Suffolk

[MikeG]

Keep the suggestions coming folks.

If you're there on a Sunday, go sit on your bike under Gainsborough's statue in the market square, Sudbury, at 9.00am, and have a guided pootle in the countryside with Cycle Club Sudbury's Sunday club run. 40/ 45 miles with a cafe stop at half way, and they know what and where to avoid.

ETA, from the CCS website:

The weekly social club run leaves Market Hill Sudbury at 9am every Sunday. About 35-40 miles, with a cafe stop, at the speed of the slowest rider. Back about 12.45 – 1.00pm. Visiting riders welcome. There is a shorter club run the first Sunday in every month. A shorter club run for people who haven’t done a club run, new members and those thinking of joining – everyone else welcome as well. About 25-27 miles, speed that of the slowest rider, cafe stop halfway. Just turn up! Bring your friends and relations. 9am from Market Hill, Sudbury.

 

[Blue Hills]

Plenty of towns and villages by the Broads.

Tight lipped you suffolk folk i gather

 

[MichaelW2]

You'll need a boat.

There is a "five ferries" route from Felixtowe , north to Aldburgh.
Deepest North Suffolk is beyond the tourist trail and has miles of country lanes and villages.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Reedham Ferry and the area round Acle worth a visit as well.

 

[AyJay]

Deepest North Suffolk is beyond the tourist trail and has miles of country lanes and villages.

We like it like that. Don't need too many "outsiders" spoiling things.

 

[robjh]

Lavenham is a lovely market town to visit.

Indeed, one of England's finest. So too is Hadleigh.

There are some very nice villages in most directions from Lavenham, with fine timber-framed buildings dating from the 15th-16th century wool trade which made this area rich. Cavendish and Clare are well worth a look, and for example Hartest and Kersey.
I was once told that Shimpling Road out of Hartest is Suffolk's steepest hill, but it is not that spectacular and I have no way of verifying this claim.

 

[AyJay]

Reedham Ferry and the area round Acle worth a visit as well.

A little venture into Norfolk. All very nice.

 

[robjh]

There is a "five ferries" route from Felixtowe , north to Aldburgh.
Deepest North Suffolk is beyond the tourist trail and has miles of country lanes and villages.

Check the timetables if you are thinking of taking the ferries across the various river mouths/estuaries, as they don't run year round.
The Harwich-Shotley-Felixstowe ferry would fit in with various routes but IIRC only starts running in May.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A little venture into Norfolk. All very nice.

I'm just a cross border tart. Nearly always combine the two counties on my rides.

 

[robjh]

Felixstowe is nicer than you might expect. It has a long beach with a traditional bucket'n'spade feel, and it is worth riding to the southern tip to gawp at the size of the container terminal and watch the big boats.

 

[Blue Hills]

Deepest North Suffolk is beyond the tourist trail and has miles of country lanes and villages.

Yes the impression I had.

Only drawback as it seemed to me on my two short trips was that the intensive agriculture made wild camping a problem.

 

[MikeG]

........Only drawback as it seemed to me on my two short trips was that the intensive agriculture made wild camping a problem.

There's lots of woodland........

 

[robjh]

If your interest extends to smaller London overspill estates of the 1960s and 70s attached to small market towns, you could look in at Haverhill and Great Cornard (by Sudbury) and judge for yourself the success of the policy 50 years later. It is, admittedly, not for everyone.

 

[Blue Hills]

There's lots of woodland........

ta, will look more closely.

 

[MikeG]

If your interest extends to smaller London overspill estates of the 1960s and 70s attached to small market towns, you could look in at Haverhill and Great Cornard (by Sudbury) and judge for yourself the success of the policy 50 years later. It is, admittedly, not for everyone.