The Blue Stadium

Colchester United's home ground sits on the eastern edge of town, a proper working football stadium that's been the club's base since 1999. The Blue Stadium - named after the shirt colour - holds around 7,000 supporters and has that authentic feel of a club that actually belongs to its community rather than a corporate machine. On match days the atmosphere lifts the place, but you can also take a guided tour when games aren't on to explore the stands, tunnel, and dressing rooms. It's not Wembley, and it doesn't pretend to be. What you get is genuine football culture, the kind where locals genuinely care about their side.

Football obsessives will find it worthwhile, particularly if you're timing a visit around a home match. Kids who follow the U's will be buzzing for hours after walking the pitch tunnel. Everyone else? Unless you're into football tourism or happen to be in Maldon anyway, it's a bit of a specific pilgrimage. The stadium sits a few miles from proper countryside, so it works well if you're staying at Stuarts Wood Campsite or The Courts Campsite and fancying a change of pace from the usual family attractions. Entry costs vary depending on whether you're catching a match or booking a tour - worth checking their website for current prices and fixture dates. Allow 90 minutes if you're doing the full ground tour, considerably less if you're just kicking a ball around outside on a non-match day.