Royal Sandringham – 2026

Southwold is a lovely seaside town at the mouth of the river Blythe. It is set within the Suffolk Heath and Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a pleasure to visit at any time of the year. The town was mentioned in the Doomsday Book and its rich heritage makes it a charming place to explore and have lunch.
Being such an ancient town there is a huge amount of history. The place was home to a number or Puritans who emigrated to the new colonies in America. The town has several open spaces and greens which you would think was the result of very early, progressive, town planning but is actually the result of a fire in 1659 which destroyed a substantial part of the town and from which a number of areas were never rebuilt.
Just offshore, the battle of Sole Bay was fought in 1682 when the English were, curiously, allied with the French against the Dutch. It was a violent and indecisive clash, and the beaches bore witness to the many dead who were washed up there.
After a few hours to explore here we will wind our way onwards to our hotel for the night, the Best Western Knights Hill Hotel and Spa, just on the outskirts of Kings Lynn. Here we will enjoy the best of this hotel on a dinner bed and breakfast basis. It has a pool, too, so don’t forget your swimming costume!

We visit the highlight of our tour – Sandringham itself!
As we are staying relatively close to the house, and it opens mid-morning, we will have a leisurely start before our coach drops us just on opening time, giving us the maximum time to explore.
This Grade 2-listed building is today owned by His Majesty the King and was originally purchased by Queen Victoria in 1862 for the Prince of Wales and his new bride Princess Alexandria, who found the countryside reminiscent of her Danish homeland.
Along with Balmoral, it is not part of The Crown Estate and is – in fact – the personal property of the king.
An interesting fact is that on the death of King George V, the property passed to his direct heir and new monarch, Edward VIII. The property was subsequently bought privately by George VI after Edward’s abdication.

After another pleasant night in the hotel we begin our leisurely journey home, hopefully passing through Thorpeness and traveling down the coast to stop at Aldeburgh to explore.
Aldeburgh was once a Tudor port and was granted Borough status by none other than Henry VIII in 1529 and was also home to the composer Benjamin Britten.
We will be here around lunchtime and a point of note is there are two family-run fish and chip shops which are reputed to be amongst the best in the country. The Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop being one, but we are aware the queue here can be quite long, with people buying drinks from the pub next door while they wait!
With regular stops and interesting ‘flat’ countryside to view we hope that the journey between our world class destinations will pass with speed and pleasure.