3 THE SAIL LOFT SOUTHWOLD
WHAT MAKES IT SO SPECIAL? Its location, at the end of a row of clapboard houses with a sandy beach and rolling dunes in front, footpath behind and only a five-minute stroll from the centre of Southwold. It has pretty much everything you want from a British seaside break: beach huts, pier, lighthouse, sand and good pubs. If that’s not enough to tempt you, the style is all beachy, coastal chic – think New England meets Suffolk – and the restaurant (it would be silly not to order seafood, specifically the crayfish bisque risotto) has outside tables so you can breathe in all that healthy ion-filled sea air while you’re knocking back the rosé. Staff will let you take a drink into the dunes at sunset, too, if you want to pretend you’re one of the Big Little Lies cast in Monterey (and, really, who doesn’t?).
WHO GOES? This place gets plenty of local trade alongside Breton-striped Londoners on a Norfolk mini-break. Families flock here in the summer and half-term holidays, but there are lots of couples, too, snuggled up at the bar, tumbling dewy-eyed out of the best bedroom and wandering hand in hand along the shore. IT WOULD BE A CRIME NOT TO…
Stay. This is really a beach restaurant with rooms (there are only five), so book well in advance. If you can, get Room 4, which has doors opening onto a terrace with sea views.