If you’re looking for a quiet, peaceful break, then Suffolk and Norfolk in East Anglia is the place to decompress and relax. Lonely Planet has announced it as one of the best destinations in the world to visit in 2025. What to do when you’re here? Here’s our top fifty ways to UNLONDON yourself. Get your Insta account ready and don’t think about ordering an Uber taxi…
1 See the seals. The UK’s largest colony is at Blakeney Spit. Catch a Beans Boat for a memorable experience. It’s a great trip year-round (they’re so cute), but the best time is in the New Year when the pups arrive.
2 Have a vineyard tour. Imagine you’re in the South of France on a tour and tasting. We recommend Burn Valley and Flint vineyards.
3 Scour dark skies. We have areas of minimal light pollution in the Norfolk Coast National Landscape and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Landscape – perfect for stargazing. That’s not happening in London!
4 Discover birdwatching. Suffolk and Norfolk have Premier League nature reserves, including Minsmere, Cley Marshes, Carlton and Oulton Marshes, Titchwell and Snettisham which has its annual Spectacular in the New Year… hundreds of thousands of migrating geese lifting off from The Wash mudflats at daybreak and going overhead to feed inland.
5 Bee aware. We all know how important the members of the superfamily Apoidea are, and we’ve got loads of gardens in Suffolk and Norfolk designed to make them go pollen crazy.
6 Sea the heights. Stand on the crest of the Cromer Ridge at Roman Camp and you’re on the highest point in East Anglia with a sea view. It’s spectacular, of course. There are other places in Norfolk to get high.
7 Spot some clouds. Yes, of course there’s clouds in London. But you’ve not seen clouds properly until you’ve seen the size of our skies. Just call it Big Sky Thinking.
8 Go camping. There’s no better way to immerse yourself in nature than sleeping under the stars in Suffolk camping or glamping and Norfolk camping or glamping.
9 See the light first! Lowestoft is the most easterly point in the country so, you know, it’s the place where the sun rises first in the UK and why the beach hosts the First Light Festival every year. The sunrise takes about an hour in summertime so is well worth setting an alarm for.
10 Time travel at Thorpeness. This fantasy Merry England holiday village has pretty mock Tudor houses, the fairytale ‘House in the Clouds’ and 60-acre Meare with little islands, named by Peter Pan author JM Barrie, you can row to for a picnic. Stay at Five Acre Barn.
11 Tour a farm. In this case, Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park. You know him, best mates with Jamie Oliver and co-stars on Jamie’ and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast. He has a farm outside Ipswich which includes polar bears and Arctic wolves. As you do.
12 Build a bug hotel. Learn how to do it at unique Bug Parc, Bugz UK, the largest all-invertebrate zoo in the country.
13 Stay in a fabulous hotel by the coast – we’ve got loads in both Norfolk and Suffolk.
14 Pack a picnic. There are farm shops and farmers’ markets galore to pick local artisan food. Then it’s just a case of finding the best location to enjoy your fabulous fare.
15 Go on safari. Try a self-drive safari tour at multi-award winning Watatunga Wildlife Reserve, a 170-acre gem that hosts the UK’s largest collection of endangered deer and antelope.
16 Arresting Constable. If you like the paintings of John Constable, you can actually walk in his footsteps and see for yourselves what he painted in the Dedham Vale. Set in a National Landscape, this rural area was where the painter was born, and where he painted his most celebrated works. Visit Willy Lott’s Cottage in Flatford, which featured in Constable’s most famous painting, The Hay Wain (1821). Nearby in Sudbury is Gainsborough’s House.
17 Listen to birdsong. When you wake up in a secluded, quiet place at dawn, listen out for the Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler, Chaffinch and more…
18 Go fruit picking. Farms across Suffolk and Norfolk open their gates for pick-your-own… but which berry will you choose?
19 Come and hug a tree. You know the Japanese have long sworn by forests as a salve for mind and body. Yes, you have trees in London, but the Brecks has the largest low-lying forest in the UK – Thetford Forest. Come on, feel the love… cuddle a Corsican pine. Or thousands of them! Get amongst them at Go Ape.
20 Enjoy the sunset. Head to Hunstanton, known as Sunny Hunny, for spectacular ones… it’s the only east coast resort that faces west. Convince your friends the land across The Wash is Holland… someone will fall for it. It’s actually Lincolnshire.
21 Identify a wildflower. East Anglia is well-groomed because of the brilliant work of our farmers but, nonetheless, there’s plenty of natural wildness here. Take a look at the wildflower guide Native Wildflowers of the UK and head out with your curiosity.
22 Learn to surf. Still in Cromer, there’s a surf school. Or Paddleboard in Sheringham.
23 Spot a horizon in Norfolk without a church spire. Bet you can’t.
24 Enjoy a Broads view. Climb the 89 steps to the top of the church tower of St Helen’s at Ranworth, otherwise known as The Cathedral of the Broads, and get a bird’s eye view of Ranworth Broad.
25 Visit Cromer to eat the eponymous crab. They’re famous for their succulent meat – the key is that the crabs get to feed on the world’s longest chalk reef just ashore. Bring your diving gear and you can discover it!
26 Get a beer view. Head to Holkham on the B1105 and at Branthill you’ll see the sea in the distance and fields of the best tasting malting barley in the country. It’s the best because it’s grown at height and benefits from salty sea frets. Slake your thirst with a visit to the nearby Real Ale Shop.
