The Salthouse feels like a lovely little boutique hotel, although it's actually fairly sizeable…read more My room unfortunately wasn't overlooking the harbour, so I had a delightful car park view instead. I didn't mind though as I was just going to be in and out. According to my colleagues, a room with a harbour view is definitely worth asking for. My room was very stylish I thought. Unique things that I hadn't seen anywhere else like mosiac style feature wallpaper in a dramatic blue and black pattern, and just nice little touches like a retro style telephone and dotty mugs, and a big rustic wooden bench/desk. There is nothing corporate about this place at all, it is very nicely done. The bathroom was great too - a seperate shower cubicle with an overhead and side on shower, and a big double bath tub - I had a fantastic soak before heading out for the evening. The room had its own temperature control, and the bed was very comfortable - I felt like I was being enveloped in a gigantic soft marshmallow. I can't comment much more than that, as I didn't have dinner or breakfast there, and didn't use the bar. I'd like to come back to the Salthouse though - when away from home through work, staying here feels like a real treat.

Very charming design hotel overlooking the Ipswich harbor…read more Rooms are very comfy and decorated with taste and in a sailor kind of atmosphere. A little walk from the center but since be city is not big and the walk is nice (along the harbor) it is no problem. Good breakfast in the morning too. Dont Forget to ask for a room with a view on the harbor. Nothing says "good morning " better than the seagulls waking you up and the view on the boats. With a room in a corner of the building the view gets even wider :) They have a free parking so let your car there and enjoy an healthy walk. Will stay there no doubt if I ever go back to city.

It's very easy to be cynical about "cookie cutter chain hotels", but this offering from IHG's…read moremid-range Holiday Inn brand is one of its better attempts, offering larger rooms than average (by UK/Europe standards, at least!), and a couple "bonuses" that lift it above 3* mediocrity: - An indoor swimming pool with reasonably long opening hours - Air conditioning that actually works in 25C+ ambient! The only minor criticism I would level against the rooms is the lack of doors on the wardrobe - I always associate open-front wardrobes with "2* cost saving measures". But really, that's just me being picky. Locationwise, its on the outskirts near the A12 junction, and has a large car park, so really its more useful if you have a car. A large, 24 hour supermarket is conveniently situated just down the road. So overall it would be one of my "3 1/2*" nominations if such a banding exists, but as it doesn't I'll stretch to 4*.

One of the better mid-price hotels I have stayed in for a while!…read more The hotel itself is located at half an hour walking distance from the town centre, with free parking, so great for travellers. The rooms are spacious, and equipped with the regular hotelroom commodities like a fridge, watercooker, tv and an iron. Besides the 'obligatory' bar and restaurant the hotel also has an indoor swimming pool, which is ideal for relaxing. The food served is better than your average hotel meals, and relies on the local cuisine and suppliers. The staff is without exemption helpfull and friendly, which is a great plus. Last but not least: free coffee in the morning near the reception!

Close to the Tower Ramparts and the shopping district of its city centre, this historic hotel did…read morenot escape my notice. I had read a lot of Dickens in high school, and I recalled the Pickwick Papers. The brilliant author had visited the town in 1859 for one week, and had made mention of this historic inn in that novel, and when walking around and passing it, I insisted that we go in and have a look-see about. It was *definitely* historic, and I wish so much that I still had the photo that I snapped of it. Love bits-o-trivia like this!

The Riverside Hotel is actually called The Station Hotel (though their website address still has…read morethe old name in it) and is located right across the street from Ipswich railway station. While the exterior looks nice and oldfashioned in a good way, don't let that fool you - this is not really a hotel. The Station Hotel offers a couple of "en suite" rooms with a bathroom and a whole wing with double junior-bed rooms with a sink and a "lovely" view of the busstop in front of the railway station. There's a common bathroom and a common WC in the hallway and while the toilet is fine, the tub in the bathroom looks like it hasn't been touched since it was installed (and I'm guessing it was installet AT LEAST 20 years ago). We stayed in room 6 which was a tiny room with two junior beds (if you're over 1.8m tall there's a chance you won't fit the bed length-wise, btw) on wheels which kept moving around all the time. We had a sink in the room, fitted with typical British taps - one for cold water and one for warm (scolding hot, I'd say). We also had a closet and a small flat screen TV mounted on the wall in front of the beds. My boyfriend's sister stayed in the hotel's (most likely) only single room with a view on the river but was unable to stay in her room more than one night because the warm water pipe going through it to the bathroom made the room's temperature go up to mid 30's ('C) in the night. His parents stayed in an en suite room with two single beds and a bathroom. The accomodation-part itself gets a weak 2-star rating for me - I wouldn't recommend anyone to stay here but... The pub and the staff of the Station Hotel get a strong 4-star rating from me. The staff were amazing - very, very helpful, nice, patient and down-right kind. Whether it was the guy working the morning shift (who served me coffee before 9am even though they didn't open the pub and restaurant-part until 10 am on Saturday) or the super-sweet guy and waitress working the evening shift, we were treated the same way I'd expect to be treated at a 5-star hotel in New York. The food was very good as well - whether it was breakfast (where you got a ton of options including "build your own breakfast" with a variety of foods to choose from) or dinner. The fish&chips were very good but the fish could've done with slightly less batter, and the meat pie was down-right the best thing my boyfriend and I ate during the entire trip. Another honorary mention goes to the hotel's location - right by the town's railway station and a short walk (less than 10 minutes) to the city center with it's boardwalk and shopping mall. Overall, it was a nice stay and I'm positive I'll remember it fondly.

