I didn’t realise that Suffolk was so beautiful, it has amazing food, pubs, countryside, villages and seaside towns that you just want to keep exploring…
We stayed for two nights in a ‘posh tent’ at Sweffling Hall Farm, owned by the team at Lanterns and Larks and we visited three seaside towns, two pubs, possibly one of the best fish and chip shops I have ever been to, and played in the beautiful countryside. Here’s a little about where we visited:
On our first night we headed off for a country walk to the local pub…
Here we stumbled across The Sweffling White Horse. A quirky traditional English pub that will take you back through time. The ales and lagers are absolutely lip smacking scrumptious. Hubby had a draft local ale, I am not keen on beer but I tried one of their bottled lagers and it was quite possibly the best tasting lager I have ever had.
The boys tucked into home cooked sausage rolls. This pub is full of character and so are its owners Marie and Mark. Their philosophy is to showcase local fare and treat you to flavour and quality. And they certainly achieve that.
We headed back to camp and our lovely host at Sweffling Hall, Laura, introduced us to two cool apps: Skyview and Geocaching. Skyview is a great app for star gazing- I’m not sure how accurate it is but the kids absolutely love it! I had never heard of Geocaching but am looking forward to going on some real treasure hunts and will let you know how it goes.
For now we just enjoyed the sausages, fire and stars. BTW if you are in the area and like eggs Sweffling Hall farm https://swefflinghallfarm.wordpress.com/ specialise in them and you can just nip in and purchase as many as you want. They are very very tasty, so good, in fact, they can be found in M & S, Sainsbury or at the Happy Egg Company.
The next morning, after a little play in the fields of Sweffling Hall Farm and foraging for kindle for the evening, we headed off to the Suffolk coast.
Our first stop was Southwold: what a lovely seaside town where once again we were whisked back in time- it feels like a place where time has stood still.
We headed straight for Southwold Pier, which is small in size but definitely not small in character! The Pier has a good selection of eateries, we stopped off for coffee and cake at The Boardwalk where food is sourced locally with plenty of menu choices even for children and toddlers. The boys enjoyed water and cake – their choice! Something made them smile, maybe it was the lemon or ice…
We sat here, out of the wind, soaking the sun and taking in the view of the fabulous lighthouse.
We then ventured to the weird and wacky handmade arcade also located on the Pier. The boys and I settled down into what looked like a submarine pod to watch a show. I really had no Idea what was going to happen but a lady and her two boys came out laughing a lot, so we ventured in. We were taken into a world under the sea where beach huts and for sale signs live, alongside estate agents sharks and barrels of toxic waste mate (yes mate) to make a monstrous sea creature… yes it was very weird!
Thankfully the boys didn’t understand any of it and just laughed at the puppetry! There are some really wacky games to play here and worth a visit for a little strange fun.
Southwold beach is also lined with lovely colourful beach huts, I can imagine it gets really busy here in the summer months but today it was perfect, the sun was shining and Southwold looked beautiful…
We then headed off to Walberswick. You can access this by small ferry directly from Southwold or by driving inland and coming back out again.
Walberswick is located on the South bank of the River Blyth surrounded by marshland, heath and a beautiful white sandy beach in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty- it’s no wonder that people want to own holiday homes here.
The boys spent an hour crabbing and thankfully caught one each! (if you go you need bacon, crab lines and nets all available at the small corner shop and ice cream van)
After letting them go we headed for the beach, a little too windy today to stay but beautiful none the less. We managed to find a sheltered spot while the boys played.
and made their mark…
We then grabbed the all-important ice cream and went for a walk along the river.
This is when we spotted the ferry that transports people across the water to Southwold (we drove). This ferry is actually one man in a row boat, quite surreal!
With rumbling beginning in our bellies we headed off to Aldeburgh. We actually were only visiting here for the highly regarded Fish and Chip shop (more about that in a minute) but the beautiful buildings against the pebbled beach took my breath away. Aldeburgh has been named as one of the top 50 places to live in Britain and it is easy to see why, it is full of colour from the pastel coloured sea fronted buildings to the pebbly beach and colourful fishing boats and huts.
We found the famous Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop (reportedly one of the best fish and chip shops in the country) and devoured some of the best tasting fish and chips we have ever tasted. The boys ate every bit of theirs too!
Heading back to camp we stopped off at The Dolphin in Thorpeness near Aldeburgh. Lovely pub with child-friendly garden and apparently good food. Thorpeness is a quiet village with a man-made lake at its heart, and it was once voted as the ‘Weirdest Village in England’ by Bizarre magazine but we were not here long enough to find out why, but we did notice a house in the clouds as we approached…
Our final evening was spent playing Hex bugs
and making scrapbooks of our weekend using things we had found along the way from sand in the boys shoes to postcards purchased in each town.
Some good memories had here.
In the morning we woke to a beautiful chorus of bird song and the boys made the most of their last morning using the space to play with anything and everything from
Rocket launchers and frisbee to football and the toy planes
One got stuck on the tent. The boys went to find a stick for me to get it down, I said it had to be long, this was maybe a little too long!
And then after playing with a wheelbarrow
Finley turned Freddie into one…
We were sad to leave Suffolk and will definitely be back for more…
for child-friendly Holiday cottages and glamping in Suffolk ideal for babies, toddlers, and older children why not visit our site where we have a lovely small selection 🙂
