RSPB Dingle Marshes

The marshes stretch out flat and wide, with nothing between you and the horizon except reeds, water, and birds. RSPB Dingle Marshes, just outside Saxmundham, is proper birding territory - the kind of place where a pair of binoculars stops being optional and becomes essential. You'll find hides dotted around the reserve where you can sit quietly and wait for something interesting to show itself. Winter brings waders and wildfowl in good numbers; spring and summer offer breeding species and the frenetic energy of nesting season.

It's a free site and there's no pretence about it. You come here to watch birds, full stop. The walking is gentle and flat - this is Suffolk marshland, after all - so it suits families with patient children and serious twitchers equally well. Allow a couple of hours minimum, though you could easily lose a morning if you're the sort who sits in a hide and actually waits. Early morning is always best when the place is quieter and the light's better.

If you're based at one of the nearby parks - Cliff House is closest at just over a mile - this makes a solid morning activity between other days out. The coast at Aldeburgh is a short drive, and Thorpeness with its golf course and boating lake sits nearby too. On a damp, overcast day when the beach feels less appealing, the marshes come into their own. Not glamorous, but genuinely rewarding if you've got the patience for it.