27 Get a digital detox. Switch off your phone and meditate, breathe and relax in Suffolk and Norfolk’s huge estates, such as Ickworth, Holkham, Houghton and Felbrigg.
28 Get your Vitamin Sea. There are great places to take a dip – we’re recommend Warbleswick, Felixstowe, Sea Palling and Wells-next-the-Sea.
29 Walk in Royalty’s footsteps. Visit Sandringham and take a behind-the-scenes look at where the Royal Family spend their Christmases – look out for Queen Elizabeth II’s unfinished jigsaw.
30 Go wheeeee! Ride Gt Yarmouth Pleasure Beach’s wooden rollercoaster, the only one in the country that doesn’t have automatic brakes. It relies on a brake man doing it manually. Eek!
31 Walk barefoot. Whether it’s on the beach or on grass, reconnecting with the ground will boost your stability and strength.
32 Hire a day boat. It’s the best way to explore the 125 miles of navigable, lock-free waterways that make up the Broads National Park, the only one that’s man-made, the result of inundated medieval peat diggings. Better still, hire a boat for a holiday – there’s nothing better than staying in a different location every night (and you can get to enjoy the waterfront pubs).
33 Ride a camel. Yes, really! Head for the Camel Park Oasis.
34 Explore Wool Towns. From the 13th century, the wool trade was a mainstay of the English economy, no more so in Suffolk where raw wool was sold to the weavers of Flanders. This brought extraordinary wealth to the wool merchants of Lavenham, Hadleigh, Kersey, Clare, Cavendish and Long Melford who built magnificent churches and timber-framed houses. One of the best examples is The Swan Inn at Lavenham – check out the Airmen’s Bar.
35 Discover horseracing’s HQ. Well, there can only be one worldwide home of flat horseracing, can’t there, which makes Newmarket unique. Get there early to see all the horses on The Gallops, explore the National Horse Racing Museum or book tickets for a race day.
36 Find Boudicca. Yes, London has that fab statue on the Embankment, but this is where her Iceni tribe lived. Pay a visit to Venta Icenorum, literally ‘Market place of the Iceni’, or discover more about her at Norwich Castle Museum which has recently undergone a £23m refurbishment to the Keep to make it the Royal Palace Reborn.
37 Giza Pyramid. You don’t have to visit Egypt for a pyramid, head to Blickling Hall and in the Great Wood you’ll be delighted by the sight of a large pyramid, a mausoleum built in 1794 for the 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire.
38 Go down a flint mine. Dating back around 4,500 years, Grimes Graves is probably Europe’s first industrial centre, a now eerie pocked landscape of what was 400 digs for hard black flint to be fashioned into all types of blades, such as knives, axes and spearheads. Climb down 57 feet below ground in the one shaft open to the public.
39 Discover England’s first patron saint. Bury St Edmunds is the last resting place of King Edmund, buried here after he was martyred by the Vikings for refusing to renounce Christianity.
40 Play Pingo Bingo. These Ice Age round pools of water are unique to the Brecks. Head out on the Pingo Trail.
41 Hoo’s there. Head to Sutton Hoo, England’s Valley of the Kings, the 7th century cemetery for the royal dynasty of East Anglia, the Wuffingas. In 1939, in the King’s Mound, was found the richest burial ever found in northern Europe, that of King Rædwald, laid to rest in a 90ft long ship, surrounded by his extraordinary treasure. His iconic helmet is in the British Museum, but there’s a replica at Sutton Hoo. See The Dig for the full story.
42 The full Nelson. You’ve been to Trafalgar Square, you’ve seen the statue of Horatio Nelson. Head to Burnham Thorpe and you can see his birthplace. Head to Burnham Overy Staithe and see where he learnt to sail. Read our Nelson in Norfolk blog.
43 Whisky galore! Visit the home of the ‘World’s Best Single Malt Whisky’, The English Distillery at Roudham. This independent, family-owned distillery has pioneered English whisky for 20 years and is the oldest registered whisky distillery in England.
44 A Marvellous sight! Head to the Norman Foster-designed Sainsbury Centre on the University of East Anglia campus at Norwich and you’re looking at the upstate New York HQ of Marvel’s Avengers.
45 Water spectacular! Visit The Hippodrome on Great Yarmouth’s Golden Mile and you’re in the last remaining complete circus building in the country. See a show and enjoy the remarkable water feature in the middle of the ring.
46 Delve into the Deep History Coast. Walk in the footsteps of the first tourists ever to visit this country, just shy of one million years ago. It’s our Deep History Coast.
47 Enjoy a chain reaction. Yes, you have many ways of getting from one side of the Thames to the other, including bridges and tunnels, but do you have a chain ferry? We do, the Reedham chain ferry.
48 Pier, no pressure. Take in a show at The Pavilion on Cromer’s Victorian Pier and know you’re in the last end-of-pier theatre in Europe.
49 Visit England’s Atlantis. In medieval times, Dunwich was one of the largest and most prosperous ports on the east coast, but a storm surge in 1286 caused huge damage, followed by two great storms which all but wiped away the entire settlement. Today around 200 people live in this one-road settlement with its cosy pub The Ship Inn, local museum, long gravel beach and monastery ruins. A reconstructed model at Dunwich Museum allows you to see it as it looked in its heyday. Stay at Mill Hill Farm nearby.
50 Walk in Ed Sheeran’s footsteps. The top singer songwriter was brought up in Suffolk and is an Ipswich fan. You can find Ed across the county.
Bet you’re feeling UNLONDON now! For more inspiration go to Visit Suffolk and Visit Norfolk.
