About Walton on the Naze
Walton on the Naze has something for everyone in the family.
At the top of the resort, to the north, there’s the Naze Tower and the Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve. There is a cafe next to the Naze Tower, which is now an art gallery with great views of the coastline. North of the Naze are the Walton Backwaters, which Arthur Ransome used as a setting for a couple of his Swallows and Amazons stories. If you’re not a sailing person, but want to get out into the Backwaters, which are particularly good for wildlife, there are boat trips which can be booked – see the Walton website for more information.
There are a couple of miles of beaches and beach huts, and you can walk from the top of Walton, through town and all the way to Frinton in about an hour.
There’s a pier which is always heaving on sunny summer days, and a couple of fish and chip shops, a pie and mash shop, a couple of pubs and a hangout for friendly bikers, and much more. There’s a leisure centre and playground if the weather is a bit inclement.
Getting there and getting about
Walton gets very busy in summer, and once you leave the A120 and get onto the A133 you will find your speed drops. But don’t despair, it may look like a 10 mile traffic jam, but it’s just slow moving traffic. There’s lots of parking on the sea-front, and in the leisure centre and further north up to the Naze, but get there early!
If you want to see a lot of Walton in a single day, drive into Walton and all the way through town to the Naze to the car park by the Tower, then after exploring there a little bit, head south and walk along the sea front past the beach huts and down to to the pier, with plenty of places for fish and chips (or pie and mash!) and doughnuts and the like en route. There are miles of beaches (unless the tide is in!), and with groynes every hundred yards or so, it’s quite child-friendly, stopping the little ones travelling too far from base. Some of our fondest memories of having young children were at Walton.
The town has developed four themed trails that you can follow: a World War 2 trail, a History Trail, a Wildlife Trail and a Little Explorer Trail.
One option is to leave the car at home at get the train to Walton, where the train station is near to the pier, spend time in Walton, and then walk down to Frinton and pick up the train from there to head home.
And remember – Walton isn’t just for summer! We often go there out of season, including New Year’s Day, to blow the crimble cobwebs away. If the skies are blue it can be beautiful!
