The Ickworth Hotel and Apartments - A Luxury Family Hotel

Located in a beautiful setting with easy access to scenic walks, the hotel provides excellent family-friendly amenities and top-notch service from its friendly and attentive staff.

We have just returned from a family holiday staying in one of the self catering apartments on site. Having read the reviews before we went, we knew that there were a lot of areas that needed improving. That said, we weren’t quite expecting there to be as great a need for improvement as there was in reality. The biggest disappointment was food. We had booked breakfast which was abysmal. There are continental style buffet tables laid out in the hallway between the dining room and orangerie where most guests are seated for breakfast which is quite awkward manoeuvring between other guests. Food on offer on the buffet tables includes granola decanted into a glass jar (which comes from a packet and is clumped together) and museli along with boxes of cereals such as coco pops, rice krispies, etc. they do provide some seeds such as chia and pumpkin, jams, butters, breads etc for toasting, yogurts and fruit. Fruit selection was really poor and was going off most days. The hot selection of breakfast food should have been quite appetising but in reality it was cold and soggy. We heard several guests complaining to the waiting staff each morning - who did confirm the eggs, sausages, etc. had been sitting out since 7:30 that morning and weren't being replenished. We tried several items on the hot food breakfast menu but sadly it was all very bland, soggy and cold - pancakes, waffles, eggs, etc. One morning for example a single waffle would arrive on a saucer from the kitchen with berry compot and another morning you would receive several on a larger plate - there was a lack of consistency. We did not eat dinner at the hotel because we had read other reviews, had poor breakfast over several mornings and had walked past dinner being served on the first evening which looked like a pretty dry, small, burger from what was quite an expensive food menu - if you do stay here I would advise to eat in one of the many nice pubs for the same price or less. The hotel is very dated and communal areas aren't kept particularly clean. Our accommodation was suitable for pets so perhaps the main hotel bedrooms or other rooms in the self catering area are of a higher standard but from what we can review - carpets and sofas stained, missing crockery and cutlery, a very small fridge with no freezer compartment, a lot of bugs and spiders in the apartment (it was very warm and so windows were open upon our arrival which probably brought in a lot of bugs). Beds were clean and comfortable, showers were good with hot water, cleaners replenished towels and cleaned our area. Staff were friendly but young with little say over the areas that need changing and improving. The Ickworth Estate is beautiful with wonderful areas for the children to play - we hired bikes from the National Trust kiosk on two separate days and completed the trails, took a picnic and really enjoyed it. Played tennis and used the pool. The pool itself was clean but the changing area was very dirty and rundow

We had been bought a voucher from buy a gift for £50 which we topped up to £71 to buy afternoon tea for two and we were expecting a special occasion but it was a very poor experience and we wish we hadn’t bothered! We were initially shown to a very bland side room with a dirty floor, sticky table, cheap furnishings and no view of the garden. We were told there was no room in the conservatory even though we had booked well in advance but when we complained, we were moved. We also advised them in advance that one of us had a fish allergy which was ignored and we were served salmon sandwiches. We were bought the wrong coffee order and when corrected a Luke warm cappuccino arrived with no sprinkles which we were told was because of potential allergies although we hadn’t even been offered any! Service was slow and when the food did arrive it was very mediocre. The scones were good but the three small sandwiches each were very ordinary and the cheesecake was obviously frozen and was melting on the serving dish. Before we had finished eating, the remaining tables were all being laid up ready for evening service and it was only 3.30 which made us feel very rushed. We were not offered any top up drinks and the whole experience was very poor, certainly not the premium experience we were expecting after driving 1 1/2 hours to get there. We were offered a complimentary return visit which was a nice gesture but the whole place felt very dated and had we been paying for this, we would have been extremely disappointed, a trip to the National Trust tea room would have been far nicer and a lot better value!