Welcome to Walking Breaks. We provide self-guided walking vacations and UK walking tours in England in the historic county of Suffolk, renowned for its half-timbered villages and beautiful coastlines, close to London and the university city of Cambridge, home of England’s best-loved landscape painter, John Constable, and Norfolk – the stunning coastline where Lord Horatio Nelson learnt to sail as a boy.

Walking vacations England - click here to view our coastal walking tours and inland walking tours

Walking vacations in England

Our walking vacations in the UK are all about your encounter with the real England.

In Suffolk and Norfolk, we’ve not only got one of the driest climates in Britain, but England’s history in microcosm too: mystical ship burials from the Dark Ages Medieval churches, windswept priories clinging to cliff-tops, 12th century castles, quaint fishing harbours and Edwardian follies.

Only a short train journey from London or Stratford, convenient for the London Heathrow and Stansted  airports  as well East Coast sea ports and cruise ship terminals, East Anglia is accessible yet still rather a secret. Our landscapes are mellow, our seascapes breath-taking and down every leafy lane and around every half-timbered village street corner another unique surprise awaits:  quirky, eccentric at times, charming and fascinating always.

Walking Breaks invites you to stretch your legs in the gentlest of ways. Because of the nature of the landscapes, the routes we have chosen and the temperate nature of East Anglia’s climate, none of our tours can be described as strenuous. Each gentle adventure is expertly organised and graded to make choosing the right one for to fit your comfort zone that much easier.

Whether you can escape for up to a week or just spare a few nights away during your trip to the UK, there’s no better formula for experiencing the Englishness of what’s out there: the space, the freedom, the satisfaction of following in the footsteps of generations past down historic routes and coastal paths, but above all the real immediacy of it all. Walking the country footpaths brings everything up close - England’s flora and fauna and century old architecture from little pink thatched cottages to huge flint churches.

Our gentle itineraries guide you through some of England’s most beautiful countryside such as the picturesque Stour Valley which was the making of 18th century landscape painter, John Constable, the half-timbered wool towns or along wild Norfolk coastline where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle found his macabre inspiration for The Hound of the Baskervilles and Suffolk’s coast which provided PD James with so much haunting material for her atmospheric novels.  And somehow the enormous wrap-around skies, so typical of Norfolk and Suffolk, have a special way of putting history - personal or otherwise -  into perspective.

From the moment you get in touch, you’ll be receiving top tips from the locals. Our team, based under huge Suffolk skies, all simply love walking and sharing their enthusiasm for their region as well as their expertise.

We develop itineraries; create tour information and mapping packed with fascinating facts about places to visit and suggest tasty treats to look forward to.

We select accommodation personally and move your luggage from overnight stop to overnight stop to ensure that you have a really relaxing and refreshing experience all round.

All you need to do is put one foot in front of the other. Our tours are designed and personalised to let you explore, relax and experience our country’s rich offerings very much at your own pace. As all our tours are self-guided, you go with the party on your booking form, although depending when you travel, you may get the opportunity to trade stories with other walkers on similar tours during your stay. With only a couple of exceptions, our start dates on our trips are very flexible , which means that you can slot your activity break into your schedule to fit in with flights or other arrangements.

Why not find out more about what Suffolk and Norfolk have to offer and visit our information about the destinations on our gentle tours through our interactive map?

We hope you find our tours tempting. And that you’ll consider our much treasured, history-rich counties of Norfolk and Suffolk are great discoveries for a relaxing and oh-so-very English walking vacation.

Do contact us by email if you have any questions which our website can’t answer – we’d be only too happy to help.

We’d love to welcome you here in the future.

This page is our welcome to overseas visitors. If you are living in England already, please click here for our alternative introduction.