We were five to stay there for three nights in one double ensuite room, one double room and one…read moresingle room. Bear in mind that not all room have ensuite, so be careful when you book if you don't want to share. The pub is nice, it's been completely renovated, the food is good and the staff are nice. It's well located, not far from the city center and right in front of the train station, and has parking spaces. But that is about the only positive comments I can make about the hotel. The rooms were clean, the common bathroom and toilet a little less. But the ensuite bathroom looked pretty shabby and the toilet's flush didn't always work. We asked for it to get fixed the first night we were there and were told it would be done the next day. When we left, the plumber still hadn't come. As for the single room, it was riverside and the window was directly on the fire escape. There was a staircase leading from the open parking lot to the fire escape, which meant that anyone could go up and enter the room were the window open, or plainly break into the room given the poor quality of the window's lock. Furthermore, a hot water pipe went through that room towards the common bathroom next-door. It heated the room up to an unbearably high temperature. And due to the fire escape, leaving the window open during the day while we were away to cool the place down was not an option, neither was keeping it open at night. The heat was so unbearable that I slept in my parents' room the last night. I therefore strongly recommend to specify that you don't want a room by the fire escape when you make your reservation. Another slight inconvenient is that rooms being located right above the pub, you can hear the music until the pub closes up. Also, when we arrived, we were told that breakfast was open from 7 am, without any further precisions. We left on a Saturday morning. When we showed up downstairs at 7, the pub (where breakfast and reception are) was closed and there was no one in sight. We waited until 8; still no one. Three of us having a ferry to catch, the others waited some while longer to pay and give in the keys. I'm not sure how we would have solved this problem if all of us had had to leave early. To conclude, it is a nice place to go have a beer and eat. But it's not so great to sleep. I only gave the place 2/5 for the pub and nice personnel. Otherwise, it would have been a 1/5.

I run a local software business but live in Cambridge and therefore I stay over at least once a…read moreweek. The Melverley is THE best guest house in Ipswich! Great owners, excellent rooms particularly rm 4 & 5, reasonable parking spaces, good price and finally the best full English breakfast anywhere - all locally sourced product cooked beautifully. A must stay venue!

From the owner: Melverley Guest House is a large Victorian property situated in the peaceful Christchurch Park…read moreconservation area and only a 10 minute walk away from Ipswich town centre.

This is a nicely refurbished Holiday Inn - or at least our room was - and is a good base for…read moreexploring either the Suffolk coast or Constable country (which is another way of saying that there isn't actually anything to do around the hotel itself). Very decent sized pool and a jacuzzi, handy for the main A14 and A12. However, when we stayed there, we could not find a single pub, restaurant, curry house or anything nearby.

New to motels, I'd never seen how they work before. You probably know better than me. I was with a…read moreseasoned business traveller who said you get no surprises, easy parking, no thought requried, and room to work on papers in the evening. .the free swimming pool is very unusual so I give a 5* qype rating. You give your room number to the boys in the health spa who lend you a towel. Take a pound coin as a locker deposit, and you're away: you can swim about amid the sales managers on their monthly conferences and the lost tourists. There is even some kind of spin dryer for wet boxer shorts. It's a small pool but not many guests have cracked the code of how to use it for free. Entrance is near reception, which you can probably find your way back to via the identical corridors and stairs passing other lost tourists on the way. I didn't have a pound coin but no sales managers pinched my shoes so it didn't matter; if I'd bought a wallet it might have been different. Drop your towell in the bin in the wall opposite the health spa reception. .the bar is unusual Very old looking suffolk beams re-assembled inside a characterless shell. Surprisingly successful. Beer reasonably priced; wine expensive. Sometimes there are stacks of The Independant newspaper for free on the left as you walk-in, and staff will leave one outside your door in the morning. I think that's free if you sign-up to the mailing list, but it could be free anyway. Holiday Inn may do cheap deals for rooms, but breakfast is too expensive at £8 and even WiFi is £3. There is a large Tesco round the corner so I suppose you could get a Value potnoodle or even a Value microwave or toaster and set-up a door-to-door breakfast service, but they'd probably chuck you out for that last bit and you migt have to find the smoke alarm and wrap something round it to use a toaster. If you're travelling with others and want a cheap characterless breakast deal, the garden centre in Woodbridge near tourist information had a 2 for £5 breakfast offer advertised only to people driving-in. Vegetarians catered for. Vegans possibly at a push. Another reviewer stated that there wasn't much else close to the hotel. True. When I forced myself to look beyond the car park I saw some rather lovely fields and hedges and things, but the site of a car park and an A road has to be overlooked. For a pound or two more you can stay at the Holiday Inn Orwell which is more exciting because it is in a trading estate rather than a field next to a road junction, but if I were going to Suffolk again I'd plan a route past one of the pubs that has cheap rooms above it. There's one in Sudbury that's even cheaper than a motel. It may be much worse, but a motel is only novel once, and I've had the experience. On the other hand if you want a motel in a car park with no breakfast or wifi, this one has a free swimming pool so 5*. If you want to shop around hotel-booking sites, you might want to start on a cashback site like http://topcashback.co.uk/ref/employees : alpha rooms is one of their cashback links.

This, was a ruddy wonderful place. Came here with friends after a show, the staff were friendly and…read moreaccommodating, and the bouncers were Lovely, but with a no nonsense approach. I never once felt nervous. There's a long bar at the front, and a little cocktail bar at the back, which is impressive for a petite venue. I was walked over to the cocktail bar, and told I could order anything I wanted, any cocktail off the top of my head, or just say what I liked and they'd match it. I listed of floral, sour and gin, and was presented with a super tasty gin based jade princess. The music was great, areas to sit and dance too. Cocktails are not cheap, but they're very much worth it. A lot of people do seem to come here on the pull, which isn't my scene, and those who approached never pestered, which is wonderful. An all round nice environment!