Activities for self catering guests

On booking, we send you a list of activity ideas (with contacts) suitable for the time of year you are visiting and that your group might be interested in. Here’s a taster of some activities that will suit adults and children alike - and most will keep your carbon footprint fairly low during your stay at Milden.  None of the on-site facilities are shared .... except the 500 acre farm.  For further ideas go to http://www.visitsuffolk.co.uk/categories-what-to-do

Fine weather options

• Guests can borrow our 40+ adult road bikes (included in hire charge) to explore the historic Wool Towns and villages with a bike trail quiz or just follow our planned short or long quiet road circular routes that take in nature reserves and friendly pubs
• Play badminton, outdoor table tennis, croquet and boules – and in between laze in the sun and barbecue in the garden
• Barn guests can organise a tennis tournament amongst themsleves
• Potter or orienteer around the farm tracks or further afield - around nearby medieval wool villages and nature reserves on planned footpath routes
• Take your binoculars and enjoy the buzzards and barn owls
• Borrow the moth trap and see what moths are flying
• Work with willow – get a tutor into help make trugs, spheres, birds, spiral plant trainers
• Go painting – bring your palette and easel and find a quiet place to paint ancient buildings, trees and flowers, pretty villages further afield or ... bring a tutor or hire in a model for the afternoon
• Families can try some ideas from the family activity pack – build a den, put a meadow in a matchbox, do tree hugging, leaf weaving or pond dipping
• Hire in garden games such as sumo wrestling, quoits, giant chess
• Play football or rounders on one of our fairly rough meadows - if the lambs have gone or the hay has been cut!
• Play cricket - for a small fee on the nearby Milden village cricket pitch
• Bunkhouse guests can hire the village hall (£5 per hour) to dance or do yoga
• And in the evening enjoy a barbecue and eat outside

Further afield

• Kayak or canoe down the River Stour from Sudbury or hire a rowing boat from Flatford Mill
• Walk to beautiful Lavenham for pub lunch and come back the other side of the valley
• Take a coastal river cruise – birding, seals or pub
• Antique hunt - in Long Melford and Lavenham
• Enjoy 'Gardeners' Friday' - visit lovely, and sometimes quirky, plantsman's gardens www.fullersmillgarden.org.uk, www.langhamherbs.co.uk, www.wykenvineyards.co.uk
• Go Ape in Thetford Forest
• Pampering sessions at local spas
• Play a round of golf – at Newton Green and Stoke by Nayland
• Organise combination ‘adventure days’ locally – clay-pigeon shooting, archery, fly-fishing
• Local courses – book into a local day bee-keeping or water dowsing at Assington Mill (www.Assingtonmill.com), painting or natural history at Flatford Mill Field Studies Centre

Wet weather, winter or indoor options

• Bunkhouse guests can play table football in their covered area (but the table tennis is outside), and barn guests can play table tennis & table football - and keep fit on a wet day!
• Barn guests can delve in the children’s dressing up box or adults' Tudor costume cupboard – and put on a play or a dance
• Board & quiz games, puzzles – have a rummage in the cupboard for some giant puzzles, Monopoly, Cranium, Trivial Pursuits, Scrabble or Twister – and play a family game
• Barbies & lego – plenty of these for children
• Food safari - work with a professional chef and try your hand at making a curry, plucking a pheasant, and learn how to match the wine with your food
• Willow weaving – get a tutor in to make trugs and baskets
• Have a wine-tasting in the barn with a local expert
• Visit local sports centres on a rainy day – for swimming, team games such as indoor football or basketball, or a session in the gym
• Visit local museums – Ipswich, Stowmarket, Lavenham or further afield in Cambridge
• Go cheese-making, have a pampering session at the nearby spa or do life drawing with a model
• Yoga – take some time to enjoy the peace of the place

Singing & dancing in the Tudor barn

• Borrow our keyboard – bring a guitar and create a mini-concert
• Bring your ipod – and plug it into our sound system but please not loud late at night
• Get a dance tutor in – for Tudor, Tango or Street dance
• Try out the barn dance-with-caller CD
• Get a fiddler and caller in - for barn dancing
• Organise a singing workshop
• Borrow our costumes and enjoy a Tudor evening - put on a feast, do our quiz and dance Tudor style

Local visitor attractions

• Enjoy the history and architecture of the famous medieval Wool Towns and villages of Lavenham, Long Melford, Kersey, Clare ....
• Antique & junk shop in Lavenham, Long Melford and Clare
• Visit National Trust properties – Flatford Mill, Ickworth House, Lavenham Guildhall, Melford Hall, Sutton Hoo
• Paint in the local pretty medieval villages and churches – Kersey, Monks Eleigh, Chelsworth
• Visit the coast – an hour or so to Dunwich, Aldeburgh, Southwold – and Frinton for sand
• Visit a Kentwell Hall Tudor re-enactment, WWII or Halloween event
• Visit National Trust local properties – Melford Hall, Ickworth House, Sutton Hoo, Flatford Mill
• Take a tour of the National Stud at Newmarket
• Visit local, national, Suffolk Wildlife Trust and RSPB nature reserves including Bradfield Woods, Redgrave & Lopham Fen, Minsmere