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Aside from the obvious (hanging out on Portman Road offering to sell a kidney for a ticket to Leicester and QPR games) what might be a decent day out in the Suffolk area for a family visiting from US? Bit of history, bit of culture, bit of walking. Obvs the weather could impact. Any ideas?
Sutton Hoo - worth a visit?
Southwold/Aldeburgh - is one better/more intersting than the other?
Americans lack history and culture - and decent food and beer. I’d suggest a trip to Snape for a walk along the marshes. A peer at the maltings annd sherry if it’s still there and a pub lunch. Then you can take them to have a look at a real olde world castle at Orford and laugh at the weekenders buying patisseries and overpriced smoked fish.
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 10:03 - Oct 18 by ElephantintheRoom
Americans lack history and culture - and decent food and beer. I’d suggest a trip to Snape for a walk along the marshes. A peer at the maltings annd sherry if it’s still there and a pub lunch. Then you can take them to have a look at a real olde world castle at Orford and laugh at the weekenders buying patisseries and overpriced smoked fish.
Right. This week I've been told to feck off and been put on a div list, been given a dismissive response to my complaint about a dismissive comment in a reply (sorry Stokie, actually not taken that one to heart) and now I'm going to give out in true TWTD forum mode...and hope for a pile on from anyone who backs me up.
America does not lack history and culture. The First Peoples were remarkably inventive and had a proud culture that anyone who is even the slightest bit inclined to can find out about. The settlers have history in bucketloads too, from The Declaration of Independence through The Federalist Papers and The Gettysburg Address to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. WE spend a great deal of our time getting absorbed in culture from America as well; jazz, blues, rock, soul, movies, Georgia O'Keefe, Twin Peaks, loads
Does anyone else keep seeing this thread title and think:
Bury St Edmunds certainly worth a visit, especially with teenage children. It's lovely there nowadays, lots of nice places to eat and drink and they could do a bit of shopping too. Also looks pretty with the Abbey and its gardens and cobbled streets etc. There's a good picture house there if you fancy a film, and the Greene King brewery tour is actually really good. It's developing a bit of a cafe / foodie reputation now, from Michelin star restaurants to very good pub food, and some good international cuisine too.
Coastal suggestions all covered off pretty well on the thread already.
Others that I've not seen mentioned (unless I've missed them) would be Lavenham which is obviously very rich in history and nice to look at. There are some great walks around there too, perhaps not somewhere you would spend a whole day but could be incorporated into a Bury trip. You've had some good pub suggestions already (Waldringfield highly recommended) but if you find yourself on the West side of the county I can recommend the Weeping Willow at Barrow. West of Bury, they'll look after you there.
Perhaps not the right time of year as very weather dependent, but I've seen a load of people getting into water sports this year. Paddle boarding, kayaking etc. Some good spots locally to do that but as I say perhaps the depths of winter isn't the right time!
Further afield London of course is an obvious suggestion. I'm not sure how often you / your family get over to the UK, but if rarely then it feels like a good opportunity to have a day in the smoke. Traffic should be light that week, so driving up the A12 and parking at Newbury Park might be a cost effective way to do it with a family.
[Post edited 18 Oct 2023 11:04]
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Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 12:46 - Oct 18 with 2564 views
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 10:59 - Oct 18 by _clive_baker_
Bury St Edmunds certainly worth a visit, especially with teenage children. It's lovely there nowadays, lots of nice places to eat and drink and they could do a bit of shopping too. Also looks pretty with the Abbey and its gardens and cobbled streets etc. There's a good picture house there if you fancy a film, and the Greene King brewery tour is actually really good. It's developing a bit of a cafe / foodie reputation now, from Michelin star restaurants to very good pub food, and some good international cuisine too.
Coastal suggestions all covered off pretty well on the thread already.
