Large Group Holiday Cottages in Suffolk

Large holiday cottages Suffolk: which stretch suits your group?

Most of our big homes line the Suffolk Heritage Coast, from the Blyth estuary down to the Alde, a run of shingle, reed beds, heathland and painted beach huts under enormous skies. The rest are inland, along the Waveney valley and out in the countryside and old wool towns of west Suffolk. Work out whether your crowd wants the sea or the fields, then pick a base.

Southwold, Walberswick and Dunwich

This is where you'll have the most choice, with 17 big homes around Southwold alone! It's got a pier, a white lighthouse standing right among the streets, Adnams brewery behind the high street and a row of brightly painted huts along the promenade. Cross the river Blyth by the little rowing ferry, which runs daily from late March to the start of November, and you're in Walberswick, where children spend whole afternoons crabbing in the creeks. Dunwich Heath and RSPB Minsmere are a short drive south.

• Best for: families with buckets and crabbing lines, and friends who want a pub supper they can walk home from
• Good to know: lots of our homes here sleep 8 to 10 within a few streets of each other, so two side by side works well for a group of 16 to 20
• Also here: Old Valley Farm, a property with lodges for 10 just inland and an enclosed garden

Aldeburgh, Orford and Snape

Further south the shingle runs past fishermen's huts selling the morning's catch, and you'll eat fish and chips on the sea wall with gulls watching every chip. We have 7 big homes around Aldeburgh. A few miles inland, the concert hall at Snape Maltings hosts music all year and the Aldeburgh Festival every June, which Benjamin Britten founded in 1948. Framlingham's castle walls are half an hour's drive away.

Orford is smaller still, with a quay, boat trips out to Orford Ness and the 12th-century keep of Orford Castle. A period house for 12 by the village is the only Suffolk property on our books with a hot tub, and it has a games room too.

Beccles and the Waveney valley

Our biggest house sits about three miles outside Beccles. The Grade II-Listed Farmhouse for 26 in Ellough has 13 bedrooms, six bathrooms and a wood burner, and two dogs can come too. Beccles itself is a riverside market town on the edge of the Southern Broads, so hire a day boat and potter up the Waveney to a pub lunch. There are 7 big homes around Beccles, including a spacious lodge for 8, and 10 around Lowestoft, a short drive from Pleasurewood Hills and Africa Alive.

• Best for: a big birthday, a family reunion or any celebration that needs everyone under one roof

Felixstowe, Woodbridge and Ipswich

Want a swim whatever the weather? Felixstowe's Edwardian mansion is the nearest thing to luxury here. It sleeps 16 in seven bedrooms, with a heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a snooker table and a footpath down to the sea. We also have 5 big houses around Ipswich, handy for the train. Days out close by:

• The white tide mill at Woodbridge, up the Deben
• Sutton Hoo, across the water, where an Anglo-Saxon king was buried in his ship
• Waymarked cycling and walking trails in Rendlesham Forest, just east

Bury St Edmunds, Lavenham and west Suffolk

Inland Suffolk swaps sand for crooked timber-framed streets, and there's history on every corner. Lavenham and Long Melford grew wealthy on wool in the Middle Ages, and their huge churches show it, while Kentwell Hall is a moated Tudor house you can look round. You'll find 5 big homes around Bury St Edmunds and 3 near Sudbury, plus a grange for 8 on the edge of Thetford Forest. Also within reach:

• Race days at Newmarket
• The rotunda on the Ickworth estate
• The rural lanes and rolling countryside of Constable Country

The biggest houses in Suffolk, side by side

Only four of our large Suffolk cottages take 12 or more, so if your group is that size, look at these first. Few go in for luxury extras, so you're mostly paying for space, a long table and somewhere good to be.

Which part of Suffolk suits your group?

• Beach days with young children: Southwold or Walberswick, with sandcastles, the ferry and crabbing all on foot
• Walkers and birdwatchers: Dunwich Heath, Minsmere and the Suffolk Coast Path, best from a barn or farmhouse just inland
• A milestone birthday with music: Aldeburgh, with a concert at Snape on the Saturday night
• Twenty or more under one roof: the Ellough farmhouse near Beccles
• A three-generation family holiday: the Felixstowe mansion, with a pool for wet days and room for the whole family to spread out
• Pub lunches and old streets: Bury St Edmunds and the wool towns

Getting there and when to go

By train and by car

Greater Anglia trains run from London Liverpool Street to Ipswich in a little over an hour. From there the East Suffolk line heads north every hour through Woodbridge, Saxmundham, Darsham, Halesworth and Beccles to Lowestoft. Southwold has no station, so book a taxi from Darsham or Halesworth for the last few miles.

Driving? The A12 runs the length of the coastline a few miles inland, but parking in the coastal towns fills up fast in August.

• Check how many cars each property takes before the whole group drives up separately
• Pick a holiday home with a big kitchen table if you'll be self-catering for ten every night
• Book taxis home after dinner well ahead on summer Saturdays, as there aren't many

The best time for a group holiday

June brings the Aldeburgh Festival and July the Latitude festival at Henham Park, and both fill every bed on the coast. Spring and autumn are calmer and cheaper, and a winter weekend in a farmhouse with a fire after a coastal walk is hard to beat. Start with the filter above to sort the large holiday cottages Suffolk has by size, or head over the border to big group houses in Norfolk and the rest of our UK destinations guide.