Level land doesn't have to be uninteresting and East Anglia is far from that
Things To Do
Take a trip to Anderby Creek beach on Lincolnshire’s coastline where you can visit the Cloud Bar. Far from from selling alcoholic drinks, the Cloud Bar is the UK’s first purpose-built cloud viewing platform where, with mirrors and ‘cloud menus’ to help with identification, you can literally watch the clouds go by. The Cloud Appreciation Society has even sanctioned it. Honest!
When you visit Cambridge, take a chauffeur-driven punting tour along the River Cam, through the centre of historic Cambridge. Lie back and enjoy views of King’s College Chapel, the Wren Library and the Bridge of Sighs, just some of the architectural beauties that you can expect to see as you float by.
Visit Sandringham, the Royal Family’s Christmas retreat close to Norfolk’s north coast. The house and gardens at Sandringham are open to the public from April to October while the Estate is open all year. Both the Caravan Club and Camping & Caravanning Club have campsites on the estate, making it a perfect destination for a caravan holiday.
Visit Suffolk’s most dramatic areas of coastline. There’s Dunwich Heath, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that colours purple in the summer months with a carpet of heather. Alternatively, visit Orford Ness National Nature Reserve, a wild and remote shingle spit finely attached to the mainland just south of Aldeburgh. Its fragile ecology is rare and of international importance even though, as a former military testing site, there may be unexploded bombs! The spit is only accessible by National Trust ferry from Orford Quay.
Visit Saffron Walden and the surrounding area and go to Audley End House and Gardens, an English Heritage property of sizeable proportions. With an opulent Jacobean house, ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland providing views over rural Essex and a vast organic kitchen garden, there’s something for everyone.
When To Visit
There’s always something going on throughout the year in East Anglia, whether it’s witnessing new drifts of snowdrops, beach carnivals or Christmas tree festivals. Of the major events however, is in April, when the flat racing season begins at Newmarket, Suffolk, while in May you can get your boots on for the Suffolk Walking Festival. May also welcomes the now annual 1000 years of Traditional Crafts Festival, held at Lincoln Castle.
The summer months showcase musical talents in various forms: the Aldeburgh Festival, one of the world’s most iconic celebrations of classical music, in June; Latitude at Southwold in July; the Cambridge Folk Festival, deemed one of the most prestigious folk festivals in the world, in July and August; and the V Festival, held near Chelmsford, Essex, also in August.
Then in September, it’s the turn of the performing arts in Great Yarmouth when the five-day Out There International Festival of Circus and Street Arts brings a riot of colour to public venues across the town.
Getting There
The East of England is one of the least motorway-friendly parts of the country. It’s likely that much of the driving required to get to your caravan holidays in East Anglia will be on A-roads.
The M11, off the M25, will get you to Cambridge and parts of Suffolk, with the A12 heading to Colchester and Ipswich. Access to Lincolnshire via the M1 and then cross-country through Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire or South Yorkshire is possible, alternatively the A1(M)/A1 reaches Grantham and the A15 to Lincoln.
From the Midlands, use the A14, which travels west-east through Cambridgeshire and on through Suffolk to Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich. The entire route is riddled with speed cameras every few miles – you have been warned! You can peel off the A14 at Newmarket onto the A11 for Norwich and the Norfolk Broads.
All of the roads are perfectly good for caravans, but journey times tend to be slow – the A14 and A12 are often busy with lorries, they being the only routes to and from the east coast ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.
Allow plenty of time to get to your chosen campsites in the East of England.
