Why the City of London’s great for a family break
Hotel Review: The Westin City London is the business
When booking a break in London, the City might not be the first region anyone other than business travellers think of, but it’s actually a great place to base yourself.
We enjoyed a festive family getaway over the Christmas holidays – it’s become a British Travel List tradition – and this year, we booked into The Westin London City.
The hotel, alongside the Thames, in between Southwark Bridge and The Millennium Bridge, is a gleaming new building, which opened at the end of 2021. Positioned a few minutes from St Paul’s Cathedral on one side and spectacular river views on the other, especially from its destination bar Hithe and Seek, the hotel turned out to be the business, even for our two young children.
Built straddling a road, the Westin has an unusual layout and the interiors are stylish and sleek, a mix of muted tones, marble and glass. Highlights include the stand-out Heavenly Spa, with its lovely swimming pool and treatment rooms, large gym and spacious Mosaic restaurant, also with fabulous river views.
Staff were super-attentive and friendly, providing thoughtful details for children, such as a child passport/trail and gift for completing all the stamps in it. The rooms were cool and well-fitted, with stylish bathrooms and the beds super-comfortable. If I had to find one tiny thing as a negative, it would be the deranged duvet covers, which had a folded-sheet arrangement at the top, which meant it came undone and you ended up with the bare duvet tangled all over you by the morning.
As for the location, we found basing ourselves in the City had pleasant surprises – we walked around many of the historic alleyways and lanes, visited St Paul’s Cathedral, rambled along the riverside and over the bridge to Bankside, which is a great place to go for dinner. We went to the Sky Garden and checked out one of London’s secret treasures, the Roman temple, London Mithraeum. Excavated under the Bloomberg building, this is a fascinating – and free - place to visit. We loved the “Roman rubbish” diorama, in particular.
It was also significantly quieter, late December, anyway, with the usual workers on holiday and all the tourists in the West End, so we found it easier to book restaurants and wander around here than tackle the enormous queues we encountered in Soho. Because of train strikes, we took the car and found it simple to park nearby. With no congestion charge in between Christmas and New Year, it was a good option.
The British Travel List Verdict: We enjoyed a lovely, luxurious stay in the heart of the City of London – I’d thoroughly recommend The Westin London City for families, couples and business travellers. Don’t miss the beautiful river views from the bar.
The Travel List
Stay: The Westin London City, 60 Upper Thames St, London, Marriott.com
Eat: A great place for dinner, with spectacular views, is Bankside. We loved The Real Greek, right on the water, by Southwark Bridge.
Visit: Don’t miss the London Mithraeum – a mysterious Roman temple under a tower block, in the City. It’s free, but pre-book a slot.
The British Travel List is the sister newsletter to The Royal List. It is a weekly guide to my favourite places to visit and stay around the country. I am an experienced travel and lifestyle journalist and am passionate about British travel. For more of my work, visit kerryparnell.com