By Air

Ipswich has good connections to both London Stansted and Norwich International airports. From Stansted, there is an express bus service (X5) which runs between Ipswich Old Cattle Market Bus Station and Stansted Airport Coach Station every 2 hours, 24 hours a day; taking approx. 90 minutes. Expect to pay around GBP75 for a prebooked minicab and over GBP100 for a metered taxi.

By Train

Ipswich Station is located on the West Bank of the Orwell River on the intersection between Princes St, Burrell Rd and Ranelagh Rd, about 1 mile from the town centre. There are frequent (every 30 min) services towards London Liverpool Street (1hr10min), Norwich (every 30 mins - 40min journey time), Cambridge (every hour - 1hr20min journey time), as well as services every two hours to Lowestoft and Peterborough, and an hourly service to Felixstowe. Tickets must be purchased from the vending machines (credit cards accepted) or at the ticket office in the entrance hall of the station. Taxis and local buses depart from the station's forecourt.

By Bus and Coach

Old Cattle Market bus station on Falcon Street serves all regional and long-distance bus services. Frequent regional buses run to Stowmarket, Sudbury, Woodbridge, Felixstowe, Colchester, Framlingham etc, while National Express services run to London (3 times per day), Liverpool (1 per day), and Stansted Airport (every 2 hours). Rural bus and minibus services run to surrounding villages, although some are very infrequent. There is no ticket office at the station, so tickets should be bought on board (change is usually available but drivers will be reluctant to change large bills), except for National Express services, which must be prebooked by phone or over the internet. Electronic signboards display the next 20 or so departures and which stand they will depart from. Schedules are displayed at each departure gate.

By Car

Ipswich is conveniently located on the intersections of the A12 (London - Great Yarmouth) and A14 (Felixstowe - Birmingham) highways with several exits along both routes. Driving into the city can be slow as traffic congestion is heavy. Also, a very confusing one-way system runs around the edge of the city centre, feeding drivers into the rabbit-warren of small streets. Maps and sat-navs are a bit useless once you're past the inner ring-road so allow plenty of time. Parking is very limited and expensive (in an underground or multi-storey city centre car park expect to pay about GBP9.00 for 3 hours) although some parking areas close to the inner ring-road will charge around GBP2.50 for one day, although they are not as secure. Alternatively, Park & Ride bus services run from 3 parking sites on the edge of the city close to the A14, costing GBP2.80 per day including free bus travel to the city centre. Look out for the blue Park & Ride signs (displaying a letter 'P' alongside a bus) when approaching Ipswich on the highway.

By bicycle

Ipswich Borough Council has gone to great lengths in recent years to make the town more cycle-friendly, and most major routes into the town centre have cycle or bus lanes, although they are often ignored by motorists, many of whom are not happy with sharing the road with cyclists, so it helps to have a good level of confidence in urban cycling. Alternatively, there are several signposted cycle routes taking in quiet residential streets, traffic free trails through the towns many parks and contraflow cycle lanes that allow cyclists to travel in both directions on a one way street. National Cycle Network routes 1 and 51 pass though Ipswich, and the borough council produces a free cycle map.