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.

I stayed here 5 nights while in the area for business. It was very homey. I ate in the inn's pub…read moreevery night and had breakfast in the restaurant every morning. The owners and staff are really friendly and helpful. Free wi-fi! My room came with a bottle of body wash, shampoo, a hair dryer, and a hair straightener (yes!), but I had to ask for a bar of soap. Weird! I totally recommend this place!

The Bull is the nicest restaurant and serves the finest traditional food in the area. It's pricey,…read morebut you won't find anywhere like it around Mildenhall. The focus on fresh, local products covers the menu and even shows in the Suffolk-made shampoo and soap in the inn's rooms. The waitstaff and management are cheery and helpful, and the wifi's complimentary. We've stayed in 3 of the 15 or so rooms and enjoyed the spacious and distinctively decorated accommodation. All rooms are upstairs and there's no lift, so heavy luggage is a pain in the 500+ year old hallways.

Was staying in Colchester during our trip to London and wanted to do high tea last minute. My uncle…read morewas able to book at the Wivenhoe even though they required a reservation at least 48 hours in advance. The hotel was lovely and we absolutely enjoyed our tea experience. The ambiance was cozy and tables were pretty spread out. I loved the Tiptree jam that they provided and their scones were the best I've had. There were a couple of menu options, including vegan, and it was pretty filling. Their dessert plate was very interesting and we enjoyed the different chocolate decorations on the pastries. A lovely place to have tea.

Description of the hotel in general: - four star luxury…read morehotel near Colchester- surrounded by beautiful parkland, forests and quiet lakes - located near the campus of the University of Essex; only few minutes from Colchester, Britain`s oldest recorded town (10 min) - part of the hotel is an eighteenth century Grade II listed house, the other part is a new construction - the hotel offers a modern, award-winning brasserie open every day and a traditional afternoon tea served in elegant lounges in the main house Rooms: - free WiFi and parking area - had a room in the newly constructed part of the hotel: elegant and modern style, nice bathroom - nice view to the parkland, a terrace also belongs to the room - however, the room is not really spaceous - iMac computer for television/radio/internet in the room - tea and coffee making facilities - price: 305 GBP/2 nights/double room (breakfast included) Restaurant: - 2 different restaurants: Signatures restaurant serves traditional cuisine; Rosette brasserie restaurant in the garden wing serves creative dishes - did not try any of the restaurants for dinner, only for breakfast - breakfast: buffet very small (not too much choice); breakfast can be upgraded (with costs) - service okay but not too well educated for the standard the hotel pretends Service: - service at the reception was friendly but also not too well educated (three people are busy with checking in one guest) - questions about next bus stop etc. could not be answered by the staff at the reception Conclusion: Nice hotel (not as good as a four star hotel in London for example) but too expensive for the service offered and the room size! (for me it is between 3 and 4 stars because of the high price and more pretending to be than offering great service)

Clacton on sea Travelodge is a great place to stay when in clacton I've stayed here many times and…read morethe rooms are nice and hotel is well kept and looked after in side and out and staff here are friendly just 5 minutes walk to seafront and one road behind high street with banks and post office etc... major supermarkets are also 10 minutes away .

Well Im surprised no one has yet reviewed this hotel. I stayed there last night…read more Staff were polite and attentive , room clean , of a good size , and comfortable (The bed wide enough for 3 people !) Wireless Internet worked in room, though it was one of the furthest away from reception. The downside was it was closer to the busy A14 so on a hot night I found it necessary to close the windows because of the noise, and sleep naked. I had booked a rate inclusive of Dinner at £100. The Table d'Hote is £25 for 2 courses, and of the 3/3/3 variety (3 choices each course), which I perused whilst drinking a pint of (surprisingly for this area) John Smiths. I could happily have order any of the dishes available that night but settled for Prawns in a filo pastry with garlic dip. They were delicious but were battered , not in filo ! I also was not offered a bread roll and butter despite ther being a side plate and knife. The lamb I selected for main was beautifully cooked to my liking (slightly pink in the middle and well done on the outside. Menu was that it would be served on a bed of mustard mash, but I requested it without mustard and it wasnt a problem (a minted mash would go well). Fresh veg were also served. I usually decline a dessert, but as I had paid for it anyway, the chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream and a 'straw' of white chocolate were a delight. Breakfast was buffet for the cold part, but the excellent hot breakfast served directly form the kitchen (none of that awful hot buffet stuff). Horror of horrors, butter was served in those infernal parcels, so you can't open them without greasing you finger ends. It was made worse by the butter being soft ! When its harder it comes out in one piece but this had to be scraped of the paper. All in all , a very acceptable hotel, they just need to pay attention to some smaller details , and it would be 5 star . I award 4 stars this time Tonight and tomorrow Im in two different Best Westerns at Frensham in Surrey and Christchurch in Hants (thought that ones an old favourite). I will review these also, interesting to compare them, asthey are similare in size and price.

