The Castle Hotel - Devizes, United Kingdom 

We stayed in Devizes for two nights to walk around the town and along the canal. The hotel was very well situated for this, expecially for the canal, and for the £80 per night we paid was very reasonable. Being on a main road with most of the rooms facing onto the road it was a little noisy despite an extra layer on the nice old sash windows, and there was limited parking in two old garages that presumably once housed coaches. The room was very pleasant, nicely decorated with a high ceiling and clean bathroom, and although the residents lounge and reception had bizarre mismatching and outdated furniture we did not use them. We were amused by Spike, the hotel iguana, who lives in a glass-fronted cupboard on the first floor. The choice of food was enormous and cheap, which always seems to suggest the kitchen is over-stretching itself, but we were very pleasantly surprised. I had a very good stuffed fillet steak for £14 and the kitchen were happy to make a fish pie that had been on the menu the day before but wasn't on it that day. Locals also visited the restaurant, which seemed to be a good sign. The bar was rather unnerving on Saturday night as it was full of young locals who all stared at us in silence for several minutes after we came in, but at least the hotel staff who served us were friendly. Not a luxury hotel but unpretentious, very pleasant and comfortable.

We booked this hotel last minute for our wedding anniversary and we paid extra for a superior room. The hotel is traditional and appears to have undergone a refurbishment in the bar and reception area. There were two garages for parking and we had no problems as they were empty. Our room was clean and comfortable with tea and coffee making facilities, bathrobes, a mini fridge with bottled water (although we couldn't seem to make it work) and a selection of toiletries in the bathroom. There were lots of signs explaining it was a non smoking hotel and that if someone smoked in their room they would pay a surcharge of £100. Devizes is quaint and we had a lovely sandwich in a coffee shop proclaiming to be the best in Wiltshire (it was!) We also drove to Marlborough which was lovely. We read the papers in the residents lounge which does have a mix of furniture (as a previous reviewer mentioned) but it was reasonably comfortable. The dragon living in the glass fronted cage was a bit freaky though! We decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant as there isn't much choice in Devizes. It was quite busy with several locals using it (a good sign we felt). The food was very good and we would recommend it, especially as it was very reasonably priced. The berakfast next morning offered a choice of cereals, fruit and toast and you could also have a cooked breakfast. My husband found his bacon very salty but my vegetarian breakfast was fine. The staff were friendly. The only downside is that the hotel is on the main road and we found the traffic a bit noisy first thing in the morning.The building shook a litle when lorries went past. There was also a very noisy dog which kept barking, but don't know if that belonged to the hotel or was elsewhere.