Suffolk Beaches with Kids: A Parent's Guide

The Suffolk coast is a gift for families — gentle, uncommercial, and close enough to The Firs that you can be on the sand within half an hour. Here are three beaches worth the short drive, and a few things worth packing before you go.

Walberswick: the crabbing capital

If your children have never gone crabbing, Walberswick is where to start. Lines dangle from the quay over the creek, buckets fill with the morning's catch (all gently returned, of course), and the beach beyond is wide, dune-backed and made for a picnic.

Southwold: gentle and easy

Southwold is the all-rounder — clean sand, a famous row of beach huts, a pier with a few delightfully eccentric machines, and enough going on to keep everyone happy. Calm and shallow at the right tide, it's the safe bet for younger ones.

Dunwich: rock pools and a lost village

For older children with a taste for stories, Dunwich is irresistible. Once a great medieval port, most of it now lies beneath the sea — a real sunken town. The beach is good for fossil-hunting and rock-pooling, and the cliffs behind make for a blowy, brilliant walk.

A few things worth packing

• A bucket and line for crabbing — Walberswick especially

• Layers; the Suffolk coast can be bright and breezy in the same hour

• A windbreak and a flask — British beach days reward the prepared

• Wellies or old trainers for rock pools and muddy creeks

• Snacks, and then more snacks