Others that I've not seen mentioned (unless I've missed them) would be Lavenham which is obviously very rich in history and nice to look at. There are some great walks around there too, perhaps not somewhere you would spend a whole day but could be incorporated into a Bury trip. You've had some good pub suggestions already (Waldringfield highly recommended) but if you find yourself on the West side of the county I can recommend the Weeping Willow at Barrow. West of Bury, they'll look after you there.
Perhaps not the right time of year as very weather dependent, but I've seen a load of people getting into water sports this year. Paddle boarding, kayaking etc. Some good spots locally to do that but as I say perhaps the depths of winter isn't the right time!
Further afield London of course is an obvious suggestion. I'm not sure how often you / your family get over to the UK, but if rarely then it feels like a good opportunity to have a day in the smoke. Traffic should be light that week, so driving up the A12 and parking at Newbury Park might be a cost effective way to do it with a family.
[Post edited 18 Oct 2023 11:04]
Lovely stuff, cheers. The wife is now throwing the idea of a day trip to Paris into the planning. Would rather not do that, but we’ll see who wins that battle!
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 22:01 - Oct 17 by monkeymagic
In addition to the many excellent suggestions that have already been posted, I would recommend the Maybush Inn at Waldringfield. Good food, superb views, and a bracing post lunch estuary walk awaits you. Further afield, Thorpeness is very pretty and there’s a nice coastal walk (approx 40 minutes) to Aldeburgh that has many pubs and restaurants. Only downside is that there’s quite a lot of salmon trousered chino types who drive 4 by 4’s in these places. Apologies in advance if that’s your demographic!
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 19:29 - Oct 17 by Swansea_Blue
A quick trip around the northern bypass to Snoasis?
Some good ideas here, but all going to be very weather dependent. It could be bitter on the coast if there’s an east wind. Sutton Hoo for example is more about walking around outside than the relatively small exhibition (although I’d recommend it).
A walk from Walberswick to Southwold across the heath is probably as quintessentially Suffolk as you could find. With a good selection of pubs at the end of course (or half way if you go out and back).
My family now live on the Suffolk Coast and this exact time of year I always do the below
Walberswick/Southwold/Aldeburgh
So maybe I will see you for a pint!
I'd also recommend taking home B Honey Suffolk Sea Salt Caramels (If I haven't purchased them all first). Fishers Gin is a good local bottle to take back Stateside!
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 10:21 - Oct 18 by WeWereZombies
Right. This week I've been told to feck off and been put on a div list, been given a dismissive response to my complaint about a dismissive comment in a reply (sorry Stokie, actually not taken that one to heart) and now I'm going to give out in true TWTD forum mode...and hope for a pile on from anyone who backs me up.
America does not lack history and culture. The First Peoples were remarkably inventive and had a proud culture that anyone who is even the slightest bit inclined to can find out about. The settlers have history in bucketloads too, from The Declaration of Independence through The Federalist Papers and The Gettysburg Address to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. WE spend a great deal of our time getting absorbed in culture from America as well; jazz, blues, rock, soul, movies, Georgia O'Keefe, Twin Peaks, loads
Does anyone else keep seeing this thread title and think:
It's the ElephantOfDoom. They can't post anything without being negative. Can be safely ignored.
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 10:03 - Oct 18 by ElephantintheRoom
Americans lack history and culture - and decent food and beer. I’d suggest a trip to Snape for a walk along the marshes. A peer at the maltings annd sherry if it’s still there and a pub lunch. Then you can take them to have a look at a real olde world castle at Orford and laugh at the weekenders buying patisseries and overpriced smoked fish.
Laughable post.
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Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 16:18 - Oct 18 with 2417 views
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 10:21 - Oct 18 by WeWereZombies
Right. This week I've been told to feck off and been put on a div list, been given a dismissive response to my complaint about a dismissive comment in a reply (sorry Stokie, actually not taken that one to heart) and now I'm going to give out in true TWTD forum mode...and hope for a pile on from anyone who backs me up.
