The best beaches in Suffolk
Aldeburgh and Southwold offer coastal chic in bucketloads, while places like Covehithe and Shingle Street are as far off the beaten track as you ever get in England.
Plus, there's a dash of kiss-me-quick charm in some of the places you would least expect it, like Felixstowe and Lowestoft.
The great thing is, nowhere is close to a main road or major transport route, so wherever you go, you feel a little bit away from things.
Lowestoft
Lowestoft doesn't spring to mind when you think of beaches, but it is both England's most easterly beach and also one of its best; a long ribbon of fine sand, backed by a classically English mixture of beach huts, pristinely manicured gardens and Edwardian terraces.
Getting there: Trains run from Norwich on the so-called Wherry Line from Norwich to Lowestoft's train station, which is handily placed near the seafront, just across the bridge from the pier and the main beach. By car, there are several car parks along the beach promenade.
Insider tip: Lowestoft is also the southern tip of the Broads National Park, so you can also enjoy freshwater adventures a little way inland at Oulton Broad, where you can rent your own boat for the day or take a river cruise. You can reach it by train in two minutes.
Covehithe
This unique spot, a slender strip of sand backed by low bracken-topped cliffs, is reachable via a footpath from Covehithe's ruined church. If you prefer your beaches empty, this is the one for you.
Getting there: Follow the signs to Covehithe off the main A12 from nearby Wrentham. Park your car by the ruined church of St Andrew and walk the rest of the way.
Insider tip: The church is very atmospheric, and there's a five-mile circular walk you can do just inland from here, north around Benacre Broad and back down the coast to the beach.
Southwold
Genteel Southwold has a lot going for it – a handsome town centre crammed with pubs, restaurants and cafés, an iconic lighthouse and brewery and one of Suffolk's best sandy beaches, famously backed by some of the most expensive beach huts in the country.
Getting there: The closest car park to the beach is the one just to the north of the pier, but there's another within easy walking distance, just the other side of the high street on York Road.
Insider tip: Southwold Pier is delightfully low-key, with a restaurant that's a cut above the usual seaside pier offerings, and attractions like the wacky Under the Pier Show.
Walberswick
Its annual crabbing festival was stopped a few years ago due to overwhelming popularity, but Walberswick remains the crabbing capital of the east coast. But that's not the only reason to come here: its beach (a mixture of sand and shingle depending on the tides) is lovely – not too crowded and backed by grassy dunes.
Getting there: The nicest way to reach Walberswick is on the quaint foot ferry across the river from Southwold's harbour, but it's also easy to reach by car and there's plenty of parking close to the river and beach.
Insider tip: Walberswick is home to two excellent pubs – the cosy Bell, closest to the beach, and the slightly better-known Anchor, on the main road into the village. Both have rooms and serve food, with The Anchor in particular a destination pub for dining.
Aldeburgh
Benjamin Britten used to gaze out over Aldeburgh's beach from his seaside cottage before he moved to the Red House on the other side of town, and he'd still recognise the view today; a lumpy pebble and shingle strand dotted with fishing boats that stretches the length of the town and is backed by huts selling the freshest fish and seafood.
How to get there: Aldeburgh is a 10-minute drive from the main A12 coast road. There's parking on the high street, which runs parallel to the beach, and car parks at either end of the town, right by the beach in both cases.
Insider tip: Take a stroll up the beach in the direction of Thorpeness to Maggi Hambling's impressive Scallop shell sculpture, inscribed with words from the George Herbert poem that inspired Britten's opera, Peter Grimes.
Shingle Street
Shingle Street is perhaps the most unique of Suffolk's beaches, and indeed one of its most remote spots, at the end of a minor road that leads across the marshes south of Woodbridge. The name is a bit of a misnomer, since there are no streets here whatsoever, just a line of holiday homes and seaside shacks behind a wide stretch of shingle that looks onto a lagoon.
Shingle Street never quite recovered after a World War II evacuation, and it remains an eerie and rather atmospheric spot, one more suited for contemplation than sun-worshipping.
Getting there: It's easy to get here by car – the road leads here and nowhere else. There are a couple of parking areas, but nothing official.
Insider tip: The beach is more of a nature reserve than somewhere for swimming, with seals basking on the shingle around the lagoon.
Felixstowe
Felixstowe is another Suffolk town that doesn't spring to mind when thinking of beaches, but it actually has a pretty good one – a four-mile stretch of Blue Flag sand and shingle with all the traditional trappings of a seaside resort – beach huts, a pier and a garden promenade.
