Why Kids Love Suffolk

Wondering where to take the kids for the holidays? Well, Suffolk is that wonderful land of fairytales and magic!

Suffolk has many folk and fairy tales, but did you know that it also has a whole fairytale village? Thorpeness was transformed into a fantasy playground in the 1920s by a rich Scot named Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie. Ogilvie built mock Tudor and Jacobean houses, created a floating House in the Clouds, built a golf course, and, with the help of his friend J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, designed a magical boating meare with pirate islands, and hideouts for Wendy and the Lost Boys.

Another magical place is Lavenham, one of Suffolk’s beautiful Wool Towns, and the birthplace of the most famous wizard that ever lived: Harry Potter! J.K. Rowling based the fictional wizarding village of Godric’s Hollow on Lavenham, and the Harry Potter cast and crew used Lavenham as their set in 2009 and 2010. If your kids love Harry Potter, show them Lavenham, aka where the Potters lived before the fateful night that You-KnowWho came to find them…

Magic of a different sort can be found in the brilliantly bizarre arcade at Southwold Pier. It may look like a traditional games arcade, but each of its games has been built by madcap inventor, Tim Hunkin. Your kids will love it, and you will, too.

In Suffolk your children can spend a day with the Tudors at Kentwell Hall, meet a warrior king at Sutton Hoo, learn skills from the Anglo-Saxons at West Stow, live the life of a miller at Woodbridge Tide Mill, walk in the footsteps of Mary Tudor along the Framlingham Castle battlements, travel like an Edwardian on the Mid Suffolk Light Railway, meet servants from the 1930s at Ickworth House & Gardens, and descend underground like Neolithic flint miners at Grimes Graves. And why not find your own treasures? Hunt for shark’s teeth, see glass, or fossil corals that are millions of years old by joining one of the beachcombing days this summer on Felixstowe, Bawdsey and Sizewell beaches.

Big, small, feathery, furry, scaly, hooved, antlered, even maned –Suffolk is home to creatures of all kinds, and any budding David Attenborough or Michaela Strachan will be thrilled to meet them.

One of Suffolk’s many nature reserves, Lackford Lakes is where kingfishers swoop down to the water, and flocks of starlings create beautiful shapes overhead. Make sure to pick up a wildlife explorer backpack from reception, specially put together for little explorers! Another must-visit reserve is RSPB Minsmere, the past headquarters of BBC Springwatch. This incredible place boasts some of the country’s rarest birds, as well as majestic red deer, and shy otters.

At Needham Lake in the heart of Suffolk, kids can explore the wildlife whilst also enjoying a mini assault course as they walk around the lake.

At Africa Alive!, a zoo and conservation centre, kids can come face-to-face with the beasts of Africa’s rainforests and savannah, including lions, giraffes, chimpanzees, white rhinos, zebras and lemurs. At Oasis Camel Park kids can encounter the iconic humped creatures from Africa’s deserts, and even enjoy a camel ride, or learn to be a keeper for the day.

Animals from afar are fascinating, but so are Suffolk’s native creatures. At the Suffolk Punch Trust, kids can meet Suffolk’s only native horses, gentle giants called Suffolk Punches. At the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, your kids will be able to admire over 80 owls and birds of prey, including some incredibly cute baby owls.

Or see beautiful horses and learn all about the exciting world of horse racing at the National Horse Racing Museum. Kids can have a go on the horse simulator and find their inner jockey at Suffolk’s newest attraction.

Finally, at Easton Farm Park and Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park, it’s all hands on deck to care for Suffolk’s farm animals, including the annual new arrivals of all sorts of species.

If your kids are already mini adrenaline junkies, Suffolk has the attractions that will get their pulses racing. At Go Ape, kids of all ages (and adults, too) can act like Tarzan and Jane and take on a thrilling treetop assault course. If it’s speed they’re after, an afternoon’s racing at Anglia Indoor Karting or a day at Southwold Maize Mazewill have your kids jumping for joy. Speed-loving families can take to the sea aboard the Coastal Voyager and zoom around Southwold’s Sole Bay or visit the colony of seals at nearby Scroby Sands. And if it’s simply good oldfashioned competitiveness that gets your kids going, why not hold a family crabbing competition at Walberswick beach?