Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape

This isn't one attraction you tick off a list - it's the entire sweep of coastline and inland heath that stretches across Suffolk, best explored from a base near Woodbridge. What you're getting is proper wild countryside: shingle beaches that go on forever, salt marshes where the light does strange things at dusk, and pockets of heathland that feel genuinely remote despite being in southern England.

The coast itself rewards proper wandering. Orford Ness is extraordinary if you catch the ferry - a long shingle spit with derelict military buildings and a strange, otherworldly silence. Inland, the heaths around Snape support rare birds and flowers. This isn't manicured parkland; it's working landscape where you'll spot birdwatchers and walkers properly equipped for mud and wind.

Walkers will spend hours here happily. Families work best on the beach sections - Aldeburgh and Southwold are nearby for shops and chips. History types will find themselves fascinated by the coastal erosion, the abandoned radar stations, the way settlements have been swallowed by the sea over centuries.

There's no single entry fee because it's a designated area rather than a managed site. Access is free across most of it. Allow a full day minimum, though you could easily spend three or four days picking through different sections. Spring and early summer are cracking for birdlife and wildflowers; autumn gets moody and grey, which some prefer.

Stay at Wantisden Park or Run Cottage Touring Park - both within easy striking distance of Woodbridge - and use them as a base to explore different sections. You'll need a car to hop between locations efficiently.