[6] Visitors are drawn to its Blue Flag beach and fisherman huts, where fresh fish is sold, to Aldeburgh Yacht Club and to its cultural offerings.

Aldeburgh's importance as a port declined as the River Alde silted up and larger ships could no longer berth.

The shingle bank allows access to the Ness from the north, passing a Martello tower and two yacht clubs at the site of the former village of Slaughden.

The Alde-Ore Estuary SSSI covers the area surrounding the river from Snape to its mouth, including the whole of Orford Ness.

[15] The Leiston-Aldeburgh SSSI extends from the northern edge of the town over a range of habitats, including grazing marsh and heathland.

[16][17] It includes Thorpeness Mere and the North Warren RSPB reserve, an area of wildlife and habitat conservation, and nature trails run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

[21] The town is located within the Suffolk Coastal parliamentary constituency represented since 2024 by the Labour MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter.

Aldeburgh was a parliamentary borough from 1571 and returned two Members of Parliament (MPs), the right to vote being vested in the town's freemen.

Nowadays, the nearest railway station is Saxmundham on the East Suffolk Line,[30] approximately seven miles (eleven kilometres) away.

The hall was restored and the external staircase and gable ends were rebuilt in 1854–1855 under the direction of R. M. Phipson, chief architect of the Diocese of Norwich, in which Aldeburgh then stood.

[31] A unique quatrefoil Martello Tower stands at the isthmus leading to the Orford Ness shingle spit.

Grade II listed,[35] it was built in about 1830 as a lookout tower to assist or plunder shipping along the hazardous North Sea coast.

Created from stainless steel by the Suffolk-based artist Maggi Hambling, it stands 15 feet (4.6 metres) high and was unveiled in November 2003.

[36] A nearby aerodrome, Royal Naval Air Station Aldeburgh, was used in the First World War as a night landing ground and for training observers.

Aldeburgh Music Club, founded by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in 1952,[63] has since evolved into one of East Anglia's leading choirs, with about 100 members and more than 120 supporting patrons.

It rehearses from early September to late May each year and holds three major performances, two of them at Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

The annual Aldeburgh Carnival in August has been held at least since 1892 and possibly since 1832, when "Ye Olde Marine Regatta" was mentioned.

[64] The Suffolk Craft Society hold an annual themed exhibition in the Peter Pears Gallery over July and August, showing the work of its members.

The town features in the 1989 thriller Cross of Fire by novelist Colin Forbes, as do the nearby villages of Dunwich and Snape Maltings.

Aldeburgh also features in Joseph Freeman's novel Arcadia Lodge as "Seaburgh", and in the M. R. James story A Warning to the Curious.

[citation needed] Aldeburgh is notable for its line fishing for amateur anglers; it has been called "a great spot for bass, flounders, sole, dabs, cod, whiting and eels".

[66] However, the East Anglian Daily Times says "countless years of commercial over-fishing has all but destroyed many of our [Suffolk's] offshore sea fisheries"[66] and traditional, sustainable inshore fishing is under threat, with likely knock-on effects for the coastal community.

[citation needed] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia.