The location is perfect for those of us that want to shop, sightsee, dine out, visit the theatre, catch the National Gallery, listen to some jazz or just generally wander around to see how the other half live!
The hotel is literally a one minute walk from the Embankment tube station so the Northen line, District and Circle lines and the Metropolitan line are all there to whisk you off to Sloane Square, South Kensington, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road, just to name a few - all without changing trains!
Just a few minutes walk and you can reach the South Bank, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Soho, Covent Garden, gawp at No 10 from the end of Downing Street, and even stroll along to Buckingham Palace to see if you can catch a glimpse of the Royals!
But what about the hotel itself? We booked a standard room but on arrival paid to upgrade it to a slightly larger room overlooking the Thames and the Eye. Now be careful! Our view of the Thames was fine, as it was in January and most of the trees were fairly bare. In particular, the night-time view of the extravagently lit buildings over the river and the London Eye were a joy to see. I guess come the late Spring, Summer and Autumn, there wouldn't be so much of a view from our room, 536 on the 5th floor, as you would be looking straight at the trees. This room also has a decent size balcony, which sadly has a sign telling you that for health and safety reasons you cannot access it - by which they mean that the glass door is firmly locked! How sad. I am sure that back in the good old days, when it was not assumed that all hotel guests were potentially suicide cases, or that they just fell off balconies because they didn't know any better, the balcony would have been accessible and would have provided a much better view of the river and surrounds. Perhaps I am not alone in thinking that health and safety has taken the place of what in my youth was just good common sense?
Nonetheless, the room was extremely comfortable, reasonably generous in size and well worth the money we paid for it at early January prices. Not sure about later on in the year!
The hotel staff were a treat, extremely helpful and efficient throughout our four night stay. All requests to the reception and concierge were met promptly and accurately. As an example, there was a problem with the "rain shower" head over the bath (no step-in shower in this room I'm afraid) - it didn't seem to spray evenly. I mentioned this to reception on our way out in the morning; when we returned to the room in the late afternoon, it had been replaced by a new one.
Cannot comment on the hotel restaurant as we ate out every evening and preferred to sip our morning coffee and munch on our croissants in any one of the local cafes for less than a fiver per head, rather than pay £22 per head for breakfast. Doubtless very practical for the "suits" when the company is picking up the tab,but an unnecessary expense for the average tourist.
Did we enjoy our stay overall? You bet we did, it was great!
- Royal Horseguards Hotel
- Royal Horseguards London
- Royal Horseguards
