A Day in Harwich.

For all those who have spent some time in Harwich - I need some advice. We will have a day in Harwich between 2 cruises and will be meeting family members from Wales to have lunch together. Can you give us some idea of places to see and also which would be the best restaurant to go to????

Spent 24 hours in Harwich before our cruise. If it is Sunday the Alma Inn has really good food. I had pot roast with Yorkshire Pudding. It was excellent. They also had different cuts of steaks. Went there for lunch. They take credit cards.

Not a whole lot to do in Harwich. They have a promenade along the beach. It was a nice walk. There is a fort to see.

If you have a car you can get a little further away and see more.

We had not quite a full day in Harwich before a TA, and for sure if you don't have a car there's not a great deal there. But we enjoyed walking around the old part of town near the water, and I will definitely second the advice above to eat at the Alma Inn. We had a terrific dinner there, on a weekday evening. (Not sure why ozark linked the food to a Sunday.) Here's their web site:

http://www.almaharwich.co.uk/

Again, not much to do or see in Harwich itself. You might find this web site helpful:

http://www.harwichhistoricalsociety.org/

Also, do a search for "Harwich" in this forum, and you'll find some suggestions for getting out of town (including to Colchester, the oldest town in Britain).

Enjoy your cruises!

(photo by turtles06)

Theres not too much to do in Harwich, if you have a full day it might be worth heading to Colchester which is Britains oldest recorded town. Its a simple car or train journey from Harwich and you could visit some historic sites like the castle and the park it is set in or just shop/eat/drink. For food there are lots of different places from pubs like Three Wise Monkeys and Kings Arms to nice resutarants including Mussi, Green Room and The Warehouse.

If you don't fancy going that far you have Manningtree/Mistely near by. Situated on the river Stour there are some nice walks in the area and also good food places including the Misltey Thorn or Luccas in Manningtree high street. Again this can be reached by car or train.

You could venture to the Flatford/Dedham area for a nice boat on the river in some very lovely countryside however you would have to either drive or walk quite far from Manningtree train station to get there.

We will have a day in Harwich between 2 cruises and will be meeting family members from Wales to have lunch together.

If it's the former, you'd still have time for lunch in Harwich, but the latter would give you more options further afield.

In Harwich, one option would be the "proper" restaurant at the Pier.

We will be doing a B2B. So will be in port only for the day. I have family in Britain who will be driving down to Harwich just to see us for a few hours, and a sister and BIL, flying in from South Africa, to join us for the 2nd cruise, so they will be arriving and embarking this day (this will be quite the reunion) so we wondered which restaurant would be best for the 6 of us to meet at, where we could eat, have drinks and visit for a few hours.

Thanks for the suggestions of the Alma Inn and The Pier. Now I need to know which will be walking distance from the ship???

We will be doing a B2B. So will be in port only for the day. I have family in Britain who will be driving down to Harwich just to see us for a few hours, and a sister and BIL, flying in from South Africa, to join us for the 2nd cruise, so they will be arriving and embarking this day (this will be quite the reunion) so we wondered which restaurant would be best for the 6 of us to meet at, where we could eat, have drinks and visit for a few hours.

 

Thanks for the suggestions of the Alma Inn and The Pier. Now I need to know which will be walking distance from the ship???

The Alma Inn and the Pier are about a block and a half away from each other. They are both in the old town area by the Quay (the Pier faces the water). I'd "guesstimate" that it's a couple of miles from there to the cruise terminal. You could walk it, but I would suggest just taking a cab. (And once you get out of the immediate [very small] old town area, it's just not that interesting.)

The Alma Inn is more of a pub, with terrific food that goes well beyond pub food (at least it did at dinner). Given the size of your group and the importance of visiting besides eating, you might find the Pier more conducive to your needs. Besides their main floor restaurant, there's a fancier eatery on the second floor. (We were there on a weekday in late October, and I never saw anyone eating upstairs during lunch or dinner.)

There's info about Harwich, and a map, at this web site.

http://www.harwich.net/essenhar.htm

(photo by turtles06)