England: Cambridge, Constable Country and the Norfolk and Suffolk Coast

1. Day 1: Cambridge: the Backs and evensong

   Arrive in Cambridge, walk the colleges, King's College Chapel, a punt on the Backs, then evensong

   • By train
   • Welcome dinner in Cambridge
   • Stay in Cambridge
   Day 1 details

   Make your own way to Cambridge: the fastest trains from London King's Cross take about 50 minutes. We meet your See Sight Tours guide at the hotel at about 1 pm (the exact time and place come with your final itinerary). Your guide walks the group through the centre: Market Hill, the Senate House, the gates of Trinity and Gonville and Caius, and King's Parade. At about 2 pm, well before the chapel closes to visitors in the mid-afternoon, we go into King's College Chapel, begun by Henry VI in 1446, with its fan-vaulted stone ceiling and its sixteenth-century windows. Then we board a chauffeured punt for about 45 minutes along the Backs, where the lawns of the old colleges run down to the River Cam, under the Mathematical Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs. There is time for tea before 5:30 pm, when, after the day visitors have gone, we return to the chapel for choral evensong, about 45 minutes of the choir singing. Dinner together follows, a welcome to the trip.

   Included

   • Welcome meeting with your guide at the Cambridge hotel
   • Guided walk through the colleges and King's Parade
   • King's College Chapel visit, in the early afternoon
   • Chauffeured punt on the Backs
   • Choral evensong in King's College Chapel (or another college chapel when the choir is away)
   • Welcome dinner in Cambridge

   Optional experiences

   • The Fitzwilliam Museum (free entry), before the meeting

   Easier option: Sit out the college walk at a café on King's Parade and join the group at the punting station.

   Free time: Arrive in Cambridge at your own pace before the 1 pm meeting

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot on level pavements and cobbles. The punt is boarded from a low landing stage, with a hand from the punter. Evensong is a church service: quiet, seated, about 45 minutes.

2. Day 2: Constable country and Lavenham

   Cambridge to Flatford Mill, walk to Dedham, then Lavenham

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Lavenham
   Day 2 details

   We check out at 8:30 and drive about an hour and a half south-east to Flatford on the River Stour, in the Dedham Vale. John Constable grew up here, and his father owned Flatford Mill; your guide shows you Willy Lott's House, the cottage in The Hay Wain, and the National Trust exhibition at Bridge Cottage, arriving mid-morning before the car park fills. Then we walk upriver, about 3 km on a level path through water meadows and past grazing cattle, to Dedham, a village of Georgian houses below a tall church tower that appears in several of Constable's paintings. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Dedham. The minibus collects us and takes us about 40 minutes north to Lavenham, our home for two nights. We arrive at about 2 pm, and your guide goes straight to the timber-framed Guildhall on the Market Place, built in the 1520s when the village grew rich on blue woollen cloth, well before it closes at about 4 pm, then the church of St Peter and St Paul. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Flatford: Bridge Cottage, Flatford Mill and Willy Lott's House with your guide
   • Riverside walk from Flatford to Dedham
   • Sit-down lunch in Dedham
   • Lavenham Guildhall
   • The church of St Peter and St Paul, Lavenham

   Easier option: Ride the minibus from Flatford to Dedham and walk the village and the churchyard instead.

   More active option: Walk the longer loop from Flatford over the hill by East Bergholt church and down to Dedham, about 5 km.

   Free time: Evening free in Lavenham

   Activity: About 2.25 hours of driving in two legs. About 3 km on foot on a level, sometimes muddy riverside path with gates, plus an hour on Lavenham's sloping streets.

   

3. Day 3: Sutton Hoo, Snape and Aldeburgh

   Lavenham to Sutton Hoo, Snape Maltings and Aldeburgh, then back to Lavenham

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Lavenham
   Day 3 details

   We leave Lavenham at 8:45 and drive about an hour east to Sutton Hoo, arriving as it opens. In 1939 an excavation in one of these grassy mounds found the impression of a 27-metre ship and the grave goods of an Anglo-Saxon king, probably Raedwald of East Anglia, who died around 624. Your guide walks you out to the burial mounds above the River Deben and through the exhibition hall; the original helmet and treasure are in the British Museum, and full-size replicas are here. Next we cross to Snape Maltings, Victorian malt houses by the reed beds of the River Alde, turned into a concert hall in 1967 for the Aldeburgh Festival that Benjamin Britten founded. Lunch is fish and chips in Aldeburgh, a fishing town of coloured houses on a shingle beach, then a walk along the shore past the fishermen's huts to Maggi Hambling's steel Scallop, Britten's memorial. We drive back to Lavenham for a Suffolk dinner together.

   Included

   • Sutton Hoo at opening, with your guide: the burial mounds and the exhibition
   • Snape Maltings and the reed beds of the River Alde
   • Fish and chips lunch in Aldeburgh
   • Aldeburgh beach walk to the Scallop
   • Dinner together in Lavenham

   Optional experiences

   • The Red House, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears's home in Aldeburgh, on its open days

   Easier option: Stay in the exhibition hall at Sutton Hoo and skip the walk to the mounds; in Aldeburgh, walk the High Street instead of the shingle.

   More active option: Walk on from the Scallop along the shore to Thorpeness, about 3 km, and the minibus collects you there.

   Free time: Free time in Aldeburgh after lunch

   Activity: About 3 hours of driving in four legs, the longest the drive back from Aldeburgh to Lavenham, about 1.5 hours. About 3 km on foot on grass paths and a shingle beach, which is hard going in places; the beach walk has a paved path behind it.

