• Get in
• Get around
• See
• Do
• Buy
• Eat
• Sleep
• Get out

Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk.

[edit] Get in

Ipswich is served by many bus companies, primarily Ipswich Buses (for local town buses) and by First (for buses throughout East Anglia).

It is also served by the National Express East Anglia railway company. Trains from London (Liverpool Street) take just over an hour to arrive, and are fairly frequent, off-peak Monday-Saturday: up to 3 trains an hour, Sunday: up to 2 trains an hour. If arriving by train, the town centre is signposted from the station and can be reached in a 10 minute walk.

By road, use either the A12 from the M25 (junction 29 exit), or the A14 from the Midlands. Both roads are dual carriageways, but can suffer from the large amounts of HGV traffic going to Felixstowe or Harwich.

There are 3 park and ride sites servicing Ipswich, see National Park and Ride Directory

[edit] Get around

A local bus service exists to take visitors around the county, somewhat surprisingly there seems to be an open-top bus offering tours of Ipswich as of 2006. There are some cycle lanes around the town, and the train service connects Ipswich to Lowestoft and Felixstowe as well as to other destinations in Suffolk and beyond.

Bus fares on Ipswich Buses services are £1.00 within the centre or £1.70 if travelling beyond the centre - the exact fare must be tendered in coins which is inserted into the machine next to the driver. A prepay smartcard is also available from the transport office at Tower Ramparts Bus Station and can be topped up at most convenience stores and supermarkets. It should be noted that journeys along key routes such as Woodbridge Road or Norwich Road are quicker and cheaper by using long -distance services that leave town along the same route - fares are paid to the driver and change is usually available, however in rush hour many long-distance services won't stop along these routes.

A free electric shuttle service (no 38) runs every 10-20 minutes throughout the day and runs a loop around the town centre, connecting the two bus stations as well as the railway station.

[edit] See

• Christchurch Mansion and Park.

• The Ancient House on Buttermarket. Now a branch of the Lakeside chain of stores, its pargetting is definitely worth the walk.

• Also, for architecture enthusiasts, the Willis Building. The first commercial construction by Norman, now Lord Foster, this building has won numerous awards and was in 1991 made into a Grade I listed building - the youngest building ever to receive such a status.

Note however that the building is in commercial use and so is not as such open to the public.

• A walk by the docks can be of interest, especially as most of the old former grain store buildings on the dockside are being demolished.

• The Ipswich Museum. Now merged with the Colchester Museum, first opened in 1847 and though small compared to any of the London museums, entrance is free and there are some interesting exhibits (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipswich_Museum)

[edit] Do

• Ipswich is home to Ipswich Town Football Club, a team currently residing in the second league of UK football ("The Championship") and its ground, Portman Road, is close to the centre of Ipswich. The ground has been extended to seat 30,000 people, and if you visit Ipswich and are yourself, or with someone, keen on football, it's worth a visit - a friendly ground, with large amounts of family spectators.

• Ipswich has two cinemas, Cineworld and Corn Exchange arts cinema, plus the Regent Theatre, which in 2006 has featured appearances from, amongst others, Jethro Tull, Craig David and the Buena Vista Social Club.

[edit] Buy

Tower Rampart shopping centre, the Buttermarket shopping centre and the high street. Mainly the same chains as in any UK town, but the amount of immigrant labour coming into the area has brought with it Portuguese and Polish shops.

[edit] Eat

St Nicholas Street in Ipswich has several restaurants. You can eat Greek, Italian, French, Thai, Chinese and Indian food in Ipswich.

• Loch Fyne at Mortimers on the Quay, [1]. Average, overpriced, seafood restaurant.

• Il Punto's, on the dockside, [2]. Despite its name, a good French restaurant on a boat permanently moored on the Quay. Probably the best restaurant in town, though a bit expensive.

• Trongs, Tel: +44 (0) 1473 256833. Ipswich's best Chinese restaurant (though the proprietor is Vietnamese); the main problem is booking is required at least a week in advance if you wish to dine on a Friday or Saturday evening.

• Vanilla Pod, Tacket St. Steaks, French/British dishes and a few other bits and bobs from other parts of the world thrown in. Would-be trendy interior. Good value set lunch/dinner menu. Friendly service.

[edit] Drink

• Great White Horse Hotel in the pedestrianised area of Ipswich. A good place for a drink in the day, with lots of sofas to recline in, without having a TV blaring at you from the corner of the room. This venue is currently for sale and, as a result, the facilities are closed (confirmed as at 17 August 2007).

