England’s ‘most charming’ seaside town tops list of best places for a holiday

Staff
By Staff

If you have exhausted Bournemouth, Torquay, Brighton and Blackpool – or you simply want somewhere with smaller crowds – then Southwold in Suffolk is the place to go

A British seaside town with a beautiful beach has been named the best place in the UK for a holiday.

Given how miserable the weather has been so far this year in the UK, the glorious sunshine much of the country is now being treated to should really be taken advantage of. If you are looking for a place to for a day or weekend away, spent enjoying the salt spray and sunshine, then you could do far worse than Southwold.

The beautiful Suffolk town is the perfect place for a seaside holiday as it lies directly inside the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Landscape, which has been named an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty due to its ancient woodlands, flowering heathlands, rugged cliffs and rivers worth exploring.

Do you live in Southwold? How do you feel about the second homes? Email [email protected]

Now the pleasant coastal spot has been named the number one “best seaside town” by the Camping and Caravanning Club, mainly because of its “charming” sights and “award-winning” Victorian pier. Southwold has also been described as “Suffolk’s most charming coastal town” by the Times, which named it as a fantastic place for a “Great British break”.

Southwold is filled with cute, multi-coloured beach huts lined along the seafront, providing little pops of butter yellows, whites and blues. A particularly pleasant feature of the small town is that it is almost as remote as an island, with just one road in and out giving a sense of being cut off from the world.

It is also home to an award-winning bakery filled with sausage rolls, gingerbread men, croissants and pastries galore, a lighthouse which stands over the sea and provides an excellent backdrop for some holiday photographs, and a gorgeous pier where holidaymakers can add their own plaques to commemorate their visit.

Staycationers can also spend their days wandering around the picture-perfect streets brimming with colourful houses, browsing independent shops or just enjoying an ice cream. While it officially has just over 1,000 residents, it’s significantly larger pound-for-pound cultural impact is in part due to the many visitors it attracts, and wealthy second home owners.

Roughly 60% of the dwellings in the town are second homes, with many of the holiday lets lying empty most of the year in anticipation of their well-to-do owners’ arrival.

Such is the influence of absent landlords and holidaying home owners Southwold has earned the nickname “North London On Sea” – and as it’s a 2.5 hour drive away from London itself, it’s popular with city dwellers.

With a beautiful sandy beach and the spectacular Adnams Brewery site in the town’s centre, there seems little reason to leave the idyllic spot, apart from to walk along the promenade. It’s therefore no surprise that the idyllic seaside village often attracts people looking to move somewhere on the coast – but it’s not going to be a budget-friendly move.

Southwold has been named as the fifth most expensive coastal resorts to relocate to in the country, with house prices more than double the national average. Average house prices in the Suffolk seaside town have been calculated at £864,860, according to research by Suffolk Removals homepage.

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