Southwold

Southwold's accommodation is shaped by the town's determination to stay small: there is no chain hotel within the town boundary, and the choice runs instead from Adnams' own historic coaching inns to converted Victorian seafront houses and farmhouse B&Bs in the villages just inland. At the top of the range, the brewery's own hotels combine period buildings with genuinely good restaurants and bars, while a handful of independent boutique hotels and restaurant-with-rooms operations offer a similar level of comfort in smaller, more personal settings.

Mid-range options tend to be a short walk or drive from the centre, in Reydon or on the edge of town, trading a few minutes' extra travel for larger rooms, easier parking and often a proper bar and restaurant on site; several of these double as popular local pubs in their own right, so a room here comes with a ready-made social life downstairs. Across the estuary, Walberswick offers its own small cluster of characterful accommodation, reached either by the seasonal rowing ferry or a longer drive around via Blythburgh, and rewards those who make the effort with a quieter, more villagey base.

For a simpler, more affordable stay, Southwold's B&Bs and the farmhouse guest houses scattered through the surrounding villages of Wenhaston, Thorington and beyond offer proper Suffolk breakfasts and a warmer welcome than a hotel front desk, usually at a fraction of the price of a room in town. These do generally require a car, since none are within easy walking distance of the seafront, but they suit visitors happy to trade a few minutes' drive for a night in genuine farm buildings surrounded by open countryside. Whatever the budget, booking ahead is strongly advised for the summer months and any weekend close to the Latitude Festival in July, when the whole area fills up fast and prices climb accordingly; visiting in spring or autumn instead opens up far more choice and considerably better rates for the same rooms.

Southwold rewards slow, unhurried exploring more than a checklist of sights, but these are the places most visitors make a point of seeing.

• Southwold Pier is a rebuilt Victorian-style pier with a permanently odd sense of humour, home to Tim Hunkin's Under the Pier Show, an arcade of home-built, gently satirical machines unlike anything else in Britain.
• Southwold Lighthouse stands incongruously among terraced houses just back from the seafront; it is still a working Trinity House light, and guided tours climb the tower for views over the rooftops to the sea.
• Adnams Brewery has brewed beer in the town since 1872 and now distils gin and vodka alongside it; brewery and distillery tours explain the process and end, fairly, with a tasting.
• The beach huts along the seafront promenade are as photographed as anything in Southwold, a long ribbon of individually painted wooden huts that regularly sell for six-figure sums despite having no water or electricity.
• Southwold Harbour, tucked away on the River Blyth rather than the sea, is a working fishing harbour lined with black-tarred huts selling fresh and smoked fish straight off the boats.
• St Edmund's Church is a soaring 15th-century wool church with a medieval rood screen and Southwold Jack, a carved and armoured figure that strikes a bell to mark services.
• Gun Hill, above the beach, has a row of six 18-pounder cannons and some of the best sea views in town, particularly at sunrise.
• Walberswick, reached by a seasonal rowing-boat ferry across the Blyth or a longer drive round via Blythburgh, is Southwold's quieter twin, known for crabbing off the bridge and its own sweep of dunes and beach.

Adnams dominates Southwold's drinking culture in the best possible way: its cask ales, including Southwold Bitter and Ghost Ship, are on every pub's bar, and its Copper House Distillery produces gin and vodka sold in the brewery's own shop on the High Street. The Sole Bay Inn, right beneath the lighthouse, is effectively the brewery tap and about as authentic a Southwold pub as it gets.

Seafood is the town's other great strength. The huts down at the harbour sell fresh and smoked fish, dressed crab and cockles straight off the boats, best eaten outside on a bench with a view of the water. The Harbour Inn, on the water's edge, serves the same local catch alongside its pints, while Sutherland House, in a wood-panelled 16th-century building on the High Street, turns it into a serious seafood-and-plant-based tasting menu.

Fish and chips are a Southwold institution in their own right, queued for by locals and visitors alike at the town's chip shops, and best eaten on the beach or the pier. For something sweeter, the local bakeries and cafés around the High Street and Market Place turn out good coffee and cake for a break between the beach and the shops, and a small farmers' market brings local produce, cheese and cured meats into town through the summer months.

Southwold itself keeps camping close at hand rather than pushing it to the edge of town: the council-run site sits on Ferry Road, within easy walking distance of the harbour, the pier and the beach huts, making it the obvious choice for anyone wanting to pitch a tent without needing a car for the duration of their stay. Facilities here are straightforward rather than luxurious, in keeping with a site whose main asset is simply its location on the doorstep of everything Southwold has to offer.

Further out, the villages around the Suffolk Heritage Coast offer a broader range of camping and touring options, from simple grass pitches to shepherd's huts and glamping pods set on working farms among the heath and marshland that make this stretch of coast so good for walking and birdwatching. These sites tend to have more space to spread out, better facilities for families, and easy access to Minsmere, Dunwich Heath and the historic church at Blythburgh, at the cost of a short drive back into Southwold itself for the beach and the pubs.

Along the coast towards Lowestoft, larger holiday parks offer bigger pitch numbers, more extensive on-site facilities and direct beach access of their own, a useful alternative for families wanting a full holiday-park experience with entertainment and amenities on tap, rather than a quieter, more basic pitch closer to Southwold's town centre. Whichever type of site suits, all three of the campsites below are working, currently-trading operations rather than seasonal pop-ups, and all are within a short drive of Southwold's own attractions.