Named in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel Guide for 2025, East Anglia sits alongside Cameroon and Kazakhstan, offering a more geographically and financially accessible destination for Brits. We map out a great road trip, with plenty of opportunities to make use of your Boundless membership and take in the ‘big sky country’.
East Anglia has a bit of everything, comprising Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire. From charming villages with 16th-century half-timbered houses, artistic wool towns, and a coastline adorned with beaches and bird reserves.
While Cambridge is our starting point, we’re avoiding the cities in the region to focus on what lies between them in the Dacia Bigster SUV (link to review when live), our first pit stop to WWT Welney Wetland Centre.
East Anglia is home to one of WWT's centres
Credit: Alex Tapley
The route takes us on the M11 and A14 before cutting into the Fens. The roads here are notoriously flat and straight, none more so than the B1098, which follows Sixteen Foot Bank, part of the 17th-century drainage works for the Bedford Level. From Chatteris to Three Holes, there’s barely a bend for almost nine miles. Yet these Fenland roads still require your attention, with sudden, extreme dips and troughs caused by flooding.
It’s the waterways and regular floods that attract visitors to the WWT Welney’s 1,300-acre nature reserve. Among them are thousands of whooper swans and 30,000 humans annually, hoping to see them from the various hides around the centre.
WWT is the charity for wetlands and wildlife and as WWT Welney’s Emma Brand tells us, there’s plenty of activity throughout the year with “the general assemblage of wading birds that come here for breeding in the spring and summer, and then in the wintertime there are dramatic sunsets across the flooded washes, and the whooper swans.”
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Credit: Alex Tapley
The rarest visitors, though, are the handful of black-tailed godwits that make their way from Senegal, up through Portugal and France, to nest at WWT Welney in the spring. As we wander along the paths, past ponds all set for family insect-spotting fun, we catch its call and even spot a pair in flight.
With a Boundless membership, you can experience this for yourself with free entry to WWT centres and, whether you’re a keen birder or not, it’s a beautiful and tranquil place to while away a few hours.
Explore the 47,000 acres of Thetford Forest
Credit: Alex Tapley
Returning to more alarmingly undulating Fen roads and then on to more solid ground, we carry on eastwards. We pass the RAF bases at Mildenhall, where tours for aviation enthusiasts are available, and Lakenheath with its 7,000-strong USAF crews and 48th Fighter Wing, which currently doesn’t allow the general public behind its high fences.
There’s plenty of activity in the 47,000 acres of Thetford Forest, whether that’s at the Centre Parcs, the Breckland Leisure Centre and Waterworld, or on the many trails that cut between the countless lowland pines managed by Forestry England. Surprisingly, the forest is only just into its second century, having been planted after World War 1, when the demand of battle had led to the demise of so much of the country’s natural woodland.
Credit: Alex Tapley
Off the A11 at East Harling you’ll find where the World’s Best Single Malt Whisky is made – The English Distillery. It won the award for its English Sherry Cask whisky in 2024, surprising not only because the distillery is far, far from the Scottish border, but also because it’s a relatively new company that opened in 2007.
Tours and tastings are available to go on, and there’s a restaurant and well-stocked shop, but as we’re driving we sadly can’t partake.
More of a vino drinker? The Chet Valley Vineyard is also close by.
The Broads beckon
Credit: Alex Tapley
It’s just a short hop to Norwich, but we skirt the medieval walls, which were once the longest in Britain, and aim for the Broads. Clearly the best way to explore the seven rivers and 63 Broads is by boat, but even in a car it’s possible to get a flavour of the area. A short hop on the chain ferry across the River Yare at Reedham is a fun detour, even if we do turn around and go back again without even stopping at the water inn.
Beccles on the River Waveney is a quintessential Broads town with weeping willows overhanging the water and plenty of cruisers moored on the quay. It’s also a top spot for an ice cream.
Now the coast is calling, so we head to our overnight stop at Warner Hotels Corton, where, with a Boundless membership, you can save up to £80 per room on selected breaks. Positioned on the Suffolk shore just outside Lowestoft, it’s home to a variety of rooms, suites, and lodges, each with a jolly nautical theme.
Credit: Alex Tapley
The next morning, our first stop is Southwold, for a blustery walk on the pier where we learn about the time George Orwell spent here, before exploring the bonkers home-built slot machines of the Under The Pier Show.
Aldeburgh is next, and we wander through its streets enjoying the eclectic architecture before refuelling with Britain’s Best Cake of 2024 at the Two Magpies Bakery Café.
Refuelled, we jump back into the Bigster to head to Woodbridge, which, according to Rightmove, is “the happiest place to live in the UK”. We found it to be delightful, from its quirky Station Café to the old houses down by the River Deben.
Fans of the Netflix film The Dig will recognise Woodbridge as where archaeologists discovered an Anglo Saxon ship burial site, but if The X-Files is more your thing you’ll be eager to find the truth behind a famous UFO sighting in 1980 that’s still talked about today.
The final leg: Crossing into Essex to reach Constable Country
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Credit: Alex Tapley
What better way to finish the trip than with a location named as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? We cross into Essex to reach Dedham Vale – Constable Country. The Romantic painter John Constable was spoilt for choice when picking landscapes to portray on canvas.
Most famous of all his work is ‘The Hay Wain’, depicting Flatford Mill, just a few miles away. Today it’s a National Trust property where you can enjoy some of Constable’s works, learn about his life, and also hire a rowing boat to explore the River Stour.
As the sun sets on our East Anglian adventure, we reflect on the incredible variety of this 200-mile trip. Best In Travel for 2025? Absolutely.
How else can you save on your own East Anglia road trip with Boundless?
As well as free entry to WWT Welney Wetland Centre and discounts on Warner Hotels, there are other ways to incorporate many Boundless discounts into your own road trip through East Anglia. Members get Kids Pass free where you can save on some of the best UK aquariums.
Want to see some of East Anglia in style? Virgin Experience Days offers both skydiving and supercar driving experiences across various locations in East Anglia. Or sample some of the grain with a behind the scenes tour of English winery near Bungay with Virgin Experience Days, too. Through Boundless, you can save 20% off bookings.
With a Boundless membership, you also get a 5% discount on Hoseasons holidays. This could include a glorious boating break on the Norfolk Broads.
Do more with Boundless
These savings are one example of the deals and discounts available from Boundless. If you're working in or retired from the public sector or civil service, Boundless has two great membership options to choose from: Boundless and Boundless Plus.
With Boundless, you get unlimited access or discounted entry to many of the UK’s top attractions including Kew Gardens and Wakehurst and WWT centres across the UK, as well as year-round deals on restaurants, holidays, shopping and much more. With Boundless Plus, you can enjoy additional benefits including unlimited access to Historic Royal Palaces sites, National Trust for Scotland places, access to the Ramblers' extensive group walks and routes, and peace of mind with roadside assistance and local recovery by Britannia Rescue.
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