At the end of August / beginning of September my family booked a much-needed break in the county of Suffolk in the east of England. After a tough few months for various reasons, I think we all just needed a change of scenery and a chance to properly relax and unwind.
Day 1 – Dedham / Flatford and our home for the next few nights
On the morning of the 29th of September, we packed up the car and set off. As we couldn’t check in until 2pm, we stopped off at Dedham found on the border between Essex and Suffolk to do a lovely walk from Dedham to Flatford Mill.
We parked at Dedham Car Park (Mill Ln, Dedham, Colchester CO7 6DH) which is really reasonably priced at £2 for 2 hours. As you can see from the map above, it takes just over 30 mins to walk each way between Dedham and Flatford. Our whole round trip took just under 2 hours, and that included a toilet break at Flatford; stopping to take some photos; and and having a wander around Flatford Mill and Willy Lott’s cottage (famously painted in the The Hay Wain picture by John Constable), so 2 hours on the parking ticket was sufficient.
Our dog Harley loved the walk, he went for a little paddle in the river and enjoyed playing chase with the swifts. It it a really lovely walk along the river, even on a day like this when it was a bit dull and drizzly.
Flatford Mill is actually a National Trust site so you can park there for free if you are a member but if not it’s £5 a car. However, because we had walked there from Dedham, it was free to visit!
There is also an RSPB Wildlife Garden in Flatford which David and I visited last time we were here, but unfortunately it was closed when we visited due to coronavirus so we couldn’t this time.
In summary, the Dedham to Flatford walk gave us an opportunity to get some lovely photos of the river and buildings on its bank. It was a really nice way to start of the holiday and stretch our legs.
Once we got back to the car we tucked into a packed lunch as we were starving after our exercise, and then set off on the second leg of our journey to our home for the next few days, Stable Cottage at Upper Langdales Farmhouse Cottages in Creeting St Mary.
The cottage certainly lived up to our expectations and we spent the rest of the afternoon / evening watching a film in the lounge together; having fajitas and nachos for dinner; and hot chocolate with marshmallows before bed – yummy!
Day 2 – Aldeburgh and Sizewell beach
It was a bit of a slow start to the morning as we had a slight change of plan. We had originally planned to go stand up paddleboarding this afternoon, but when we phoned up we were told it was too windy and to try again tomorrow as the conditions looked a lot better. So, we fell back on plan B.
After cooking and enjoying a lovely Full English Breakfast in the cottage, we packed what we needed for the day and headed to the seaside town of Aldeburgh. It was about one hours drive from the cottage with quite an interesting route through a few villages and plenty of country roads.
We parked in the vicinity of Fort Green Car Park however we managed to snag a space where we didn’t have to pay which was very handy! If I’m honest I’m not sure what the car park prices were but I expect they wouldn’t be very cheap as Aldeburgh is quite a well-visited town.
Dad had found out that there is a really nice coastal path that runs up this section of coastline, and the path itself is dog friendly between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness even in the summer months (the actual beach only allows dogs between the end of September and the 30th of April).
The walk there and back took us just over 2 hours but we did stop just before the NO DOGS sign at Thorpeness for a rest and a slice of banana bread that Abby had made (you can find her recipe for it here). The ground was pretty much completely flat, but you did have to walk on some areas of shingle and stony beach when you neared Thorpeness so it’s something to hear in mind when selecting what shoes to wear.
After blowing out the cobwebs it was time to sample what Aldeburgh is famous for – their fish and chips. We have been to Aldeburgh a few times and the chippy never disappoints, however it seems as if the whole world has heard about it because the queues at BOTH the fish and chip shops (they’re owned by the same people) were the longest we had ever seen! I guess maybe because it was a bank holiday weekend and on top of that they have been closed for a period of time due to coronavirus, but it was just so busy… To be fair though, the council had widened up the pavement to allow for social distancing in the high street, so we all felt safe.
After umming And ahhing whether we were up for the queue or whether we should order a takeaway delivery from another fish and chip shop in the evening, I managed to convince everyone that these were worth waiting for. We decided to go for the Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop because the queue was marginally shorter (and closer to the car).
After queuing for around 40 minutes, we finally got to sit down and eat and boy was it worth it. The cod was so flaky and the batter was so SO crispy with no greasy bits. The chips were the perfect amount of fluffiness and crispiness, and drowned in salt and vinegar. We all went for the medium cod and a medium chips which was on the limit of being too much for us to finish in one sitting but we all managed it!
They were really good in there regarding preventing coronavirus transmission, all the staff wore gloves and face coverings and you as a customer had to wear a face covering also (most people were also wearing them in the queue as well).
FISH AND CHIPS!!! 
The Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop 
A pretty picture of art of the sea front at Aldeburgh 
A gloomy sky and some boats on the beach at Aldeburgh
After eating, we drove to Sizewell Beach which is a 10-15 minute drive. Again we managed to park for free due to a space outside of the car park – seems like luck was on our side that day!
You may or may not know that the north side of Sizewell is home to two nuclear power stations which can be seen from Aldeburgh and beyond. You might therefore think this is a strange place to visit (unless we were really in to nuclear power then it makes perfect sense!), but there is another reason – the long stretch of sandy and pebbly beach is dog friendly all year round.
Harley loves a run and a paddle in the sea so we couldn’t not go here considering how close it was. We probably spent about an hour there all together, and finished off our time out with a Magnum ice cream each from Sizewell Tea.
That was the main bits of our day, and we were so full after our fish and chips we just snacked on bread, local cheese and some rose for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent doing a mixture of reading, watching a film, playing UNO and roasting marshmallows on the chimenea – lovely.