Stayed here acres times , great hotel Hungry Horse opposite with big food fir a big appetite!!read more

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!

What a wonderful Tudor castle! Spend a real good weekend there, rural old English country side…read more Golfing is place next door. Nice little and old villages around, good for a walk. Friendly staff, spacious rooms and very delicious food.

Seckford Hall is a beautiful Jacobean, or Tudor, house just outside of Woodbridge, Suffolk. We…read morearrived minutes before a wedding party, which was lucky as the reception is in a tiny corridor and it was crowded with just the two of us there, let alone a party of revellers. We were shown to the Dairy Suite, in the Dairy Cottages, which is 'in the annexe'. We hate being put in the annexe when we have booked stay in a beautiful hotel. This annexe is quite a way from the hotel as well. The Dairy Suite door opens onto a sitting room with galley kitchen and there is a downstairs bathroom. Upstairs is the bedroom and an ensuite loo. The decor... well, dated iis one word for it. The promotional photos of the rooms in the main hotel show modern, updated, bathrooms and bedroom decor. This Dairy Suite is full of pink carpet, dark wooden varnished furniture and the bathrooms are pink suites. It's yucky. The duvet and pillows were pretty poor quality. No spare pillows provided. There are modern, flat-screen tvs upstairs and downstairs but only terrestrial channels and the buttons on the remotes only partially worked. There are tea and coffee making facilities but they are of the most instant kind - Nescafé sachets, herb teas, Darjeeling bags and yucky, yucky UHT cartons. It makes such a difference if there is a coffee percolator and fresh milk. There is a fridge so it's easy to provide fresh milk. There is wifi and it is free - but it is weak an a bit slow, but still. The plus point about the whole stay was that the main hotel could have pretty noisy with a wedding party (or three) whereas our room was very quiet and I ended up having a surprisingly good night's sleep. We had dinner in the Bistro (the fancy shmancy £39 for three courses restaurant only had one table at 9pm, too late for us) and actually it was very very good. We had Guinea Fowl and a roast lamb and it was tasty home cooking. Not fancy, but tasty an perfectly coked. Pudding was sticky toffee pudding, a favourite of mine, and it was perfect! The bill for three, with a good bottle of red wine was approximately £75.

When London wants to show off, this is a good idea of how to do it!…read more Le Maison Talbooth recently hosted my neice's Wedding Breakfast, and they blew the doors off. First, I have to commend them on their service. For starters, we showed up an hour early. Champagne flowed, there was a smile on every face, and the staff were clearly experts in handling our arrival! Hors d'ouvrés flowed quickly after and they were delicious! The oysters were fresh and plump and wonderful, and couldn't have been better! Once we sat, the options for dinner were unbelievable! I couldn't decide which I liked the best... the beetroot marinated salmon, the seared scallops, or the Fig & Goat cheese tart! I might lean toward the tart! The Seabass entree was so delicate, and the prawn ravioli was such a splended touch! However, the star was clearly the beef wellington (see the pics) and the presentation could stop ANY show! This is how you create envy on social media! Death by chocolate with honeycomb, a cheesecake option, or an apple and blackberry tart with creme anglaise finished off our evening! If you are looking for a wonderful meal, with exquisite service, this is what you are looking for! 5 STARS, easily

Another absolutely amazing dining experience in Essex…read more Quirky hotel with very old details. Excellent service and really 4* to 5* star dining in an unexpected setting. Definitely a place for a dinner and to dress up for. Lovely for special ocassions. Can't wait to go back!

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!