You’ll find the city of Colchester close to England’s east coast in the county of Essex, a county east of London. If you have hired a car in Colchester you’ll find you’re only about six miles from the sea. The east coast here is a mix of deserted muddy inlets and islands, and classic British seaside resorts like Clacton and Frinton. Colchester stands alongside the A12 trunk road, which gives easy access to the larger city of Ipswich 18 miles to the northeast; and Chelmsford, 23 miles southwest. Whichever direction you head, you’ll notice that the fertile countryside here is famously flat.
With car hire in Colchester you’ll be able to discover for yourself that the locale possesses an interesting mix of very old and very new. Colchester is one of England’s oldest towns and once the Roman capital of Britain. But it is also a fast-growing popular relocation site for modern commuters to London, which is only 50 miles to the west. Peppered with historic buildings, Colchester houses the largely intact 1,000-year-old Norman castle, and inside that a museum celebrating Roman-era Colchester. More modern attractions include the ‘Slack Space’ art galleries in former shops, and the Arts Centre housed in a former church.
