Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Tour

Our walking tour takes you through the heart of Bury St Edmunds - Suffolk’s Foodie Capital - as we offer you a taste of the town and explore our food and drink history on this 2½ hour walking tour.

You’ll pass iconic landmarks including The Angel Hotel, the Abbey Gate, The Nutshell pub, The Corn Exchange and more.

Along the way, enjoy bite-sized samples of delicious food and drink and meet the proud people behind these independent businesses.

Tasty Highlights

• Discover the town’s foodie history – hear about Cook’s Row, the Abbot’s feasts, and how a maltster almost destroyed the town.

• Meet local food and drink businesses and hear their story

• Sample delicious local food and drink

• See iconic landmarks including The Angel Hotel, the Abbey Gate, The Nutshell pub, The Corn Exchange and more.

• 2.5 hours

• Small group - 8 people max

If you love history, enjoy food, and like to explore, our tours offer a fun experience.

Our Foodie Tours run on selected Thursday afternoon from 2pm to 4.30pm starting on Angel Hill, opposite the historic Abbey Gate (what3words///doubt.display.trail). They last 150 minutes, are in English and are suitable for ages 18+. The routes and establishments visited for tours ‘A’ and ‘B’ will differ.  Please let us know beforehand if you have any special access requirements. We regret that we cannot accept dogs (apart from assistance dogs) on our food and drink tours.

Tickets £25.

Tickets must be booked online in advance. Your guide will be waiting on Angel Hill wearing a green Bury Tour Guides top.

T&Cs

Only pre-booked tickets – no walk ins

Itinerary & tastings subject to change due to seasonal availability, individual closings or local holidays.

Due to the nature of creating a well-balanced tour experience, our tours may not be able to accommodate certain dietary restrictions. Please contact us prior to booking your tour to see if we are able to accommodate your dietary needs.

Please let us know beforehand if you have any special access requirements.

Please note: samples of food and drink are bite-size tasters.

Refunds

A full refund will be given if you cancel 48 hours or more before a tour.

A 50% refund will be given if you cancel less than 48 hours and more than 12 hours before a tour.

No refund will be given if you cancel less than 12 hours before a tour, or do not show up.

Some of our Reviews:

“Great value for money with an interesting foodie spin on the history of the town and bite sized samples”

"We learned about the town's history and sampled some wonderful food. Talked with people about their businesses and what they were doing. Made a list of places to go back to the next day. Really well done."

"Highly recommend this tour which at £25. Would be an ideal for a gift for a special occasion. Bury St. Edmunds is a hidden jewel & has so much on offer with food & history combined."

"We learned something of the food history of the town and enjoyed lots of treats from the businesses we visited along the way. Would definitely recommend this tour and also plan to re-visit some of the food and drink businesses we learnt about on the tour."

“Wonderful to interact with local businesses”

The Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides are all green or blue badge registered having completed their training with the National Institute of Tour Guiding.

With years of experience and with a love of Bury St Edmunds, its history and people and a great sense of humour, the tour guides will ensure you see the best that Bury St Edmunds has to offer!

Daily Tours

Secrets, stories and scandals are yours for the asking on the daily official historic walking tour of Bury St Edmunds.

This 90-minute tour of the historic centre of Bury St Edmunds includes the Abbey Gate, the Abbey Gardens and Abbey Ruins, the statue of St Edmund, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, St Mary’s Churchyard, Church Walks, Guildhall Street, Hatter Street, Abbeygate Street and the main market area.

Find out about the legend of St Edmund and the wolf, Bury St Edmunds’ connections to the Magna Carta, where Charles Dickens stayed, and the final resting place of a French Queen and Henry VIII’s beloved sister. Hear about the story of the great Abbey - once one of Europe’s most important pilgrimage sites whilst visiting the ruins and see the oldest Norman building in the country and the second oldest building in England. Discover where a Dickens classic movie was filmed and where the great author himself visited.

The history of Bury St Edmunds stretches back over a thousand years starting with the martyrdom of Edmund, Anglo Saxon King and the original Patron Saint of England. Later came the establishment of the Benedictine Abbey dedicated to St Edmund, which became a major focus of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. With Medieval, Georgian and Norman architecture, a visit to Bury St Edmunds is like taking a trip through time.

Between April and October guided walking tours of Historic Bury St Edmunds (90 minutes) run daily at 11am.

Tours must be booked online in advance at the website above.

Tours cost Adults £10, Under 18s £5, and Under 5s free. We recommend parking at the long stay car park at Ram Meadow.

Just some of our TripAdvisor reviews:

"Excellent and informative tour of Bury St Edmonds. One of the best guided tours that we’ve been on. Recommend to anyone visiting Bury St Edmunds."

"I had a fascinating couple of hours, walking in the Abbey Gardens and around the beautiful town of Bury St Edmunds. The Guide was full of information and wonderful stories and anecdotes. My stand out moments were the delightful statue of the eponymous St Edmund, seeing the exact spot of the shrine of St Edmund in the abbey ruins, being able to imagine the pilgrims walking through the Norman tower and seeing the imposing facade of the original abbey, and through a small window in the town spying out a small original wood carving of Henry VIII and one of his wives. I only experienced these things because I went on this tour - I can't recommend it enough!"

"The tour is packed with history, facts and key sites in the town centre."

"A lovely 90 minutes with a charming, amusing and knowledgeable guide. Answered all our questions enthusiastically. Would recommend."

Ghost Tours
Visiting in Autumn or Winter? Then you'll love the Ghostly and Macabre Tours! Murder, executions, plague, riots, witchcraft and sightings of ghostly figures, the Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides take you on a journey around our haunted town.

Dog Friendly Tours
Join a special dog-friendly tour of the ancient abbey and historic town of Bury St Edmunds. Bury St Edmunds is the UK's most dog friendly town (Dog Friendly Awards 2024), and Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides offer dedicated tours for dog-lovers. With your dog you can discover 1,000 years of history, from monks and martyrs to Saxon kings and Tudor queens, from talking wolves and Magna Carta to Georgian chic and Mr Pickwick – you’ll find them all in Bury St Edmunds

Food and Drink Tours
Our Food and Drink Tour, takes you through the heart of Bury St Edmunds - Suffolk’s Foodie Capital - as we offer you a taste of the town and explore our food and drink history on this 2½ hour walking tour. You’ll pass iconic landmarks including The Angel Hotel, the Abbey Gate, The Nutshell pub, The Corn Exchange and more. Along the way, enjoy bite-sized samples of delicious food and drink and meet the proud people behind these independent businesses.

Bespoke and Group Tours
The Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides also offer an extensive range of over 20 Themed Tours that can be pre-booked for groups and schools. All group, themed and ghost tours must be pre-booked and tickets are available from The Apex box office on Charter Square in the arc shopping centre. For information on the group tours and to book, contact The Apex box office on 01284 758130.