• The Greyhound. About ten minute's walk from the town centre, is a pub serving a good range of food and again is TV-free.

• Fat Cat, Spring Road. About 15 minutes walk from the centre, is worth a visit. Formerly Suffolk Pub of the Year, again it's TV-free, but more importantly has a range of around 20 beers on draught at any one time - a beer drinker's paradise. There is an excellent beer garden and the pub has an arrangement with local take-away restaurants who will deliver food + plates and collect these from the pub direct.

• The Milestone, Which offers a wide range of beers and live music of the traditional R & B type - i.e. played by middle-aged men who have real jobs in the day. The Railway is probably the best "live music" pub in Ipswich, featuring "indie" style bands on Thursdays, and mostly cover bands at the weekend. Mostly free admission.

• The Dove, St. Helen's Street and nearer to the centre of Ipswich, was voted Suffolk Pub of the Year and East Anglian Pub of the Year 2006 by CAMRA.

[edit] Clubs

• Liquid is a haven for the barely-legal drinker - avoid if you're over 25.
• Fire and Ice is a favorite, playing old school as well as more recent dance music, as well as a popular indie/alternative night on Mondays with cheap cover fee and even cheaper drinks.
• Pals is full of the office worker crowd, lots of handbag dancing and really poor music. Reports of the sight of a male bouncer dragging a female patron out and being far too physical with her.

[edit] Sleep

• Salthouse Harbour hotel on the Ipswich docks has been highly recommended as an up market alternative to the many Novotel / Holiday Inns available in the town.

• Lattice Lodge, Woodbridge Road. A great B & B, very comfortable accommodation, also features wireless broadband.

[edit] Get out

Ipswich sits in a beautiful area of East Anglia - "Constable Country". In fact, the setting of Constable's most famous painting, "The Haywain", is only a few miles down the A12 road (heading towards London) in nearby Flatford - click here to see how the site looks today. There is a National Trust centre in Flatford that is worth a visit, if only for the good home-made cakes on sale. Dedham nearby is worth driving onto.

About the same distance - i.e. less than ten miles - out of Ipswich is the attractive market town of Woodbridge (located on the A12, heading out towards Lowestoft). Woodbridge was once a major port, in Tudor times, and the town is still popular today amongst sailors, with a high population of retired City types who have settled in this part of the world to "mess around on boats". You can also reach Woodbridge via train from Ipswich, although the service is far from frequent. Woodbridge has many antique shops, tea shops and old pubs, and is mainly pedestrianised. Worth a visit, especially if you are, or are travelling with, someone elderly. On the outskirts is a mill (clearly signposted from the A12), the only survivor of the 10 or more which used to feed the soldiers barracked in the area during the Napoleonic wars. Places to eat: "Spice" on the main street "the Thoroughfare" or the Captains Table. To drink: the Kings Head on the town square.

Just outside of Woodbridge is Sutton Hoo, an Anglo Saxon burial ground of royal princes, buried alongside priceless treasures in ship graves. The National Trust exhibitor centre can be found here: website. In all honesty, although the site is doubtless of great historical interest, the exhibition itself is somewhat thinly stretched. (If you want to see any of the treasures found here, you'll have to go to the British Museum in London.) Worth going to if you are in the area, anyone travelling some distance to the site could be disappointed.

On the way to Woodbridge, the villages of Waldringfield and Newbourne, both off the A12, have pubs offering good food and, in the case of Waldringfield, an attractive view over the River Deben.

Five miles outside of Woodbridge is Rendlesham Forest, site of possibly the only authenticated UFO landing in the UK (!) but also good for cycling round, with bikes available to hire in the Easter / Summer school holiday periods.

Levington - between Ipswich and Felixstowe - sits on a river estuary, and features preserved wetlands which house many migratory birds. The pub there ("The Ship") does wonderful food - liver and bacon and any of the seafood especially recommended - no bookings taken. Their wine's pretty poor though. Have a quick walk before or after visiting the pub down to the river - footpath just opposite the pub, which is the only place to park in the village.

Further out of Ipswich, Orford Castle (12 miles outside Woodbridge, on the B1084) is worth a visit in good weather - the castle is over 800 years old, in good condition for a building of that age, and Orford itself is an attractive village, with good fish and chips available from pubs and restaurants at the far end of the village.