Day 3 – Needham Lake, Alton Water & Stonham Barns
We started off the day with some Fluffy American Pancakes made by Abby and I – I just wish we’d done at least double the amount of batter because they were so good! After breakfast we phoned up the paddleboarding people to see if they were operating today (they were) and to book a slot for later on this afternoon.
As we weren’t paddleboarding until the afternoon, we decided to drive to Needham Lake which was 10 minutes away from the cottage. There was a free car park which was handy, and the place wasn’t too busy as well which was a plus. The lake itself is only small (I think it took us 20 minutes to walk the whole way round) but it is really pretty and it allowed Harley to stretch his legs. There are also various sculptures and play equipment for kids at various points around the lake which we thought was good.
Dad had done a bit of research and found that there is the Gipping Valley Footpath that we could pick up from Needham Lake to make our walk a bit longer. We could only find a crude map and no instructions and if I’m honest it did take us a while to find it but we did eventually, I’ll try and explain it as clearly as possible for you now:
- Walk to the corner of the field between the carpark (on the left) and the river (on the right) until there is an opening onto the road
- Turn right and walk until you can see a footpath sign on the opposite side of the road
- Cross the road (carefully, it is quite a fast road and on a bit of a bend) and follow the signs
You can just walk as far as you want (the footpath runs all the way from Stowmarket to Ipswich), and turn back when you are done.
After our walk we went back to the cottage to eat a quick lunch and get into our wetsuits. We then drove the 30 minutes to Alton Water (yes, in our wetsuits – the changing rooms aren’t open there…) and parked up in the car park nearest the water sports centre. There are 3 main car parks around Alton Water, and for £3 a day you can park at any of them which I thought was really good because they could easily charge a lot more and it means you can see different parts of the reservoir even if you only have half a day there.
We had been told by the water sports people to get there about 15 minutes before our allotted time to get our life jackets on and to listen to the induction. They were really good about keeping things clean there, all the life jackets were dunked in Milton solution between uses and the board were sprayed with disinfectant as well.
In the end mum, Abby and I went into the water whilst dad went for a little walk with the dog to keep him occupied. We had such a laugh, Abby and I had done it once before in Canada but it was mums first time and she was a bit tentative to start. By the end of the hour we were all standing (most of the time!) and had gone quite a distance – we were all exhausted when we finally beached. At £13 an hour to rent a board we agreed it was really good value to get some exercise, have fun and just do something a little bit different.
After our antics out in the water, we stripped off, got dry, and hopped back in the car to drive back to the cottage to drop Harley off (he’d had a long few days and was probably glad of the break from us!) and then we drive a few minutes to Stonham Barns.
Stonham Barns has a mix of things to do including a shopping village, a holiday park, an owl sanctuary and much more. The reason we stopped off here was to try our hand at mini golf. Smugglers Bay Adventure Golf is an 18-hole pirate-themed golf course full of obstacles and even a water feature you have to hit your ball through! It was a good laugh, and we had a surprising amount of hole-in-ones between the four of us which was unexpected but made it a bit more exciting.
After our putting session we headed back to the cottage and made a curry for dinner. The evening was just spent doing our own thing and roasting marshmallows outside (again!), it was so nice to just spend the evening unwinding and not having to worry about anything.
Day 4 – Southwold & Home
It was our last night at the cottage today, so after we had packed up our things and said goodbye, we headed to Southwold on the east coast (about 15 miles north of Aldeburgh). It was about an hours drive and in the opposite direction to home but we wanted to make a full day out of our last day and have loved going to Southwold on previous holidays.
We were really quite lucky when it came to parking – we managed to park in a side street for free! Before we drive straight into the car park we had a little cruise around to see if there were any spaces and there was – it was only a few minutes walk to the beach as well which was so lucky. I am not 100% sure on the cost of parking in the Pier Car Park but you can visit Parkopedia where you can find more information.
Once we got to the pier entrance, we turned right and walked along the promenade towards town. Dogs aren’t allowed on this section of beach in the summertime, but they are allowed further down once the promenade has ended all year round. So of course we let Harley have a run around on the doggy section of the beach and threw stones into the water for him to fetch (his new favourite game, although he can never seem to find them…)
After some play time we turned around and walked into town. Walking back you got a great view of the brilliantly white light house that Southwold is famous for. Once we got into town and had a little mooch around, we headed back in the direction of the pier as we were getting hungry.
It was around lunchtime and we hadn’t packed any sandwiches or anything so we decided to treat ourselves too… FISH AND CHIPS (AGAIN)!! We got them from the Boardwalk Restaurant and they weren’t the cheapest but they were really good. Instead of fish I chose a battered sausage and Abby had scampi which she said was delicious, so we did mix up our meals a bit 😉 ! We figured we were on holiday which was a more than goo enough excuse to treat ourselves.
After our meal we decided to walk some of it off before we got back in the car so took a stroll down the pier. For those of you who haven’t visited the pier before, there are so many things to see and do such as numerous cafés, restaurants, shops and a vintage arcade. It’s just a nice place to have a walk and allows you to see the beach from the sea which is cool too.
And that was the end of our four lovely days in Suffolk, we have been there a fair few times before as it is not too far away but we never fail to find somewhere new (and love going back and visiting our favourite places again and again).
Have you been to Suffolk? Where would you recommend for us to go next time?
We hope you’re all staying safe and travelling responsibly.
Happy travelling!
Zoe and David x
Written by Zoe
Not-So-Trendy Travellers 