Name: The Cross Keys
Address: 32 High Street, Saffron Walden, Saffron Walden, Saffron Walden, CB10 1AX, United Kingdom
Rating: 7

Smoke-free property

Heating

General

Hairdryer

Wardrobe/Closet

Toiletries

Rooms

Coffee/tea for guests

Breakfast

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

English

Portuguese

Languages Spoken

Parking

Parking nearby

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Temperature control for staff

Personal protection equipment for staff

Extra decontamination measures

Temperature control for guests

Contactless check-in and/or check-out

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the guest house

Room amenities

Saffron Walden Museum

London Stansted Airport

Cambridge Airport

London Luton Airport

London City Airport

London Southend Airport

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The British Museum

The Shard

Madame Tussauds

National Gallery

London Eye

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace

Hyde Park

Victoria and Albert Museum

Loftus Road Stadium

The Cross Keys

Saffron Walden

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

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25-beds

26-beds

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3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

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36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

park access

This a review of of the bar and the restaurant it's local to where I've been staying and the food has been absolutely amazing twice. I chose the fish and chips with the strawberry ice cream and the next visit I had the steamed mushrooms fish and chips

If you locked out for food and beer no troubles Cross keys opens your stomach

An absolute delight of a visit. The room was small but cozy. Felt newly renovated. Very clean overall, big and soft bed, with all amenities you might need. And of course, very nice personnel especially at breakfast! We will most likely come back if we visit saffron Walden again.

Cozy place in the heart of saffron Walden

The Cross Keys is OLD - very old. That is its great charm. The family which now runs the hotel (and several other boutique hotels nearby) has done a magnificent job of preserving all of its history while making it sufficiently modern for a comfortable and relaxing stay. It is snug, warm, tidy, clean and extremely hospitable; the bar and restaurant are also of a very good standard. No parking on site, but that is a small price to pay for its location in the very centre of this picturesque market town.

Fatally quaint!

Visited for the first time today for Sunday lunch and even though we hadn't booked, a table was found.  We had drinks at the bar whilst the table was cleaned and escorted to our table when ready.  We had the steak and it was delicious 😋 the staff were so lovely and friendly and I loved the environment.  Will definitely return here.

Sunday lunch

Just back from a one night stay at this beautiful hotel to celebrate my mums birthday . We had 3 rooms and ate dinner in restaurant. Centrally located . Nothing too much trouble . Rooms small but perfect and a special mention to Wendy who was professional, welcoming and fun . We will be back !!

Perfect one night stay

We have very recently from our second stay at the Cross Keys hotel in Saffron Walden. Overall, our stay was ok, the hotel has some plus points but also some which are negative.
On the credit side this ancient hotel is very attractive externally and has definitely has ‘old world’ charm.  The hotel is extremely well located in the centre of Saffron Walden; this is the chief reason we returned to this hotel, since for our purposes a central location was important. The hotel does not have its own car park but there is a large public car park (Swan Meadows) about a 5- minute walk away that is reasonably priced and indeed is free between 6 pm and 8 am, hence parking is not really a problem here.
The hotel dates back centuries and therefore unlike modern, purpose- built hotels the rooms are all different shapes and sizes and do not have air conditioning. I believe all bedrooms are upstairs and there is no lift hence the bedrooms are unavailable if one cannot climb stairs.  Our room on this occasion was on the small side but was clean, adequately furnished and the bed was comfortable. The old - fashioned sash window could be opened quite easily to ventilate the room, but I suspect that in the depth of winter these single glazed windows might mean the room gets very cold. Unfortunately, two out of three of the bathroom lights were not working and although we reported the issue almost immediately upon arrival this problem was not rectified during our two- night stay, I was given to understand that the  light bulbs were in some way unusual and not easily obtainable. Maybe the hotel needs to upgrade their lighting system to a more conventional one so that non-working bulbs can be placed more rapidly.
On the negative side we found that the service at breakfast time was very slow indeed. This was also a problem that we encountered last year and were hoping there may have been some improvement since then, however, this was not the case. Fortunately, we were not in any hurry but if one’s time is short it might be better to obtain breakfast elsewhere.  It would seem that the chief cause of such slow service is a lack of staff; whilst the staff members we encountered were pleasant enough we never met anyone who appeared to be in charge overall. 
It should be noted that no staff stay on site overnight (although one is given an emergency number to ring if you need help). In addition, after 10pm the only access to the hotel is via a fire escape staircase situated at the back of the hotel. On one evening we arrived back shortly after 10 pm to find the staircase lights were not on (which could lead to trips and falls) in addition, there were a couple of men hanging around near the bottom of the staircase. Although these men caused us no bother whatsoever, if I had been on my own I think I would have felt rather frightened at climbing up into the darkness with the possibility of being followed. So, for these reasons I do not recommend this hotel for lone travellers who think they may need to return after 10 pm at night.

