is distilled with local botanicals such as samphire – make sure to book in for a   tour and tasting.

AND FURTHER AFIELD…

Snape maltings.

If you’re in the mood for some more shopping, make a beeline for the town of Snape Maltings. You’ll find everything from homewares to antiques, plus a regular farmers’ market and a legendary food hall. A beautiful heritage site with converted Victorian buildings, Snape Maltings is home to independent shops and galleries, decent places to eat and the world-famous Snape Maltings Concert Hall. Somewhat confusingly, the famous Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival is actually held in Snape Maltings and is one of the best in the country.

With its sandy beach, colourful beach huts, lively town centre and pretty pier, Southwold is a great place for a day out. The pier – which stretches 623ft out into the North Sea – is a must visit. Don’t miss inventor Tim Hunkin’s Under The Pier Show where his eccentric arcade machines provide hours of entertainment, and be sure to stop by Harris & James for a scoop of gelato. Half a mile from the town centre, Southwold Harbour is the perfect spot for a sundowner. You can even catch the ferry from the harbour to Walberswick – we recommend relaxing among the sand dunes with a picnic from the Black Dog Deli.

Woodbridge is a quintessential market town on the River Deben. Across the river you’ll find Sutton Hoo, the awe-inspiring Anglo Saxon burial site that was at the focus of recent Netflix hit The Dig . Other decent places to visit include coffee shop Honey + Harvey and the Angel , which sells local craft beers and around 250 different types of gin. Don’t miss the beautiful beach at Shingle Street, a hidden gem 20 minutes’ drive away.

UNSPLASH/ BOBBY ALLEN

One of the main attractions of Thorpeness is the Meare – hand dug and opened in 1913 – it covers over 40 acres of water and is no more than 3ft deep in any spot, making it a great spot for boating. The Meare still has many of its original rowing boats – rent them along with canoes, kayaks and punts to explore the channels and islands, all named by J M Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan . Thorpeness is also full of unusual architecture, including the House in the Clouds , a converted water tower that’s available to rent. Leave time to pop into Mabel & Co , a beautiful letterpress studio.

How To Get There…

The nearest train station to Aldeburgh is Saxmundham and there are plenty of daily services from London Liverpool Street, which take just under two hours. If you’re travelling by car from the capital, the journey should take around two-and-a-half hours.

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The 25+ Best Things To Do In Aldeburgh And The Local Area

Aldeburgh, Suffolk is a quaint little Victorian seaside town in Suffolk. It is the perfect place to base yourself if you’re looking for a UK beach staycation destination  because there are so many great things to do in Aldeburgh and the surrounding area.

Aldeburgh has been a seaside escape since the Victorian times but it is really the famous composer Benjamin Britten who put Aldeburgh on the map when he moved there in the 1940s.

He founded the Aldeburgh Festival which takes place in Aldeburgh every June bringing world-renowned artists to this otherwise quiet part of Suffolk.

Nowadays, Aldeburgh is a popular seaside resort – although using the word ‘resort’ to describe it is stretching it a bit.

There is no ‘traditional’ British seaside entertainment in the form of arcades. There is no pier. If you want that, you can head along the coast a few miles to Southwold.

Don’t be expecting Blackpool there either. As with the rest of Suffolk, all of the Suffolk coastal towns are understated.

If you have planned your trip to Aldeburgh and are now wondering what to do in Aldeburgh, we have a fantastic list of the best things to do in Aldeburgh and the surrounding area to make sure you don’t miss a thing during your Suffolk holidays.

Have you booked your Suffolk accommodation? Make sure top read our recommendations for beautiful Suffolk Coast holiday rentals and unusual Suffolk holiday cottages .

Visiting Aldeburgh at Christmas? Check out our guide on the Christmas events in Suffolk this year. Visiting Aldeburgh during the October Half Term? Check out our things to do in Suffolk at Halloween post.

This post contains affiliate links. If you should buy something using one of them, we may earn a small commission but this is at no extra cost to you.

Where is Aldeburgh?

