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What to expect: With its recent restoration, Claridge’s has reinvented itself for the modern executive and vacationer. The turn-of-the-century foyer now has a contemporary edge with a modern glass light sculpture and classical columns coated in gleaming silver. Framed photos of royalty and other distinguished guests are reminders of the hotel’s celebrated past, while its bars and restaurant are still highly fashionable places in which to be seen. Today, the art-deco bars and immensely popular restaurant are magnets for a wide spectrum of guests, from the famous and the fashion-conscious to vacationing families.

Amenity highlights: An eclectic mix of Victorian architecture and art-deco design, Claridge’s retains many period features, including original furniture from the 1920s and spacious corridors designed to allow two women in crinoline dresses to pass with ease. The top-floor health club offers beauty treatments, a gym, and rooftop views.

Insider tip: For a cluster of boutique stores and restaurants that are more unusual than the retail giants of bustling Oxford Street, savvy shoppers head for St Christopher’s Place. The tiny colonnade is 3 blocks north of the hotel, across Oxford Street and opposite Bond Street Underground.

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What to expect: Magnificent period splendor greets guests from the moment they step inside the Great Hall. Inside are Orkney tapestries, suits of armor, and fine historic portraits, including a painting of Lady Astor by John Singer Sargent. A richly paneled staircase leads to individually decorated and appointed rooms. The majority of guests are leisure visitors, who enjoy a choice of restaurants and 376 acres of beautifully tended gardens and parkland.

Amenity highlights: The Pavilion Spa features an ozone treated indoor pool along with sauna, steam room, and Canadian hot tubs. Beauty treatments are available here and, during the summer months, guests can enjoy lunch from the Conservatory Restaurant by the heated outdoor pool in the walled garden. Picnics by the banks of the River Thames can be organized and a trip on the river can be enjoyed on board one of the boats from the Cliveden flotilla.

Insider tip: The walled garden contains the heated outdoor pool commissioned by Lord Waldorf Astor who was concerned about his wife’s habit of swimming in the Thames. Much later the pool became infamous for being the place where Cabinet Minister John Profumo met Christine Keeler, the ensuing scandal led to the downfall of the Conservative government in the mid 1960s.

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What to expect: This quiet, seven-floor hotel in London’s Royal Borough has views over Hyde Park. The lobby of the hotel features muted buttercup walls and two leather chaises lining a fireplace. The hotel attracts fashionable types, international film moguls, and well-heeled shoppers, who meet over cocktails in Madonna’s favorite Blue Bar.

Amenity highlights: Pétrus serves Michelin-starred French cuisine, while Boxwood Café is Gordon Ramsay's take on the upscale New York café scene. The Blue Bar, whose floors are lined with crocodile skin, serves cocktails to fashion designer John Galliano, amongst others. The Berkeley Spa has a feted rooftop pool and facials, while the hotel’s Cabinet shop sells designer goods.

Insider tip: Booking the Chef’s Table at Pétrus guarantees a private dining experience. Only a glass partition separates guests from the Michelin-starred chef at work.

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What to expect: Less ostentatious than many 5-star hotels, The Connaught's interior is reminiscent of an English house, complete with classical friezes, oil paintings, marble columns, and hand-tufted carpets. A handsome mahogany stairway reaches from the lobby to the glass-domed ceiling six stories above. The overall mood is understated and intimate, encouraging all guests to feel at home.

Amenity highlights: All guestrooms are individually designed, and served by a butler. With a ratio of two staff to every guest, service is the hotel's hallmark. The Connaught is also known for its choice of two gracious lounges and two fine restaurants.

Insider tip: Berkeley Square, just 1 block east of The Connaught, is one of the loveliest of London’s many squares. The small park in the center is an ideal spot to find a bench and watch busy Mayfair race by.

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What to expect: Since 1906, the Ritz has dominated Piccadilly. Reminiscent of a French château, the Louis XVI-style interior is adorned with Ionic columns and Belle Epoque furnishings. Stepping inside the lobby's three-story rotunda with its leaded glass ceiling is like entering a fairy tale. Yet the Ritz is warm and welcoming, and executives, celebrating couples, and families breeze in and out, undaunted by the hotel's glamorous pedigree.