How to get there: You can reach Felixstowe on the train from Ipswich, and the station is just a 10-minute walk from the seafront. Coming by car, there are car parks near the pier and leisure centre and at the other end near Arwela Road.
Insider tip: The Alex is a popular café, bar and restaurant that's open all day every day, and is right on the seafront road, not far from the pier and leisure centre.
How we choose
Every beach in this curated list has been expertly chosen by our destination expert, to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of areas and styles, from popular city beaches to lesser known corners – to best suit every type of traveller. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest openings and provide up to date recommendations.
About our expert
Martin Dunford
Dividing my time between East Anglia and London, I've always been a big fan of the Suffolk Coast and the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, and am never happier than when following old footpaths between medieval churches and ancient pubs.
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Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
The English county with the best pubs, according to our expert
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Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
How a seaside gem once loved by holidaymakers is packed with derelict ghost hotels... but locals say 'it's still better than Skegness'
With its pristine sandy beaches and bustling seafront its easy to see why Great Yarmouth was beloved by millions of day trippers for decades. In recent years the council has splashed cash to brighten up the ageing Britannia Pier and promenade in an effort to recapture some of the town's past glory. But while crowds of summer holidaymakers still enjoy strolling past its arcades, fish and chip shops and walking on the sand – a few roads over it is a very different story. Like a lot of Britain's faded seaside gems, Yarmouth has a big hotel problem. Victorian guest houses and converted homes once packed to the rafters with excited visitors are now left empty, boarded-up and derelict after years of decline. Neglected back streets are now becoming used by fly-tipping yobs to dump rubbish and old furniture. Even the town's Winter Gardens, a grand grade-II listed glass hall, is boarded-off while it awaits a much needed spruce-up thanks to £10m in lottery funding. But residents want funding spread evenly to tidy up the streets packed with eyesore buildings. One local told the Daily Mail: 'The same investment hasn't gone into other buildings. 'It's cosmetic on the seafront but there's fly tipping on the back streets. An overhead view of the derelict Victory Hotel in Great Yarmouth. The abandoned hotel went up in flames in 2023 in a suspected arson attack and has been left in its damaged condition Pictured: The Victory Hotel. Great Yarmouth, like many other resorts in the UK, was once a seaside gem, but is now packed with boarded up hotels The seaside resort's Winter Gardens attraction was the last surviving Victorian glasshouse but has sat derelict for years. A restoration project is due to begin, and could be reopened by 2027 The roof of the Victory Hotel after firefighters fought to put out a blaze in 2023. 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Whilst the pier itself was busy, the back streets and the stretch of beach itself remained empty John Quinn, 78, and Rita Smith, also 78, said 'We've been to a few English resorts, Blackpool, Morecambe, Scarborough and Skegness, and this is the nicest', though they said 'some of the back streets are a bit run-down' Cllr Malcolm Bird said: 'I do not think any seaside town is like it was in the Fifties or Sixties. I think there has been a decline. People's holidays have changed. 'There's a lot of positives but hotels need to invest in the future and offer people nothing less than what they've got at home. You have to invest. 'But a lot of these hotels are owned by middle-aged hoteliers and guest-house operators who do not want to throw that money into the business and instead rent them out as houses in multiple occupation which brings them revenue but does not do the town that great.' 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The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Overheads have gone up': Britain's hospitality sector faces tough time this summer
On a sunny weekday in Norfolk, the lunchtime rush is getting under way at the White Horse in Brancaster Staithe. On the large terrace at the back of the pub overlooking the coast, families and groups of holidaymakers are tucking in to local lobsters, plates of crab and fish and chips. 'This is our Christmas,' says James Nye, the managing director of Anglian Country Inns, the hospitality business started by his father, Cliff, 30 years ago which owns the White Horse and nine other venues across Norfolk and Hertfordshire, stressing the importance of the key summer season. 'We've had a strong start to the year with three months of sunshine,' he says. 'But I think that has masked the challenges the sector is facing. When the rain comes you can see how overheads have gone up.' Nye reels off a list of soaring costs facing the White Horse that will resonate with pubs, cafes, restaurants and hotels across the UK, underlining additional pressures facing the sector this summer season. 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Tax rises and extra employment costs announced in last October's budget came into force in April, raising employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and lowering the threshold at which contributions are due. The minimum wage was also raised by 6.7% to £12.21 an hour. These measures are ultimately expected to raise £25bn a year, which the government has said is needed to restore crumbling public services. However, the trade body UKHospitality, which represents thousands of restaurants, hotels, pubs, cafes and nightclubs, has warned the changes will cost the industry an extra £1bn, forcing some to cut jobs or slash investment, while others are struggling to stay afloat. 