Aldeburgh is located on the Suffolk coast on a stretch that has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It is around 2 hours from London and can just about be done on a day trip from London , although it would be best explored by car because there is no train station in Aldeburgh.

If you are travelling from London to Aldeburgh by train, the nearest train station to Aldeburgh is Saxmundham. Trains depart from London Liverpool Street on the Greater Anglia line and take around 2 hours 30 minutes.

Before visiting Suffolk, you might want to grab a copy of the Rough Guide to Suffolk & Norfolk   which is the most comprehensive and up to date guide out there. We also love this Suffolk pub walks guide.

What are the best things to do in Aldeburgh?

1. go to the beach.

If you’re here on holiday during the summer months, one of the best things to do in Aldeburgh is to visit Aldeburgh beach.

It is one of the best beaches in Suffolk and among the best beaches in the UK and is the reason that most people visit Aldeburgh. It is a shingle beach backed with beautiful and colourful Victorian houses.

Aldeburgh was once home to a thriving fishing industry and although these days the industry is not thriving, it is still a working beach with six boats going out daily for the catch of the day.

If you get there in the early morning or are lucky enough to have seafront accommodation, you can watch the fishermen bring in their catch.

2. Visit the Red House

Once the home of Benjamin Britten, The Red House is now home to the Britten Pears foundation and is open to the public between March to October.

You can go and learn about the famous Suffolk composer and take a look around the house and gardens which have been preserved to show how Benjamin Britten lived.

It is located a little out of the centre of Aldeburgh. You can walk there in about 30 minutes or you can drive there in around 5 minutes along the Leiston Road.

3. View the Martello Tower

If you walk south from the high street seemingly to the very end of Aldeburgh along the narrow stretch of beach backed by the River Alde, you will see the striking Martello Tower looking like a giant sandcastle.

The Tower was built in the beginning of the 19th century and is one of  29 built along the east coast of England to help in the defence against attacks from Napoleon.

Nowadays, owned by the Landmark Trust, it is used as holiday accommodation and is one of the quirkiest places to stay in Suffolk .

4. View the Scallop on Aldeburgh Beach

The Scallop on Aldeburgh Beach is a striking 4 metre high steel sculpture by Suffolk artist, Maggi Hambling.

It is a scallop shell inscribed with the words ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’ from Benjamin Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes.

If you can catch it at sunrise or sunset, you will be rewarded with the beautiful light glinting off the shining structure. If you are visiting with kids, they will no doubt just want to climb on it.

It is located around 500 metres from the centre of Aldeburgh. If you don’t want to walk that far from the centre of Aldeburgh (you will pass it as you walk along the coastal path from Aldeburgh to Thorpeness), there is a pay and display car park right next to it.

5. Visit Aldeburgh Museum

The Moot Hall in Aldeburgh is a striking timber framed red brick building in the centre of Aldeburgh, next to the boating lake.

Built in around 1550, it fell into disrepair in the 19th century but a decision was taken to restore it, even adding two chimneys modelled on the kitchen chimneys at Hampton Court Palace.

It now houses the Aldeburgh Museum and its interesting collection of artefacts from Roman times up to the world wars.

6. Eat Fish & Chips on the beach

There are several places where you can buy fish & chips in Aldeburgh. During the height of summer, don’t be surprised to find long queues forming outside of Aldeburgh Fish & Chips.

They sell some of the best fish & chips in the country. Take them to the beach to eat, but watch out for the greedy seagulls!

If you are self-catering in Aldeburgh, make sure to also check out the weathered fishermen’s huts on the Aldeburgh seafront where you will find freshly caught fish.

7. Sail a boat on Aldeburgh boating pond

One of our favourite things to do in Aldeburgh with kids is to take our sailing boats to the boating pond.

If you don’t have sailing boats, you can just come along and watch others or there is a little shop in the nearby LifeBoat Station where you can buy your own.

Our boys also love watching the remote control boats .

If you are relying on the power of the wind, just be warned that the boats may end up stranded in the middle if the wind dies down.  You may be there longer than expected waiting for it to drift to the edge!