Satisfactory stay

We found the staff extremely helpful but our room left a lot to be desired. On the plus  side the bed was extremely comfortable. It was freezing in the bedroom and bathroom when we arrived, no mirror in the room, therefore to dry my hair I had to plug the hairdryer in the nearest socket to the bathroom so I could see the mirror. One hard chair, v grubby hose for the shower head, a couple of sockets didn’t work. I could go on, having brought all this to the managers attention I hope they can improve that room as the location of the hotel  is excellent. We enjoyed an evening meal, and the breakfasts were fine.

Room for improvement.

Visited today with friends fo Lunch and we were more than disappointed. One of the guests ordered the Haddock only to be informed sorry we don't have any Fish as not been delivered. There was a fresh fish man on the market today! Another guest ordered Sausage and Mash and the waitress came back to say sorry we haven't got any sausages either.  I ordered Liver and Bacon and it was awful, Liver not cooked properly and dry tasteless Bacon. Not wanting to stress the guests further I paid up but left feeling ' a complete and utter disaster '.

Avoid

My partner and I stayed here last year and loved the place, so decided to rebook it again. Unfortunately, after staying this time we were extremely disappointed that it didn't live up to the standards of our previous stay.

The room we stayed in (room 8) was advertised as a Deluxe King room, but unfortunately is much smaller than the Deluxe King room we stayed in last year, so much so that it feels quite unfair to charge the same price for both. The room itself was cold, and the aircon/heater unit had been deactivated. Also, the bedding from the previous night had been left on the floor, so had to be collected by the staff member upon entry. 
On the plus side, the bed was soft and comfortable, and the room was clean and nicely presented. 

We booked a meal in the restaurant, and was disappointed to see that there was only 1 chef working and 2 inattentive staff members serving the tables. This meant that despite the restaurant being basically empty, the food took a long time to come. My partner ordered the calf's liver, which was served as a big slab, and had not been prepared correctly so was full of tubes. It was cooked well, but unfortunately was practically inedible. 
I ordered the Pie of the day, which to be fair was delicious, but the seasonal veg left a little to be desired. 
The young female staff member who served us was very pleasant, however the young male who was also serving had no interpersonal skills whatsoever. 

Breakfast in the morning was very nicely prepared, however once again even though the restaurant was basically empty, the service was incredibly slow. Additionally, as the people on the other tables were leaving, the staff were happy to leave their dirty plates etc on the tables instead of clearing them away. I assume they all got cleared at the end of the breakfast service, but it came across as a lack of care from the staff. 

It is sad to see somewhere that we stayed and loved just a year ago be so disappointing, and so we will not rebook in the future. 

Disappointing compared to our previous stay 

Unbelievably slow service. We waited for 45 minutes for our drinks to arrive, and 90 minutes for our food. The food was average, not great, and nobody checked on us for the whole 2 hours we were there. Thankfully they gave us 30% off and removed the service charge, but regardless it was a real disappointment for our family christmas meal. Really needs to change.

The Cross Keys

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