Great pubs to sail to in Kent, Essex, and Suffolk

Expand your horizons!

Southwold - Harbour Inn in the, er, harbour. Next take a few minutes walk to find out if it's true that the Anchor in Walberswick is better. Next day take your dinghy up to Blythburgh to try the White Hart.

River Waveney (Broads) - you could have a week long pub crawl, though Broads temporary licences are a rip-off and lock fee at Oulton Broad (£10?) also has to be factored in (unless you come into the Broads via Great Yarmouth). You'll also need your mast down to get far on the Waveney, but then you get the following. (Those pubs on the north side of the river, which is the County boundary, are actually in Norfolk)
UPSTREAM -
Burgh St. Peter (Waveney River Centre) - Waveney Inn adjacent, or better still walk 2 miles to the Wheatacre White Lion.
Beccles - Numerous pubs to suit various tastes.
Geldeston - Locks Inn (now a community pub).
DOWNSTREAM -
Somerleyton - Duke's Head
St. Olaves - Bell Inn
Burgh Castle - Fisherman's Inn
ON YOUR WAY IN AND OUT
Lowestoft & Oulton Broad - Various pubs (and sailing clubs) I've never visited.

Miscellaneous
Dunwich - anchor off (?) and visit The Ship
Butley River - anchor in Butley River and walk 2.5 miles from Butley Ferry to The Oyster Inn at Butley
Martlesham Creek - not sure whether there's room clear of the moorings to anchor in the Creek, but otherwise get mooring or pontoon berth from Martlesham Creek Boatyard and walk 1/2 mile to the Red Lion at Martlesham.
Paglesham - moor or anchor off the boatyard, and walk to the Plough and Sail (when I visited, the pub wasn't great, but that was many years ago, and worth it overall. (Handy for your trip through Havengore Creek! :) )
Add the Cantley Cock and Surlingham Ferry Inn to that list on the Broads
 
I stopped going there when the boatyard started charging to land in your tender. Have they stopped that now?

It's many a long year since I went there. I'd forgotten about the subsequent discussion on YBW about that issue, adn I've no Idea of the current situation.

Add the Cantley Cock and Surlingham Ferry Inn to that list on the Broads

There are many other pubs in the Broads. I was restricting myself to the River Waveney as Steve had specified Kent, Essex and Suffolk, and all the other rivers are in Norfolk, where there be dragons! :D
 
It's many a long year since I went there. I'd forgotten about the subsequent discussion on YBW about that issue, adn I've no Idea of the current situation.

They'd have a nerve to charge given that the pontoon's about to collapse into the river.

We landed there last summer and there was no-one about. So we went to the pub which was ... okay. I wouldn't make a special trip.
 
It's many a long year since I went there. I'd forgotten about the subsequent discussion on YBW about that issue, adn I've no Idea of the current situation.



There are many other pubs in the Broads. I was restricting myself to the River Waveney as Steve had specified Kent, Essex and Suffolk, and all the other rivers are in Norfolk, where there be dragons! :D
Generally dragons with webbed feet and 6 fingers. Some are NFN!

I live fairly close to the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk boundary!
 
Generally dragons with webbed feet and 6 fingers. Some are NFN!

I live fairly close to the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk boundary!
NFNs are almost human, which may not be true for NFNNs. My aforementioned SiL hails from there and assures me that this is the case.

My favourite Broads pub used to be the Nelson at Horsey, a 20-min walk from the staithe. A walk to the beach was always a feature of our visits there, but the pub was usually an evening trip. I see that it is still going, but looks a good deal smarter than when I was last there in 1971.
 
NFNs are almost human, which may not be true for NFNNs. My aforementioned SiL hails from there and assures me that this is the case.

My favourite Broads pub used to be the Nelson at Horsey, a 20-min walk from the staithe. A walk to the beach was always a feature of our visits there, but the pub was usually an evening trip. I see that it is still going, but looks a good deal smarter than when I was last there in 1971.
I've added emphasis! What is NFNN? Haven't come across that one, and the Internet gives "Networks for Non-Networked"!
 
Many of the immediately waterside pubs in the Broads, especially around the most popular areas, are pretty poor (the best ones usually being walking distance away), but being able to travel by boat one to another makes their minor detraction from the overall experience tolerable, in my view.

In their defence, they tend to be packed with hire-boat customers (not generally the most sophisticated or genteel of characters) for a short season, then near empty for most of the rest of the year.

Quite a number of waterside pubs have closed down over the last number of years (including the Berney Arms, sadly), and this trend continues.
 
They'd have a nerve to charge given that the pontoon's about to collapse into the river.

We landed there last summer and there was no-one about. So we went to the pub which was ... okay. I wouldn't make a special trip.
I actually bought the bradwell 18 from a lad in paglesham sailing club originally, back in 2015. I viewed the boat there and went out for a wee sail, and I have been to the pub there. Your right, its not worth a special trip, felt very much like an eating pub.
 
I actually bought the bradwell 18 from a lad in paglesham sailing club originally, back in 2015. I viewed the boat there and went out for a wee sail, and I have been to the pub there. Your right, its not worth a special trip, felt very much like an eating pub.

I didn't rate the pub, but I did rate the experience of going by boat to Paglesham and being able to visit a pub (albeit an uninspiring one) while we were there.

What was quite magical, but no longer available, was anchoring near the mouth of the Roach, and getting permission to go ashore on Foulness Island and walking to the (now former) pub (forgotten name) there one lovely evening long ago.

Fred Drift Left! It's a long time ago, but I think part of our disappointment with the pub at Paglesham was the lack of any food on offer at the time of our visit. An old bugbear of mine: in days of yore, a pub would knock up a sandwich from whatever they had available if someone wanted something eat, but now, paradoxically, when most pubs are so geared to being would-be restaurants, they won't do anything unless the kitchen is fully staffed and it's on the set menu.
 
What was quite magical, but no longer available, was anchoring near the mouth of the Roach, and getting permission to go ashore on Foulness Island and walking to the (now former) pub (forgotten name) there one lovely evening long ago.
George and Dragon. a great pub, one of the few places you could still get a pint of mild. Also very good fish and chips. but unsustainable with only yachtspeople having access to Foulness Island without permission. Very sad.
 
George and Dragon. a great pub, one of the few places you could still get a pint of mild. Also very good fish and chips. but unsustainable with only yachtspeople having access to Foulness Island without permission. Very sad.
Also the scene of the second ever East Copast Forum meet back in 2006. I pposted a Lat/Long of the anchorage and a date/time with no other information, and people turned up. It was a great evening.
 
Top