America does not lack history and culture. The First Peoples were remarkably inventive and had a proud culture that anyone who is even the slightest bit inclined to can find out about. The settlers have history in bucketloads too, from The Declaration of Independence through The Federalist Papers and The Gettysburg Address to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. WE spend a great deal of our time getting absorbed in culture from America as well; jazz, blues, rock, soul, movies, Georgia O'Keefe, Twin Peaks, loads
Does anyone else keep seeing this thread title and think:
I assumed it was tongue in cheek to get a reaction, but you're not wrong. Some cracking beers too (you missed that bit out). There's an almost infinite variety of beers from thousands* of microbreweries across the various states. And it's not all fizzy pop too - far from it.
I loved the time I spent living in the States and our only regret it wasn't long enough. It was probably the most enjoyable and interesting experience I've had in my last 20 years. I'd move back like a shot if the chance arose. There's just so much over there to see, do, learn, etc.
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 15:17 - Oct 18 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior
My family now live on the Suffolk Coast and this exact time of year I always do the below
Walberswick/Southwold/Aldeburgh
So maybe I will see you for a pint!
I'd also recommend taking home B Honey Suffolk Sea Salt Caramels (If I haven't purchased them all first). Fishers Gin is a good local bottle to take back Stateside!
[Post edited 18 Oct 2023 15:18]
Another vote for Fishers gin. Lovely stuff.
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Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 00:17 - Oct 19 with 2275 views
Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 19:06 - Oct 17 by Mullet
Framlingham is nice for a day - castle in that weather might be a bit rum though. Southwold/Dunwich/Walberswick - decent walks, pubs and sights aplenty between them Halesworth - 'nuff said Norwich is a decent day trip too as you have the medieval parts too (no not the Carrow Rd vicinity) Any of Constable country will be an experience for your kids too I suspect.
Did Fram in 2016 in the summer and the kids were young enough to be wowed by a castle. As I recall there was a nice pub in town not far from the castle. Not against visiting again provided the weather complies.
We were back visiting the UK in June (we've been in Australia for 10 years now). I'm a born, raised and proud Suffolk man with a love of history. Both of my kids are teenagers and also love history at school. I'd never been to Sutton Hoo, but I'd watched The Dig a couple of years ago and I was super excited about the visit.
It was perhaps the single most underwhelming cultural/historical visit I've done in my life. Spolier alert - the dig site is a bunch of small overgrown mounds not much bigger than a large molehill in some cases. The only notion there was a boat there is a metal replica at the entrance about 1/2 mile up the road (why they don't have it nearer the actual dig location to place it in some sort of context I have no idea); and the small museum (and I mean small) has no original stuiff in it; it's virtually all replicas apart from a few small random and highly decomposed bits of metal.
To quote my 16-year old (who was also excited to go and even more disappointed than I was) - "seems like we should have gone to the British Museum if we'd actually wanted to see anything they dug out of the ground here".
A recent look on TripAdvisor seems to back up the fact that during a recent and large refurbishment of the whole site, the majority of artefacts have been removed to the British Museum and it's lost virtually all that was interesting and magical about the place.
We went from there to Bawdsey to look at the invention of radar museum - which is really small but infinitely more interesting than Sutton Hoo.
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Things to do in Suffolk in December the week after Xmas on 11:39 - Oct 19 with 2203 views
You might like to stop off at a WW2 USAAF base if you’re going to Aldeburgh or Southwold. Leiston had a nice memorial. Southwold would be much better as it’s actually quite interesting and you could walk to Walberswick and have a drink in the pub and talk loudly about how great ‘green electricity’ is for the environment.
En route you could stop off at Blythburgh church and see the musket holes and horse irons bequeathed to it by Cromwell. Personally I’d avoid weekender hellholes like Aldeburgh and Southwold and go to covehithe. The church within the church is remarkable as is the footpath to the crescent shaped sandy beach virtually nobody bothers to go to.
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