8. Catch a movie at Aldeburgh Cinema

Being a seaside town, the best time to visit Aldeburgh is during the summer months but if you happen to be visiting Aldeburgh off-season or when the weather is bad, one of the best places to visit in Aldeburgh is Aldeburgh Cinema .

Built in 1919, the cinema is one of the oldest cinemas in the UK with a beautiful Art Deco interior. It hasn’t changed much if at all from when I first went as a child to watch E.T. in 1982! Check here for Aldeburgh Cinema listings .

9. Wander the shops and streets

The shops in Aldeburgh are all in keeping with the local area. There are artisan bakeries, ice cream parlours and delicatessens.

Even the clothes shops blend in well with the likes of Joules and Jack Wills keeping traditional store fronts.

Many of the houses are painted in pastel colours and the narrow back streets just back from the seafront are delightful.

10. Take a stroll to Thorpeness

Thorpeness is the neighbouring village to Aldeburgh and is connected by a 2 mile coastal path. It is a nice, flat path running alongside the beach and is one of the easiest Aldeburgh walks you can do.

The beach at Thorpeness is much like the beach at Aldeburgh, but less busy. There are also a few lovely places to eat in Thorpeness or you can grab a takeway and eat on the beach.

Thorpeness is an impossibly cute little holiday village with beautiful wooden holiday homes.

11. Go boating in Thorpeness

If you are taking a stroll to Thorpeness, you may as well make a day of it and visit the Thorpeness boating lake.

One of the best things to do in Suffolk with kids on a sunny day is to take a boat out on Thorpeness Meare , visiting Peter Pan themed islands as you go.

You’ll also get great views of the famous House in the Clouds, one of the most unique places to stay near Aldeburgh.

There is a wonderful tea room on the Meare serving a huge range of ice creams and other treats to enjoy after your morning of exercise.

12. Have a game of boules

If you are just looking for something relaxing to do during a warm summer’s day, you could grab an ice cream and sit and watch a game of boules just beside the Moot Hall.

Better yet, grab yourself a set of boules and have a game yourself!

13. Enjoy a performance at the Aldeburgh Festival

The Aldeburgh Festival is a an English arts festival that takes place during the month of June at nearby Snape Maltings.

International artists are invited to take part in this world-renowned festival with musical concerts and events.

During the month of August, you can visit Snape Maltings for the equally famous Snape Proms . The calendar is filled with daily performances from artists around the world, from well-known opera singers to child-friendly comedians.

Snape Maltings is set in an area of outstanding natural beauty and if you have time before or after taking in a show, you can take a walk around the local area or even take a boat trip along the River Alde .

Things to do near Aldeburgh

As well as there being lots of great things to do in Aldeburgh, there is plenty to see and do in the surrounding area too. Here are just a few ideas if you have more time in Suffolk.

Visit Southwold – Southwold is just up the coast with a pier, the Adnams Brewery, colourful beach huts and a working lighthouse.

Go fruit picking at Friday Street –  the shop at Friday Street also has a lovely selection of locally sourced produce.

Visit Framlingham – one of the prettiest market towns in England and home to Framlingham Castle , one of the most impressive castles in England.

Visit Sutton Hoo – the Anglo Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the country.

Grab a bite to eat at Orford – discover where the foodies head to in Suffolk and visit Orford Castle while you’re there.

Go crabbing at Walberswick – formely home to the British crabbing competition, Walberswick is a lovely place to visit. Grab a bucket and bait from the ice cream van and have a go at crabbing. Also take a walk around the nature reserve and have a bite to eat at The Anchor .

Visit Dunwich Heath – a beautiful National Trust owned area of heathland rich with local wildlife in Dunwich and some fabulous Dunwich walks .

Visit RSPB Minsmere – one of the best places in the country for bird watching

Canoeing on the River Alde – Take a canoe or paddle board out on the River Alde and explore this beautiful area from the water.

Take a forest walk –  Visit Tunstall , Rendlesham or Dunwich Forest for some beautiful forest walks.