   

4. Day 4: Norwich to the north Norfolk coast

   Lavenham to Norwich, then Wells-next-the-Sea

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Wells-next-the-Sea
   Day 4 details

   We check out at 8:30 and drive about an hour and three quarters north to Norwich, once England's second city and with stretches of its medieval wall and over thirty medieval churches. Your guide walks you through the Cathedral Close to Norwich Cathedral, a Norman cathedral begun in 1096, with the second-tallest spire in England, the largest monastic cloister in the country and hundreds of carved and painted roof bosses in the vaults. We walk Elm Hill, a cobbled lane of Tudor houses, and arrive at Norwich Market, one of the largest open-air markets in England, with its striped stall roofs below the City Hall and the Guildhall. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the centre. In the early afternoon we drive about an hour and a quarter north through farmland to Wells-next-the-Sea, a small harbour town of flint cottages and a quay, our home for two nights. The late afternoon and evening are free: walk the quay and the beach road at low tide.

   Included

   • Norwich Cathedral and the cloister with your guide
   • The Cathedral Close and Elm Hill
   • Norwich Market
   • Sit-down lunch in Norwich
   • Wells-next-the-Sea quay

   Optional experiences

   • Norwich Castle museum, on a longer stop if the group prefers

   Easier option: Stay in the cathedral and its refectory café while the group walks Elm Hill, and meet at the market.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Wells-next-the-Sea

   Activity: About 3 hours of driving in two legs. About 2.5 hours on foot in Norwich on level pavements and cobbles.

   

5. Day 5: Blakeney Point seals and the salt marsh

   Wells-next-the-Sea to Morston Quay, by boat to Blakeney Point, then the marsh path to Blakeney

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Wells-next-the-Sea
   Day 5 details

   Today runs on the tide. The minibus takes us about 15 minutes east to Morston Quay, where we board a local licensed boat for Blakeney Point, a shingle spit about 6 km long with a national nature reserve at its tip. The trip is about 1 to 2 hours. The boat runs along the channel to the sandbanks where grey and common seals haul out, close enough to watch them without disturbing them; on some tides the boat lands for a short walk on the Point. On the other side of the tide, your guide leads the salt-marsh walk along the Norfolk Coast Path from Morston to Blakeney, about 3 km on a raised bank between the creeks and the sea lavender, with redshank, egrets and, in early summer, terns and avocets. Lunch is free in Blakeney or by choice in Holt, a Georgian market town nearby. The rest of the afternoon is free, and in the evening we gather for a seafood farewell dinner in Wells.

   Included

   • Seal boat from Morston Quay to Blakeney Point
   • Salt-marsh walk on the Norfolk Coast Path from Morston to Blakeney with your guide
   • Farewell seafood dinner in Wells-next-the-Sea

   Optional experiences

   • A crab lunch in Cromer, by minibus with the guide, in free time

   Easier option: Ride the minibus from Morston to Blakeney and walk the quay and the first stretch of the bank.

   More active option: Walk on from Blakeney along the bank to Cley next the Sea and its windmill, about 4 km more.

   Free time: Lunch on your own; afternoon free

   Activity: About 1 hour of driving in short legs. Getting into and out of the boat means a step down from a quay or onto a beach. The marsh path is level but can be muddy, and the coast is exposed and windy. Boat times are set by the tide and confirmed a few days ahead. If high wind cancels the boat, your guide leads a longer wildlife walk on to Cley Marshes instead and the boat fare is refunded; it cannot move to day 6, which ends at the train.

6. Day 6: Holkham beach and home

   Wells-next-the-Sea to Holkham beach, then King's Lynn station

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   After breakfast we drive a few minutes west to Holkham and walk out along Lady Anne's Drive and through the Corsican pines to Holkham beach, a sweep of pale sand several kilometres long with dunes behind and, at low tide, the sea a long way out. It is part of the Holkham National Nature Reserve, and in the morning you share it mostly with dog walkers and birds. We give it about an hour and a half. Then we drive about an hour south-west through the farmland of the Holkham estate and the Burnhams, where Nelson was born, to King's Lynn, a port town on the Great Ouse. We reach King's Lynn station by about 12:30 pm, where the trip ends and your guide sees the group onto the train. Direct trains to London King's Cross take about 1 hour 45 minutes, by way of Cambridge. If you are flying home today, book a flight leaving Heathrow or Gatwick after about 7 pm, or Stansted after about 5:30 pm.

   Included

   • Morning walk through the pines to Holkham beach with your guide
   • Drive through the Burnhams to King's Lynn
   • Drop-off with your bags at King's Lynn station

   Easier option: Walk the boardwalk to the first dune and sit at the edge of the beach while the group walks on.

   More active option: Walk the beach west towards the Burnham Overy dunes and back, about 5 km.

   Activity: About 3 km on foot on sand and a level gravel drive. Book a flight from Heathrow or Gatwick leaving after about 7 pm, or from Stansted after about 5:30 pm.

Wildlife and weather: May and June bring long light evenings, avocets and terns on the marshes and the Aldeburgh Festival at Snape; common seals pup on the Blakeney sandbanks in early summer; July and August are warmest and the beaches are busiest in the school holidays; September is quieter, with migrating birds on the coast. Grey seals are present all year and pup in winter, outside this trip's season. Rain is possible in any month, so each day has an indoor alternative.

• Cambridge1 night
• Lavenham2 nights
• Wells-next-the-Sea2 nights