East Suffolk

East Suffolk is less polished than the county's western towns and less hurried than anywhere with a motorway running through it. Where inland Suffolk trades on market towns and rolling farmland, this stretch runs out towards the North Sea in a scatter of shingle beaches, tidal estuaries and villages that seem to have been left alone on purpose. It is a place of long skies and slow rivers rather than big attractions, and that quietness is really the point.

The appeal here is in the landscape itself: the marshes and reedbeds along the coast, the estuaries that cut inland, and the network of quiet lanes linking villages that rarely see much through-traffic. Walking and birdwatching draw people to the water's edge, while the countryside inland rewards slower exploration by bike or on foot, past churches, farmland and the odd pub with a garden worth lingering in.

With 224 self-catering cottages on offer, the choice ranges from single cottages hidden down farm tracks to small clusters like those at Wissett Place, giving visitors real flexibility over how central or how remote they want to be. Whether that means a coastal base near the marshes or a countryside cottage further inland, East Suffolk works best for those happy to move at its own pace.