We stayed at The Star Inn for the duration of our visit to Alfriston in September 2007 and again in October 2007.

The Star Inn is a bit of a mixture and what you see is not necessarily what you get - I'm talking about the accommodation here. What you see is a genuine 13th century timber-framed inn. What you don't see is the large modern extension tucked away at the back. There are only two bedrooms in the old part of the building and over 30 in the modern part. The bar and lounge areas are in the old part and are very atmospheric.

The rooms in the old part are more expensive than the newer rooms although the newer rooms (we had one) are perfectly comfortable and are, in fact, larger than the 'standard' hotel room. The newer rooms are available both on the ground floor and the first floor. Just outside the new extension is a large car park with enough spaces for all guests.

This inn, apparently, now has new owners who are keen to refurbish the whole place although currently it does not really look frayed at the edges. The furnishings in our room may have appeared a little dated but were perfectly serviceable. The bathroom was well equipped and I didn't notice any tatty bits as I do in some hotels. There is no Internet access.

The food is good! We arrived at lunchtime on the first day of our first visit and I had a Bacon and Brie sandwich which was pretty yummy. I thought that it was a pity that they'd used supermarket sliced bread instead of some good quality bread. It does seem very strange that they'd go to the trouble of producing a top quality sandwich filling and then slap sliced bread around it. Amanda wasn't feeling particularly hungry and had just a portion of chips. They were obviously prepared by hand and were very tasty.

One of the particularly nice things about this inn is that the dinner menu changes every day. There were usually four main courses on offer of which one was a vegetarian dish and one dish usually had an extra supplement to pay. We didn't have the vegetarian dish or the one with the supplement but still found something we liked every day. The starters and main courses were always very good although the accompanying vegetables were rather unimaginative but perfectly wholesome. There were a similar number of choices for desserts but they did seem to be rather similar in concept.

We had breakfast in the same dining room and the food, again, was of a high standard. There was a buffet section for fruit juices, cereals and the like but the cooked part of the meal was brought to the table.

Their charges are quite reasonable in ordinary circumstances but we were able to take advantage of a special offer for September which was £115.00 per day for dinner, bed and breakfast for two which we thought was pretty good. They had another, even better, offer which started on 1st October until 23rd December and was £250.00 for the two of us for 3 nights, the third night being charged at half-price, and included Dinner, Bed & Breakfast, Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea. We couldn't resist and so had a second trip.

The staff were friendly and very obliging, the housekeeping good and we rather liked the place - we WILL be back! (Edit: We already have been)

The Star Inn's own web site.