The best spa hotels in Suffolk
An insider's guide to the best spa hotels in Suffolk, including the top places to stay for indoor and outdoor pools, beauty treatments, juice bars, tepidariums, sanariums, thermal waters and reflexology pads, in locations including Woodbridge, Leavenheath, Newmarket, Bury Saint Edmunds and Lavenham.
Seckford Hall
Woodbridge, Suffolk, England
8Telegraph expert rating
This is a well preserved Jacobean mansion in the heart of Woodbridge. The hall was built and lived in by a confidante to Elizabeth I, William Seckford, and is a unique place to stay. Rooms ooze character, not least the wood-panelled Great Hall, where you can enjoy an atmospheric cream tea or a doze over the paper. Service is attentive and efficient throughout the hotel, and there’s a lounge, cosy, low-ceilinged bar and spruce restaurant. You can also stroll the grounds and mosey down to the lake. For a more relaxing afternoon, the well-run spa across the way has a café, and offers multiple treatments overlooking a fabulous indoor pool, which is located under the gnarled beams of a 16th-century barn. Read expert review From £89per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Golf & Spa
Leavenheath, Suffolk, England
8Telegraph expert rating
The hotel is set amid beautiful Suffolk countryside which is accentuated through the floor-to-ceiling windows that really bring the outside in. The spa itself overlooks a championship golf course and the lake. It has a lovely pool with plenty of room to relax, plus a whirlpool tub and excellent facilities with lots of treatments, a 'sanarium' (like a sauna) and hamman – plus a 'Rasul mud therapy' facility. They also have a decent café so you can really make the most of a day there. There are 80 rooms and suites, as well as self-catering lodges which all have terraces, some of which overlook the back of one of the golf courses, while others have a more secluded, woodland feel – you can even hire your own chef to come over and cook you a private dinner. Read expert review From £87per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Bedford Lodge Hotel & Spa
Newmarket, Suffolk, England
8Telegraph expert rating
Bedford Lodge is Thoroughbred Central as far as Newmarket goes, and just a short walk from the famous Gallops, where you can see any number of horses training every morning from first light. Décor is modern, but with a classic feel fostered by calm colours, plenty of soft furnishings and dark-wood furniture. It’s luxurious spa has its own café, sauna and steam room, light-drenched hydrotherapy pool, rooftop whirlpool tub and various treatment rooms, as well as top-notch leisure facilities including a 15-metre pool and a large gym with excellent facilities. Bedrooms range from Standard and Superior rooms in a back extension to six lovely, light suites on the upper floor of the original building that make the most of the structure’s Georgian aspect. Read expert review From £99per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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The Ickworth Hotel And Apartments
Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, England
8Telegraph expert rating
This National Trust property in the Suffolk countryside is part attraction, part rejuvenating retreat. It's set in 1,800 acres of rolling parkland and is located just a few miles from Bury St Edmunds. The property is unabashedly grand from the moment you head up the estate's long drive with the striking rotunda at the end (think Brideshead Revisited with a dash of Downton Abbey, given the property’s colourful history). And service is mostly everything you would hope for. There are plenty of options for entertainment and pampering, from a children’s cinema to an atmospheric basement spa. Facilities at the spa include an indoor swimming pool and therapy rooms which offer a range of treatments such as facials, massages and body scrubs. Read expert review From £95per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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The Swan at Lavenham
Lavenham, Suffolk, England
8Telegraph expert rating
The hotel has been around for a very long time and comprises a timbered complex of buildings which dominate the centre of the old Tudor wool town of Lavenham. Comfortable rooms, decent food, a spa and high levels of service make it an attractive stay. The spa in particular is lovely, a relatively recent addition whose sparkling and ultra-soothing facilities offer the chance to time-travel forward several centuries as you leave the creaky corridors of the main hotel. Bedrooms come in all shapes and sizes, and some are more modern than others, but most blend a modern sensibility with the heritage of the building pretty well, with contemporary headboards and splashes of colour that fit surprisingly well with the ancient beams and creaky floors. Read expert review From £105per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
