I am thinking about getting a tablet to draw on to input to inkscape. I'm looking for suggestions for entry level tablets. Something not too expensive, but good enough to do some decent work.

I've seen a lot of people that use Wacom brand tablets. I'm sure they have several models available, and probably even an entry level model. But there are other, and possibly or even probably cheaper brands of graphic tablets out there. Probably you could even find used ones, if you wanted to take that risk, and knew where to look (I don't).

Use your computer and the internet to search! You could even buy it online, if you wanted to....although I always advocate to shop in stores, where you can put your hands on them. I find it quite difficult to look at a tiny 50 px photo of a product, and have any confidence what I might really be buying.

I have a Wacom Intuos Small tablet. But the cheaper Huion brands are just as good for a lot less money. There is nothing magical about the Wacom.
Huion http://www.huiontablet.com
There are also many other brands available.

I don't use a tablet for Inkscape though. Just for Gimp. In Inkscape I don't attempt to draw a smooth curve in one stroke and hope it's OK. I use the Bezier tool to set the positions of the nodes with the mouse. And then take my time adjusting the handles and nodes to get the shape exactly as I want it.

Thanks for the suggestions. However, I am looking for a more affordable alternative to ipad or surface pro, where the image is on the tablet, rather than a separate screen. Any ideas?

What you've described previously is a graphics tablet. That is different from an ipad type of tablet.

Although these days, I suppose it's possible there are some sort of hybrids which have both. But I would search for "graphics tablet", to make sure I was looking at the right kind of product.

DDG search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=graphics+tablet&t=ffsb