Salthouse Harbour Hotel

At the heart of the resurgent Waterfront district, housed in an imaginatively converted old warehouse, the Salthouse Harbour is Ipswich at its boutique best, mixing up the town's maritime legacy with a unique modern style that succeeds on every level – from its superb location to the classy rooms, restaurant and service.

The style of the hotel is full-on contemporary, with bags of personality and public spaces enlivened by quirky modern sculptures and contemporary art along with ethnic items picked up on the owners’ travels. The service is relaxed, confident and attentive but never overbearing, there’s a good restaurant that’s popular with non-residents, 24-hour room service and parking.

Spread across several floors are 70 large, sharply designed rooms, the topmost of which have floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the marina and free-standing baths from which to enjoy the views. Squint, and on a sunny day you could be in Antibes. The public areas are classy but never dull, with eccentrically modern furniture and splashes of colour that soften the stark lines, including lots of edgy contemporary art, while the rooms blend the building's maritime legacy with a quirky, modern look and feel. Options range from 'Contemporary' and 'Salthouse' rooms to 'Marina' suites with a balcony and a copper bath positioned to make the most of the view. Bathrooms are large and well-appointed, with power showers, there's free wifi, good coffee and tea, complimentary biscuits and mineral water, a/c, flatscreen TVs, and high-end toiletries and robes.

Finally, there's the ground-floor Eaterie, which is one of the best places to eat in Ipswich, serving great-value set menus and light dishes at lunchtime, and more ambitious fare in the evening, plus a special lunch menu on Sundays. Whatever you choose to eat, try to be here on a sunny summer day at lunchtime or evening when they open the patio doors to the tables on the quayside which overflow with happy punters.

We reckon the Salthouse Harbour is worth the trip to Ipswich on its own, but while here make sure you see something of the town as well, which has a compact centre that is well worth exploring, especially Christchurch Mansion, with its collection of Constables and Gainsboroughs. You're also well placed to see the best of nearby 'Constable Country'  including Dedham and Flatford Mill, and it's worth knowing that the Salthouse Harbour has an ever-so-slightly more traditional older sister, the Angel, in Bury St Edmunds – well worth a stopover on your next Suffolk sojourn!