If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP273.89), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
A countryside hideaway, you say, where communing with nature can be combined with spa sessions and pre-dinner cocktails? Retreat East should fit the bill; a cluster of handsome, oak-timbered barns off a leafy, sat-nav-averse country lane (keep an eye out for the sign). The barns – a mix of beamed originals and new-builds – are quietly luxurious, edged by charming courtyards and verandas overlooking the fields. Most have a kitchen, though you may not spend much time there; the restaurant’s a showcase for some of Suffolk’s finest suppliers, along with produce from the bountiful kitchen gardens.
11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm. There’s no flexibility on times, but you’re welcome to have a drink or relax in the Great Barn if you’re arriving early or in no rush to leave.
Prices
Double rooms from £252.95, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates include a Continental breakfast and a full-English is available for purchase too.
Also
The Stables and The Hayloft have wheelchair access – though not wheelchair-accessible showers – and a ramp is available on request for access to the Great Barn restaurant.
At the hotel
Spa, gym, eight bicycles, wellies to borrow, a small shop at the reception, yoga and personal training sessions on request. In rooms: free Wi-Fi, Grind coffee machines, locally-made Loggique toiletries, smart TVs
Our favourite rooms
The original, oak-timbered farm buildings have a real sense of place. Its name notwithstanding, The Piggery is particularly romantic, with a pink-painted four-poster made for breakfasts in bed, and French doors leading to a sunny cobbled courtyard. For more space, there’s the two-bedroom The Cow House, with its double-height living space, or the beautifully-beamed Roost, with far-reaching views across the fields. Set in walled gardens, the 16th-century farmhouse is also a beauty, with four charming bedrooms, sweetly sloping floors and perilously low lintels.
If it’s out-and-out indulgence you’re after, the more modern barns have their own appeal. Consider checking into one of the spa barns, with their velvet sofas, woodburning stoves, and roll-top baths on the terrace. While most of the barns here are geared towards self-catering, these have teeny-tiny ‘kitchens’ – equipped for the concocting of gin and tonics, rather than any actual cooking.
Spa
The cedar-clad spa is small but cocooning, with a sauna, steam room and outdoor hot tub. There’s no charge, but the hour-long sessions need to be reserved. Treatments include unhurried massages and facials, with Elemental Herbology’s Chinese medicine-inspired oils, exfoliants and masks. Book ahead; with just two treatment rooms, slots soon get snapped up. In-barn massages can also be arranged, for an extra £25, unless you’re staying in one of the smaller suites (Little Warren, Little Hive, Nook and Den).
Packing tips
Beach shoes (the shingle is unforgiving) and a copy of Melissa Harrison’s lyrical, Suffolk farm-set All Among the Barley, to curl up with after dinner.
Also
Forgotten to bring boots? You can borrow a pair of Barbours (though, with a substantial deposit involved, be sure to bring them back). Plus you’ll find a small but thoughtfully-stocked shop at reception.
Pet‐friendly
Dogs are welcome in all but three of the barns (the Little Warren, Little Hive and the Sett). One can stay for £45 a night, two are allowed for £65 a night, which includes a bed, bowl and treats. See more pet-friendly hotels in Suffolk.
Children
Welcome in certain rooms. The Piggery and Hayloft can both have a cot added for £20; the Burrow, Cow House and Stables all fit two adults and two children (or one adult and three children). Extra beds are not available.
Overview
All ages are welcome, though watch out for some unyielding floors and edges. And small fry aren’t allowed in all the barns, so call to check.
Best for
The self-catering set-up in most of the barns is particularly handy for families, with the cheering possibility of post-bedtime room service for parents. There are no extra beds, but travel cots are £20 per stay (you need to bring your own bedding).
Recommended rooms
Two-bedroom options include the Burrow, along with the more charismatic Cow House, with its parent-pleasing master suite. If you’re bringing a baby, the Piggery has a bath, mini-kitchen and plenty of nooks to sip wine in once the baby’s asleep.
Activities
There’s a small but sweet on-site nature trail for children, with a bird-feeder, bug hotel, and hedgehog house along the way. Kids will also enjoy pottering about in the kitchen gardens, and forays along the local footpaths, with the promise of cake in Coddenham. The seaside aside, local attractions include Jimmy’s Farm, whose residents run from rare-breed pigs to crocodiles and lemurs. Under ten minutes’ drive away, Needham Lake is a scenic spot for den-building, with two playgrounds and a circular trail around a duck-dotted lake.
Meals
Staff can provide highchairs and cutlery for kids in the Great Barn, along with a simple children’s menu; think mac and cheese, fish fingers and chips, or scaled-down Sunday roasts.
Sustainability efforts
Water comes from the hotel’s own borehole, and there are solar panels on the Great Barn. Cleaning products and toiletries are eco-friendly, and food waste is composted and used in the kitchen gardens.
Commandeer tables one or two, which are by the imposing fireplace and have the best terrace views.
