Aldeburgh, United Kingdom

The well-heeled Suffolk village of ALDEBURGH is best known for its annual arts festival, the brainchild of composer Benjamin Britten (1913–76), who is buried in the churchyard alongside the tenor Peter Pears, his lover and musical collaborator. Outside of June, Aldeburgh is the quietest of places, with just a small fishing fleet selling its daily catch from wooden shacks along the pebbled shore. The sea swallowed most of what was once an extensive medieval town long ago and Aldeburgh's oldest remaining building, the sixteenth-century, red-brick, flint and timber Moot Hall, which began its days in the centre of town, now finds itself on the seashore.

Several footpaths radiate out from Aldeburgh, with the most obvious leading north along the coast to Thorpeness; others veer southwest to the winding estuary of the RiverAlde, an area rich in wildfowl.