Escape to Aldeburgh and the Suffolk sandlings. Let the stress of everyday life evaporate into Aldeburgh's wide atmospheric sky. Take a walk on the beach, take time out to recharge your batteries! Here are just a few things to do and places to visit.
Thorpeness can be reached by the beach road by car or it is a lovely 2 mile walk. Boats can be hired on the lake and there are several pubs and a tea room for lunches and ice cream.
Southwold is a seaside town approx half an hour away which is worth spending a few hours looking around the shops.
Aldeburgh Museum -
housed in one of the most best preserved 16th century Tudor buildings in Britain is a fascinating place to visit for young and old alike. Learn about Aldeburgh through the ages, the 1953 floods, the railway, the lifeboats and lots more including the Aldeburgh Witches!!
Sailors Path - A delightful five mile walk over heaths, through woods, and beside farmland with magnificent views over the Alde Estuary between the village of Snape and the coastal town of Aldeburgh. Until a few hundred years ago the village of Snape was far larger than Aldeburgh, perhaps the reason for the well trodden path which runs between the two. Called The Sailors Path it gave seaman access to Aldeburgh, then a centre for both local and offshore fishing, boat building and of course a certain amount of smuggling.
Shingle Street & Martello Tower - A single row of assorted cottages stands sentinel against the ravages of the North Sea whose wild and wondrous waves crash relentlessly against the shifting shingle bank. Here the Alde and Ore estuary reaches the sea, its eastern bank a narrow shingle spit running northwards past Orford to Aldeburgh. On the southern edge of this tiny hamlet stands one of a series of east coast Martello Towers. Constructed in the early 1800s these small defensive forts were built to protect England against the threat of invasion during the Napoleonic wars.
The Aldeburgh Cinema - the auditorium was built before 1920, the exhibition gallery and foyer are part of an 18th 
century house and opens onto a delightful walled garden of an earlier date. Once a year the cinema holds its annual Film Documentary Festival which in the past have included discussions with leading film makers The Cinema which is open all year, is one of the few independent cinemas still remaining in the country. Purpose-built, it seats 286 in modern comfort and boasts the latest technology. Including a Dolby sound system incorporating digital with surround speakers and a loop induction system for the hard of hearing. Current releases are shown daily in the evening.
Orford Castle - to the south of Aldeburgh the isolated castle town of Orford is of particular interest and charm, its 
800 year-old castle being open to the public set among its former defence mounds; an historic landmark on the Suffolk coast. Built in 1165, by King Henry II, Orford Castle was one of the most important castles in medieval England, protecting England against the ever present threat of coastal invasion. A most impressive structure, the castle consisted of a curtain wall with a number of flanking towers, and a twin-towered gatehouse surrounding a polygonal Keep (or great tower). A large ditch around the outside of the curtain wall provided further protection. Today little more than the Great Tower remains. Protected by a portcullis, it resembles no other tower in Britain or Ireland, its basic plan of a circular tower incorporates three great turrets rising to some 90ft high spaced equidistantly around it.
Places to Eat & Drink -
There is ample choice when it comes to food from lip smacking battered fish at The Aldeburgh Fish And Chip Shop to fine gastronomy and nice wines at The Lighthouse and 152, both on the High Street. For those with a taste for Suffolk's famous Adnams brews there is no shortage of good pubs and olde-worlde inns but the Mill Inn and The Cross Keys remain popular choices.
Golf is available at the Aldeburgh Golf Cub and there is sailing at www.slaughdensailing.co.uk . Local RSPB information can be found at www.rspb.org.uk.
Sutton Hoo – 25 minutes away in the delightful town of Woodbridge situated on the banks of the River Deben.
Snape Maltings is famous for its music and food and drink festivals.