'This is the toughest trading environment I've ever experienced in 30 years in the sector,' says Kate Nicholls, the chair of UKHospitality, calling it even tougher than the pandemic. 'It is that perfect storm of soaring costs, a cost of living crisis happening at the same time, which means you can't pass all of those costs on to customers, and a really intense squeeze on margins. Coming on the back of closures and losses during Covid, businesses are really lacking in resilience.' Hospitality has shed 84,000 jobs since last October's budget, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), making it the worst affected sector. UKHospitality predicts this figure could hit 200,000 by the time the financial year ends in March 2026. Meanwhile, warnings from the sector now appear to be becoming reality. The Italian casual dining chain Gusto and the Thai restaurant chain Busaba both collapsed into administration in recent days. Seven of Gusto's 13 sites were bought in a pre-pack administration resulting in 200 job losses, while Busaba was also bought in a pre-pack deal, saving about 240 jobs at seven sites across London and Essex. Nye also knows several pub operators who have had to call last orders for the final time, amid industry warnings that one pub will close down every day this year across Britain. Anglian Country Inns employs about 100 people at the White Horse, a third of whom are seasonal staff, and a further 400 across the rest of the business. Nye says they have worked hard to retain staff by treating them well, but amid current pressures they are trying to make teams more efficient in a bid to cut costs. They have 5% fewer full-time staff than last year and have hired fewer seasonal workers than in the past. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion This reduction in seasonal hiring is being repeated across the sector, and job postings for temporary hospitality jobs are 25% lower than this time last year, according to figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). The knock-on effect is a cut in job opportunities for students or those looking for flexible work, who have traditionally relied on hospitality jobs to get their first taste of employment. It has resulted in a summer of disappointment and frustration for 19-year-old Jeremy Nunn from Hertfordshire, who planned to work in hospitality over the summer after finishing his first year studying history and French at the University of Leeds. Despite sending off about 100 applications for seasonal roles, he still hasn't found a job. 'It's a bit disheartening when you spend a lot of time on applications and then send them off online, it can feel like shouting into the void,' he says. 'On most of my applications I've received nothing back.' A few miles down the road from Brancaster in fashionable Burnham Market – nicknamed Chelsea-on-sea – the ice-cream van is doing a roaring trade and visitors are browsing in the town's boutique and homeware shops. The final customers are finishing their coffees and paying their bills after eating lunch at Socius, an award-winning restaurant known for its small plates featuring locally sourced produce, opened in 2018 by the husband and wife team of Dan and Natalie Lawrence. Dan Lawrence says challenging times are forcing kitchens to get creative. 'We have to be smarter, cleverer and try to make better profit to cover those costs,' he says, sitting next to the counter where his staff are preparing ingredients for the evening's dinner service. 'We change our menu every week, sometimes throughout the week, so we have close conversations with suppliers and they tell us what's good, what they've got plenty of, what's a good price or what not to go anywhere near.' Lawrence believes, like many others in hospitality, that the government could do more to help businesses struggling with high costs, such as the temporary reduction in value added tax (VAT) from 20% to 5% introduced by the then chancellor Rishi Sunak to kickstart hospitality after the first national Covid lockdown. For now, Labour ministers have announced plans to 'breathe new life into the high street' by overhauling planning and licensing rules, to make it easier for new hospitality venues to open in empty premises, as well making it easier for restaurants and pubs to get permission to allow customers to dine alfresco or enjoy a pint on the pavement. While many in the industry would welcome such a move, others found it 'galling' at a time of higher taxes and costs, says Jonathan Lawson, the chief executive of Butcombe Group, which runs 120 pubs and inns across the UK and Channel Islands, many of which are in rural locations. 'Most in the industry would say, because of the pain the government inflicted on the hospitality sector, why would new businesses choose to actually be starting up in some of those locations?' he asks. Lawson says Butcombe Group has grown well since the pandemic, partly through diversifying its business, including opening its pubs earlier for breakfast, while promoting its venues as places for couples to celebrate their weddings. 'In hospitality, our job is to provide what customers want,' he says. 'Hospitality is the third-highest employer in the UK, it can drive growth, it wants to invest. It's almost in spite of the government, rather than because of it.' Back in Norfolk, the sun is still shining, but Nye worries what will happen when the summer ends and the visitors leave. 'Our big fear is what happens when trade dies down, when the season gets a bit quieter. Carrying those extra overheads is going to really hurt us,' he says.