Dress Code
Been-to-the-beach Bretons or dresses in summer, and slouchy cashmere knits from autumn onwards, with jeans and biker boots for pre-dinner ambles in the grounds.
Hotel restaurant
Set in the lofty, oak-framed Great Barn, the restaurant takes a pleasingly seasonal approach showcasing produce from the organic kitchen gardens: heritage squash, strawberries, rhubarb, rainbow chard and more. Its menus also name-drop some first-rate local suppliers: beef from Yarn Hill’s herd of Lincoln Reds, or Fen Farm Dairy’s luscious Baron Bigod cheese. There’s artistry in the kitchen (where menus change weekly) but nothing’s too fussy, from the treacle and rye sourdough, baked in house, to the satisfying mains, like roasted Suffolk chicken with garden-grown sorrel, and buttery potato terrine. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, when it’s wise to book ahead.
Hotel bar
Next to the restaurant, the parquet-floored bar has a billiards table at its centre. Undo your opponent with a large glass of sancerre from the short but well-chosen wine list, or a kitchen-garden-fuelled seasonal cocktail; a lemon verbena-laced daiquiri, say, or tart gooseberry sour.
Last orders
The restaurant is open Thursday to Monday only; breakfast is served from 8.30–10.30am, lunch is from noon until 2.30pm, and dinner is 5.30-8.30pm. On Sundays, the restaurant is open from noon to 7.30pm.
Room service
Guests can order anything from the restaurant menu, with a 15 per cent surcharge for service.
Retreat East is set in rural Suffolk, on a cow parsley-lined country lane. Ipswich is 20 minutes by car, and the coast is within driving distance for jaunts to Southwold and Aldeburgh.
Planes
The closest airport is Stansted, an hour and ten minutes’ drive away.
Trains
It’s a 20-minute drive to Ipswich Station, where services include half-hourly trains to London Liverpool Street.
Automobiles
It’s perfectly possible to come by train and taxi, then cycle to nearby villages, but a car is handy for exploring the coast. Retreat East is just off the A14, and has parking and charge points for electric cars. In summer, no cars are allowed on the main site, so – after dropping off luggage – you’re asked to park by reception; it’s not far, and closer spaces are available for guests with mobility issues.
Other
Call ahead if you’re planning to helicopter in; it can be arranged, though landing fees apply.
Worth getting out of bed for
There’s excellent walking to be had, with maps to borrow at reception. Limber up with a 20-minute stroll across the fields to the neighbouring village of Coddenham, whose community-run village store (which shuts up shop on Sundays) is a shining example of its kind. Stocked with Suffolk-made comestibles, it also serves up coffee, tea and wedges of buttercream-filled cake.
The Suffolk coast is punctuated with implausibly pretty villages and towns, including Aldeburgh. Behind the shingle beach, tarred fishermen’s huts sell samphire and fresh fish – though for haddock and chips, queue at the Golden Galleon, on the pastel-painted High Street. Six miles along the river Alde, Snape Maltings hosts the town’s classical music and food festivals, but is worth a detour year-round for walks through the mudflats and marshes. Further afield, do a spot of crabbing at Walberswick, then catch the ferry to Southwold – a 12-seater rowing boat, which only takes cash. It’s the English seaside at its most charming, with its beach-hut-backed sands, old-fashioned tea rooms, and eccentric amusement arcade.
Closer to home, the village of Orford is not to be missed, thanks to its abundant oyster beds, first-rate bakery and 12th-century castle – said to be haunted by the ghost of a mistreated merman. Equally otherworldly is Orford Ness, a shingle spit dotted with eery concrete ‘pagodas’, where secret atomic weapons were tested in the 1950s. It’s now a wild and wind-scoured nature reserve, run by the National Trust, with seasonal ferries from Orford’s quay, which must be booked ahead.
Local restaurants
Tables are rightly in demand at the Unruly Pig, a rural, red-brick inn with a brace of culinary awards. Hunker down in its wood-panelled dining room for an epic Sunday lunch – Iberico black pork or 40 day-aged steak, laced with anchovy butter. On Orford’s Market Square, Butley Orford Oysterage serves impeccable seafood with a minimum of fuss, and paper tablecloths. Start with its namesake oysters, raised on a local creek, followed by a chalked-up special: skate wing with caper-laced brown butter, perhaps, or house-smoked trout with horseradish. In Aldeburgh, Regatta is similarly strong on seafood, with samphire-framed fish platters and – if you’re in luck – local lobster with chips and garlic butter.
Local cafés
On Orford’s Market Square, pick up cinnamon-streaked buns at the Pump Street Bakery, or claim a table for brioche French toast and artfully-assembled tartines. In Aldeburgh, Ives is a sweetly old-fashioned ice-cream parlour, dispensing caramel-laced sundaes and precision-balanced triple-scoop cones.
Local bars
For a change of scene – and pint of well-kept ale – head for the Dog at Grundisburgh, a hospitable, pink-painted pub by the village green. After a stroll on the shingle at Dunwich beach, retreat to The Ship for potted shrimp on toast and a half of Southwold Bitter. For sunset views over the marshes, chart a course for Orford’s Jolly Sailor, which also hires out electric bikes for pedals through Rendlesham Forest.
