Southwold Itineraries
Half a day or a full weekend. Here are the best ways to spend your time in Southwold, planned step by step.
Whether you have a few hours or a full weekend to explore, these itineraries give you a local’s route through Southwold. Each one links directly to the restaurants and activities along the way.
Half a day in Southwold
The short version, on foot, with no car needed once you have parked. It takes in the pier, the lighthouse in the middle of the town, the greens and the guns on Gun Hill, and leaves you with time for lunch. If you only have an afternoon between Halesworth trains, this is the shape of it.
- 110.00·1 hour 15 minutes
Start at the pier
Park in the 335-space pay and display at Southwold Pier and walk the deck out over the North Sea. Spend real time and real coins in the Under the Pier Show, which is the reason most people remember Southwold.
View Southwold Pier - 211.15·45 minutes
Walk south along the promenade
Follow the seafront past the beach huts toward East Cliff, looking in at the Sailors' Reading Room on the way. It costs nothing and takes twenty minutes.
View Southwold Sailors' Reading Room - 312.00·30 minutes
Gun Hill and the guns
Carry on to the clifftop green at the south end, where six eighteen-pounder guns face out over Sole Bay. Look down at the huts on the sand and back at the lighthouse rising over the roofs.
View Gun Hill and the Six Guns - 412.30·1 hour 15 minutes
Lunch at the brewery tap
Cut inland to East Green and eat at the Sole Bay Inn, directly beneath the lighthouse, where the daily specials follow whatever came off the boats.
View Sole Bay Inn - 513.45·45 minutes
Back through the town
Walk back up the High Street past Montague House, where George Orwell's family lived, and stop at the Adnams store at Drayman Square for a bottle of the gin before you go.
A full day in Southwold, town to harbour
The whole town, including the parts most day-trippers never reach. A booked Adnams tour in the morning, the harbour and the rowed ferry in the afternoon, and the marsh walk back that shows you why Southwold is very nearly an island. Book the tour first and build the rest around its start time.
- 109.00·45 minutes
Breakfast on the High Street
Two Magpies opens at eight, which in Southwold makes it early. Go before the queue reaches the pavement and take the pastries you actually want.
View Two Magpies Bakery - 210.00·1 hour
Climb the lighthouse
Meet at the Adnams Tours Centre in The Swan Courtyard on the Market Place, not at the lighthouse itself, and climb the 113 stairs of an operational 1890 Trinity House tower for the view over the town, the sea and the marshes.
View Southwold Lighthouse Tour - 311.30·1 hour 30 minutes
Brewery or distillery tour
Back to the same courtyard for the 90-minute brewery or Copper House distillery tour. Both are over-18s only and both end in a tasting, so pick one rather than both.
View Adnams Brewery Tour - 413.15·1 hour 30 minutes
Walk down to the harbour
Head out along Ferry Road to Blackshore, where the black tarred fishing huts and the working boats are. Lunch at the Harbour Inn on the water, first come first served, or at the Sole Bay Fish Company counter next door.
View The Harbour Inn - 515.00·1 hour
Cross on the rowed ferry
Walk to the end of Ferry Road and take the hand-rowed ferry over to Walberswick. Have a look at the crabbing quay, then come back the same way. It runs 10am to 5pm daily from 30 March to 1 November, cash only, and not at all in rough weather.
View The Walberswick Ferry - 616.15·1 hour 15 minutes
Back over the marshes
Rather than retracing Ferry Road, follow the Blyth upstream to the Bailey bridge and come back across the Town Marshes and the Common, with Buss Creek on your left. This is the leg that shows you the town's boundary.
- 717.45·1 hour 30 minutes
Finish on South Green
End at the Red Lion facing Gun Hill, where the Adnams 10k finishes every November. Ring ahead if you want a table: the pub confirms bookings by phone rather than online.
View The Red Lion
Ready to plan your visit?
Check the weather forecast before you head out.