by Paul Acres

If you'd asked me to name 10 places in the UK I wanted to visit, neither Bury St Edmund's nor Ipswich in Suffolk would have appeared on my list.

However, having spent a night at The Angel in Bury St Edmund's followed by a night at the Salthouse Harbour Hotel in Ipswich, my wife and I can safely say that the two destinations now make immediate entries close to the top.

The two hotels, so very different in appearance, atmosphere and style, share the essential ingredients of comfort, service and luxury.

Formerly a coaching inn, The Angel manages to cater for modern expectations while retaining its sense of history. This is a hotel of stark contrasts, but rather than jar, the eclectic mix of styles provide a visual feast.

The Angel has 75 rooms from traditional four-poster Victorian-inspired to cutting edge contemporary. Our suite, with its views across the square to the Abbey Gardens, summed up The Angel in a microcosm, the odd stain on the carpet, wallpaper that, in places, was showing signs of wear and tear, and traditional furnishings contrasted with the wall-mounted flat-screen TV and Denon stereo, and the crisp bathroom suite with walk-in shower and heated towel rails.

The little imperfections that we did find merely served to heighten the sense of history, to give an insight into the hotel's past, and also to make the place feel more welcoming, more homely.

The Eaterie is a perfect example of contemporary minimalism with its wooden tables and chairs, wooden flooring and soft lighting.

The menu is the same, with no more than half a dozen starters, mains and desserts. As you would expect, the quality is excellent.

One of the few quayside hotels in the country, the Salthouse Harbour hotel offers stunning views across the marina and, in its own words, an eclectic blend of urban and country, vintage chic and cutting edge design. Unlike The Angel, the only clues to the building's past are visible from the outside. From the huge glass-fronted reception and lounge area, to the Eaterie, through to the modern and well-equipped rooms, everything at the Salthouse is bang up to date.

Our room - one of 70 the hotel has to offer - on the fifth floor, overlooked the marina, with views extending along the river Orwell .

The Sail Loft Marina room offered flat-screen TV, Bose iPod dock, wet room shower and, perhaps most astonishingly, a free-standing copper bath right next to the bed, great for relaxing with some bubbles in the bath and some bubbly in a glass.

The Salthouse's version of the Eaterie was a slightly fussier affair, though none the worse for it. Service was, once again, exceptional.