Felixstowe, Dunwich and Covehithe beaches named among top 50 in the UK in Sunday Times guide

Three Suffolk beaches have been named among the best in the country in a new 2021 guide.

Felixstowe, Dunwich and Covehithe beaches have been ranked in the top eight in the East of England and the top 50 in Britain.

A survey carried out by The Sunday Times saw chief travel writer Chris Haslam visit 805 named beaches on the British mainland between Autumn 2020 and earlier this month.

Felixstowe, with its 'elegant' North Beach beach huts and 'gorgeous' seafront gardens, was named the second best beach in the region.

It was described as having 'true charm' and being 'a town of two halves'; one offering amusements, adventure golf and fish and chip shops, and the other various independent boutiques, street food outlets and craft shops.

And it comes just weeks after Felixstowe was delivered a blow in a Which? survey which saw Southwold crowned the best beach in the county, with Aldeburgh having bagged second place.

But the Sunday Times guide, placed Dunwich in fourth place, having described it as a 'terrific beach' which is both 'shingle at high tide' and 'sandy on the ebb'.

Located just 10 miles from Saxmundham, the beach's huge car park as well as the nearby The Ship at Dunwich pub and Flora Tea Rooms also received special mentions.

Covehithe beach, which provided the title for a Blake Morrison poem about coastal erosion, came next on the list at number five.

But although Haslam noted that the walk to the beach 'gets shorter every time you visit', he said it was the perfect spot to visit when in a reflective mood.

"It’s a reassuringly melancholy spot to watch the sun rise and to consider that nothing — life, holidays, Suffolk — lasts for ever, and where even the Suffolk Coast Path, which makes a cowardly nine-mile detour inland here, seems prepared for the inevitable," he said.

The other beaches in the East of England to be recognised were Waxham, Hemsby, Holkham and Overstrand - all in Norfolk - as well as Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex.

Read more: All the latest news from Suffolk