Visit Leiston Abbey – Discover the monastic remains of Leiston Abbey.

Where to eat in Aldeburgh

Suffolk is dubbed the foodie county and so there are certainly plenty of lovely places to eat in Aldeburgh.

We have already mentioned that one of the best things to do in Aldeburgh is to grab yourself some fish & chips to eat on the beach, but if that doesn’t appeal to you, here are some of the best restaurants in Aldeburgh..

The Lighthouse – for upmarket dining without breaking the budget. This is our favourite of the Aldeburgh restaurants

Regatta Restaurant – a seafood restaurant

Seafood and Grill – at the Brudenell Hotel

You should also check out our guide to family-friendly pubs in Suffolk if you want to enjoy great local produce in a beautiful beer garden in the sun.

Where to stay in Aldeburgh

As you can see, there are plenty of things to do in Aldeburgh and the surrounding area so it is worth spending a little time here.

Being one of the most popular tourist spots in Suffolk, there are thankfully also plenty of places to stay in Aldeburgh.

Hotels in Aldeburgh

There are some beautiful old hotels in Aldeburgh with the two most popular being:

The Brudenell Hotel

The Wentworth Hotel

Self-catering accommodation in Aldeburgh

There are some beautiful self-catering options in Aldeburgh on the seafront like the Lobster Pot or the Seahorse

One of the best Suffolk holiday accommodation booking sites with some beautiful cottages on their sites is Plum Guide .

You can also try on Booking.com as you may find something similar with a flexible cancellation policy.

Remember also the quirky accommodation mentioned in this post – The House in the Clouds and The Martello Tower.

Campsites near Aldeburgh

There isn’t a very large selection of campsites near Aldeburgh, but there are some great Suffolk campsites , some of which are not too far from Aldeburgh.

New to camping with young children? We have some helpful tips for camping with toddlers . We also have a guide to campervan essentials if you are new to campervanning.

Map of things to do in Aldeburgh and surrounding area

Click here for a map of the things to do in Aldeburgh.

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Welcome to Suffolk

Welcome to visit suffolk.

Suffolk is a county that unless you travel slowly through it, you may miss many of its charming and redeeming features. From Lowestoft to Felixstowe, where the North Sea constantly erodes the coastline of Suffolk are the picturesque seaside resorts of Dunwich, Orford, Southwold and Aldeburgh where there are sandy heaths and mud flats. Inland, Suffolk is an agricultural landscape of wheat fields, thatched cottages in rural villages and attractive market towns like Bungay, Beccles and Bury St. Edmunds; that are rich in their own history making the region of particular interest to the visiting tourist.

Suffolk is easily accessible from London and the South by road, M11, A11 and the A12 or from the Midlands via Cambridge on the A45 being the primary roads into the county. There are mainline train and coach services that run regularly from most places across the region connecting with London and the rest of the country. Suffolk has a wide range of accommodation on offer, from seaside guesthouses to countryside caravan and camping sites; market town hotels to self catering barn conversions that can provide good quality accommodation to suit all types of budgets whilst holidaying in Suffolk. Whether you’re looking for just a short break or a family summer holiday, Suffolk has plenty of activities and attractions to fulfil your vacation during your stay in the area.

Attractions

Suffolk has various family attractions like Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park off the A12 near Lowestoft for the thrill seekers or The Otter Trust near Earsham on the A143 where there is the largest collection of otters in natural enclosures in the world for the nature lover to discover. Framlingham Castle near Ipswich and Ickworth House near Bury St. Edmunds are two of the county’s grand estates that are open to the public to visit when not exploring the Suffolk coastline. Suffolk seems quite remote and sparsely populated so therefore remains one of the loveliest regions in the country that is well worth taking a closer look at and exploring the many delights that you’ll find when on holiday in Suffolk.

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The VIP network consists of a range of locations, allowing visitors to access information in places they are likely to visit as part of their stay, such as independent shops, cafes and transport points. The VIPs can offer a variety of information on many of the great things to do and see during your stay as well as advice and local knowledge where possible.

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