Fried Maldon oysters, caviar, pickled grapes and English sparkling cream. Black treacle sourdough with black garlic butter. Salt baked beetroot tart with sloe gin jam.
And so, it seems that we have been tricked.
What first presented itself as a minibreak in a barn (an altogether charming one, mind – more on that later) is, in fact, a rather serious culinary experience.
You think you’re having a cute time – frolicking in fields, louche-ing about in hot tubs, mainlining fireside rosemary margaritas – and then BAM: whipped cod’s roe and nasturtiums on ‘yesterday’s bread’. Truffle and cashew faux gras with gingerbread and pear. Small but perfectly formed pork and octopus laksa.
This is the ‘snacks’ course: the petits fours (fives?) of starters. Each deeply considered and just as delicious. Almost all grown, baked or pickled on site – and even the Kentish oysters and Essex wine have covered less ground to be here than us. It sets the tone for an unexpected adventure of a tasting menu.
And it is this that I want you to know about Retreat East – billed as a luxury retreat in the Suffolk countryside: that its head chef and sommelier duo are doing remarkable things with food and wine. Clever, playful, perfectly paired and profoundly respectful of nature, they use everything, make everything and make everything yum. It is, frankly, a little disconcerting.
But now I’ve spoiled the surprise, and there’s a lot else you should know. Let’s rewind seven hours, as we’re pootling down the Suffolk roads to Retreat East.
We arrive just after lunch, sneaking the commute into a slightly stretched Friday lunchbreak (sorry, boss), and head straight to our home for the weekend, the Granary, to wrap up work.
Retreat East has 23 barns and rooms, from the historic four-bed farmhouse to the sleek new field barns with outdoor baths. After eyeing up the pretty-in-pink Piggery, the sprawling size and sweeping meadow views from the Granary swayed me.
She is a beauty, think cottagecore meets Modern House. Exposed beams and high ceilings run from formal dining room through mint-Smeg-kitted-out kitchen and cosy sitting room to meadow-hued master bedroom, via a pair of walk-in wet rooms – all backed by a huge terrace overlooking the fields.
It’s also gloriously spa-like, from the smell (not because it’s an old dairy barn, but because of divinely scented in-house smellies) to the luxe underfloor heating, which encourages not so much barefoot padding as all out nudity (just between us and the fields).
Laptops shut and clothes, as yet, intact, we take a walking map from reception (there are also Hunter wellies and bicycles) and embark on a pretty evening ramble through the surrounding fields to the charming Coddenham Community Shop, feeling brilliantly bucolic and bonny – and then back to devour our welcome basket of locally sourced Sussex treats (bar the soap, but even that looks tasty).
Unpopular opinion alert, on the subject of local sourcing: I actually like having a bit of sustainability shoved down my throat – it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I meet hosts actively trying not to burn their house down. But I respect the fact that the vast efforts Retreat East is going to make a more sustainable destination are discreet. Only by delving into their website (and lightly harassing their staff) do I find out about the onsite solar panel field, borehole and well providing water, sewage plant and organic farm garden yielding much of the menu.
This, of course, brings us back to the hyper-local, seasonal, make-from-scratch, use-everything, waste-nothing food philosophy – and, more importantly, to my dinner. Where was I?
As well as dishes starring yesterday’s leftovers or offcuts of earlier plates and a meat course using the entire duck, the chef saves unwanted food from local suppliers; when another buyer accidentally ordered 100 sweetcorns (not ten), these guys nobly rescued the rest.
If I’m starting to sound a little evangelical, bear with me. That reclaimed corn became a sweetcorn ice cream “pre-dessert”. There’s also a dessert-dessert, and post-dessert – and I will be a devout disciple of anywhere serving three rounds of pudding. So there.
By the end of dinner, we have become painfully earnest and enthusiastic (and honestly increasingly drunk, thanks to the seven-course wine flight). Thankfully Retreat East’s warm, unpretentious vibe means everyone pretends not to have noticed at breakfast. Several bowls of homemade granola down, we have some serious calories to burn.
I should admit that I am completely and utterly insane when it comes to walks. I will lie, I will cheat, I will hide the map if it means extending a pleasant rural ramble into an exhausting hike. Thankfully, Smith will put up with any length of walk as long as there is a pub at the end.
But I was on thin ice, by which I mean deep bog, with this one – dragging us through a marsh, and at some points an actual river, and several hours of thorny overgrowth to the Maybush in which, luckily, is excellent enough for Smith to forgive me. Luckier still, we have the outdoor hot tub booked to soothe bog-worn legs before dinner.
‘I feel really chill,’ Smith muses as we float back to our barn after another candlelit feast, ‘I don’t know what’s happened.’ I would hazard a guess that what has happened is signature Retreat East. Whether it’s the walks, the wine, the spa, the food, the fireside stupors or whatever they’re putting in the boreholed water, it really works.
