Hawkwell House Hotel

A delightful hotel tucked away in the outskirts of Oxford, close enough to the town to not miss out on anything but far enough away to feel like a country retreat.
There are two gorgeous buildings for accommodation set in pretty grounds. The restaurant is a hidden gem with a seasonal menu that is truly delicious.

I spent four nights here with my fiancé at the end of summer and an important point to make early on is that Hawkwell House isn’t really in Oxford. It’s actually in a suburb, a village called Iffley. Nice, quiet and easy enough to access Oxford from as there are frequent buses shuttling to and from the city of Oxford and a couple of walking options. One can stroll along the river Thames or take the more direct route, such as the buses do, this takes about 25 minutes or so. Or you could drive. Therefore, if you want to stay in town for convenience sake then this hotel may not be for you, otherwise, Hawkwell House Hotel is a perfectly lovely place to stay.
As for the hotel, it’s in very peaceful surroundings with plenty of private garden space within it’s grounds — a lovely looking wedding was taking place outside in the sun as we were checking out. And on that, from check in to check out all of the staff were entirely pleasant, attentive, friendly and helpful — with a special mention for the reception staff, they were great for us during our stay. The only blemish on their record were the bar staff. It’s not that they weren’t all of the superlatives above but more that the service was a little slow. From service to preparing our drinks the process took longer than it probably should have.
The only other aspect that I felt wasn’t quite up to scratch was the restaurant. This, however, was only true of the one evening we ate in there though, all of our breakfasts — every morning — were great. Again the staff were very accommodating and there were no delays in the service, it’s just that the food wasn’t particularly good. Not bad, just ordinary.
I believe our room was a standard double and was very nice — no complaints to be found here. Numerous services are also available and I felt that the reception staff were always willing to make everything as convenient as possible for us. One such service we made use of was the spa treatments, there’s no spa on site but they’ll arrange for a therapist (of desired description) to come to your room and carry out their service there — in our case, a masseuse.
All in all I would stay here again and, as I am doing to you, would be happy to recommend Hawkwell House to others.
TTFN,
Ian

A very nice and quiet hotel in Iffley with good breakfast (including cooked meals) and comfortable rooms. The staff was very friendly and helpful and I never (stayed 17 nights) had a problem to park my car in the yard. What I loved most is that you only need to take a short walk to get to Iffley lock on the Isis (Thames) for either jogging or Isis Farm House pub.

GCattermole makes some valid points, however we paid £55 for a double room on a Friday, Some paid £95, the list rate is higher still.
So I’m rating it on value against say a travelodge, in which case it was really good value, why:
Good rooms
Includes breakfast
Bar open as long as guests want.
£5 taxi from centre
Pleasant bar and lounge.
Saturday breakfast between 8.45 and 9.45 was chaotic, waits for tables etc., but OK when we had it.
Not a top hotel, but perfectlt good, and great value.

We went here for a friends wedding and it was a lovely location situated in Iffley, a village outside of Oxford. The gardens were lovely and the hotel itself really clean. The conservatory where the wedding was held was quite dated so I wouldn’t recommend it for a wedding. The lounge bar overlooks the front lawn where you can play croquet. Beautiful on a sunny day

Billed as being «a brisk Thames-​side walk from the centre of Oxford» this hotel is actually in a village called Iffley about 2 miles out of town. It might be a nice walk in summer, but I couldn’t recommend it in winter.
The hotel looks pleasant enough, sat in its own grounds, but somehow fails to deliver on so many areas. Service at reception is slow, and I have stayed there twice times, and both times they couldn’t initially find my reservation, then found it after getting another member of staff to investigate.
The restaurant area and bar are both pleasant enough, but the food was variable and the service disappointing too. The restaurant menu is basically Italian, and sounds reasonable, but disappointed. At breakfast finding a clean table with a full place setting was difficult. On the bright side the glass of wine I ordered at the bar was good, and the bar snacks tasty and more interesting than normal.
I have stayed in two rooms: both were a reasonable size and comfortable. Unfortunately I enjoy having a shower in the morning in one of the rooms the shower was almost dangerous. It was very difficult to get any control over the temperature, and when you do manage to get the temperature correct it very quickly went much too hot to bear and I ended up leaping out of the bath very dangerous when wet! After that I tried to get a reasonable temperature to wash the soap out of my eyes and eventually gave up and used cold water to rinse the soap off.
There is a reasonable amount of car parking, but it is not well arranged and bays are not well marked: consequently it tends to be rather shambolic.
Overall the place is OK, but there are better places to stay in the area. It has the unusual distinction of having a nicer web site (
) than the venue.