Why bring your dogs to Woodfarm Barges?
Dogs are welcome aboard our Holiday Cottage Barges, as well as all of our other Suffolk holiday cottages
Holidaying in the UK is bigger than ever and the demand for Dog friendly holiday cottages is too!
We openly welcome up to three well behaved dogs aboard our barges and are happy to discuss other pets too as we’ve had rabbits, hamsters and even a parrot in our other holiday cottages before.
We have been awarded the ‘Quality in Tourism’ Pets Welcome accreditation by VisitEngland, cementing our reputation for running dog friendly holiday cottages.
Our regime for cleaning is rigorous! We use pet friendly cleaning materials and equipment to make sure all of our dog friendly holiday cottages are very much human friendly too. A real necessity when the owner of the cottages is actually allergic!
We make a nominal charge of £15 per break, per dog to cover additional cleaning and maintenance.
Dog Photo Gallery
Guests have been sending us photos of their pooches on their canine holidays in our cottages for years – and the gallery gets bigger all the time. We welcome all sorts of photos, from pedigrees to no degrees; they’re all welcome!
We specialise in providing high quality, luxury holiday accommodation for humans and their dogs, and from the photos we have been sent, we can clearly see that our guests love this – human and canine alike!
Take a look at our photo gallery here.
Walks from our dog friendly holiday cottage barges
We have fabulous river walks straight from your gangplank!
Snape Maltings is a collection of up-scale boutique shops, coffee shops, a great pub and a world class concert hall on the beautiful River Alde, with commanding views of the river and reed beds from ‘Onderneming’, one of your holiday cottage barges.
You can take a walk along the river towards Aldeburgh and the sea, and experience wildlife all around you, with amazing views across the river. Snape Maltings offers you a wonderful opportunity to relax and enjoy this impressive barge, in surroundings that mean you can park the car and not need to get back in it.
Woodbridge is a picturesque little town, set on the enchanting River Deben, with little sailing boats, houseboats and barges on the quay and moorings.
Take a wander in either direction from ‘Twee Gebroeders’, the other of your holiday cottage barges, along the river path for some amazing ‘twitching’ and delightful views of the river and soak up the atmosphere of this quant maritime town. Walk around the corner to the East and you’ll discover Martlesham Creek, with abundant wildlife.
We are fortunate that our dog friendly holiday cottages are all set in fabulous dog walking areas and Suffolk as a whole has some incredible walks. We have books on Suffolk Walks in all our cottages, which you can appreciate with or without dogs. The books are there to help you make the most of your break. You can also browse our blog to find out more about Suffolk villages and towns.
Visit our blog here.
Dog friendly pubs and restaurants
It’s great to know that whether you are a regular visitor or not, Suffolk has some amazing dog friendly places to eat and drink. We are very lucky to have great pubs within a stones throw of our barges at Snape Maltings and Woodbridge.
The Plough & Sail at Snape Maltings is just a stones throw from the deck of Onderneming, our magnificent 100ft Dutch Sailing Barge; just one of our holiday cottage barges.
Twee Gebroeders by The Tidemill in Woodbridge is a two minute walk from ‘The Anchor’, a fabulous proper old pub on the edge of town. There are a handful of other fab pubs within a short walk too.
We are fortunate to have some amazing pubs near all of our Holiday Cottage Barges and there are loads around Suffolk. So many of them are dog-friendly as there are a great deal of dog owners in Suffolk. Some will ask you to keep your dog in their garden or patios, but many will allow them inside as well.
We’ve written extensively about many of the dog friendly pubs and restaurants on our sister site. Visit woodfarmbarges.com.
Dog friendly beaches in Suffolk
We have miles and miles of beautiful coastline open year round to the public. Suffolk is a fab place to take your dog for a well earned holiday so with our floating dog friendly holiday cottage barges just up river from the sea, you’re never far from the wonderful heritage coast.
Between October and the start of May we have no restrictions on Suffolk’s beaches so your dog can run around to their hearts content on any stretch of the beach they like! The Summer does see restrictions though; there are restrictions on some of the beaches. Here’s a heads up on some restrictions between 1st May and 30th September:
Aldeburgh – Summer restriction as stated above but you have a good mile of dog friendly-ness on the beach to the North as you hit Aldeburgh and it’s well signposted. It stretches from Thorpeness (well worth a visit) down Aldebsurgh’s Wentworth Hotel.
Felixstowe – Summer restriction as sated above although you have dog friendly beaches both sides of this main area, going from Wheeler Road to the Spa Pavilion. The areas are nicely signposted so are easy to spot. Please note that dogs must be kept on leads, including these stretches.
Dunwich – The National Trust have a beautiful site on Dunwich Heath and also there’s a beach which is dog-friendly year round. This makes Dunwich a great dog friendly destination, with lots of long walks and unspoiled sea views to enjoy. Please note however, that RSPB Minsmere has its home in Dunwich, so you’ll have the odd restriction on dogs on the Heath (but not the beach) during nesting season. If you’re unsure whether or not your dog will keep to the beach then it’s probably advisable to check with the Aldeburgh Tourist Information nearby prior to making your trip and ensure these nesting restrictions aren’t in place.
Southwold – Arguably Suffolk’s most well-known beach with Summer restrictions as stated above but Southwold Denes, just to the north of the main stretch, is dog friendly all year round.
Don’t just take our word for it!
We’re now lucky enough to have thousands of testimonials from our dog-owning guests for our holiday cottages on dry land so have a look at some of these. We follow exactly the same philosophy with our Dutch Sailing Barges too.
It’s rewarding that we’re renowned for having high quality cottages that combine luxury with welcoming dogs.
We hear feedback all the time that a lot of cottages struggle to achieve this so we’re continually scoring huge canine brownie points.
Head over to our doggy testimonial page on Woodfarm Barns to read some of our reviews. We take them all from our guest recommendation books in the holiday cottages.
VisitEngland award the ‘Pets Welcome’ accreditation to all our holiday cottages
In response to customers who do not wish to be parted from their pets, the Pets Welcome scheme will give dog, cat or bird owners the confidence that they are booking quality accommodation that meets their and their pet’s particular needs.
We’re very pleased to be awarded this. Visit our full Pets Welcome page on the Woodfarm Barns site detailing what we have to do to maintain the standard.
Dog friendly magazine article
Dog Friendly Magazine writer Emma Bearman and her partner James, along with well known Instagram dog Alfie Bear and his little African Pygmy Hedgehog ‘Snuffles the explorer’, came to stay with us at Woodfarm Barns!
You can see the article in full in our blog post.