Amenity highlights: Service is serious business at the Ritz, where there are two staff members (many in traditional tailcoats) for each guestroom. Guests have 24-hour use of business facilities in the reservations office, including a computer with complimentary high-speed Internet access. Other conveniences include a beauty salon with hair, nail, and facial services for men and women, and a fine jewelry store that sells exclusively designed and custom-crafted pieces.

Insider tip: Located next door, Fortnum & Mason is perhaps London's most "English" department store, with a more intimate atmosphere and more old-world charm than Harrods or Selfridges. The food hall, open seven days a week, offers a cornucopia of gourmet English treats, and the window displays are some of the most elaborate "shows" in the West End.

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What to expect: This hotel opened in 1889 to cater to the audience from the adjoining Savoy Theatre. Built on a hill, the lowest point of the hotel is on the Embankment, overlooking the Thames and the highest on the Strand. Behind the Art Deco façade, the Front Hall, with its square columns and neo-classical frieze, reveals a world of impeccable service, afternoon tea, and dinner-dancing, peopled by celebrities, politicians, and high flyers in pinstripes.

Amenity highlights: Guests can take cocktails in the American Bar, where the Dry Martini is said to have been invented. The Thames Foyer, with real and trompe l'oeil marble columns and painted pastoral scenes, offers afternoon tea, with scones, sandwiches, and pastries set on elegant three-tiered dishes. The Lancaster Ballroom hosts receptions, conferences, and dinner dances in its stucco and gilded interior.

Insider tip: The Savoy theater is said to be the first public building fully lit by electricity in London. The hotel was equally innovative. The original red-lacquered ‘ascending room’ (elevator), one of the hotel’s most pioneering features, is still going strong today.

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What to expect: Formerly a gentleman’s club before becoming a luxury hotel, the Athenaeum was once used by Rank Films as a London base for visiting film stars, earning a reputation as “Tinsel Town on the Thames”. The lobby gleams with shiny brass and polished wood and the bar specializes in malt whisky and cigars. Privately owned and family run, it was listed by Condé Nast Traveler Magazine as one of London’s Top Ten Hotels.

Amenity highlights: Four private function rooms are fully equipped with modern conferencing facilities and the hotel holds a wedding license so a full service can be held here. In the basement, the spa is open exclusively for the use of hotel guests. A wide variety of treatments are on offer, either in the spa or in the privacy of a guest’s room.

Insider tip: Guests can fill in a detailed questionnaire about their particular preferences so that staff can be prepared when the guests return to the Athenaeum. This system allows the hotel to make special arrangements for regular guests without needing to be asked and provides guests with the ultimate in personalized service.

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What to expect: The discreet hotel entrance on Shaftesbury Avenue welcomes a varied clientele of business travelers, theater goers, and tourists into the small, peaceful reception area. Slate floors and aquamarine-glass panels offset sleek black-leather and chrome chairs. Deep sofas in soft ochre leather, molded glass coffee tables, and potted palms in zinc planters complete the setting.
Amenity highlights: Equipment in the 24-hour, air-conditioned fitness center includes treadmill, exercise bike, and cross-trainer. Hotel guests are conveniently close to West End theaters, cinemas, shopping, dining, and a casino. The RV2 restaurant adjacent to the lobby and operated separately, serves traditional Indian dishes in the upstairs brasserie—which has a waterfall behind the bar--and modern Indian fusion cuisine on its the lower level.
Insider tip: Although best known for vibrant nightlife, by day the streets of Soho are filled with the film and media folk whose offices are based in the area. The sidewalk tables of Old Compton Street’s cafés offer a great vantage point to spot celebrities and soak up atmosphere; in summer, visitors can beat the heat by heading for the leafy shade of Soho Square.

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What to expect: This former bank is in the center of the business district. In 1903, it was built on the remains of a 2000-year-old Roman basilica, and artwork on the walls celebrates the site’s history. Within the high-ceiled lobby, with its bold plaster decoration and marble-clad walls, guests sink into leather chairs to sip coffee or choose from a selection of books. Popular with executives, this restricted access hotel is open to members only Monday through Wednesday, but vacationers are welcomed Thursday through Sunday.
Amenity highlights: All guests can enjoy use of the hotel’s fitness room, and complimentary high-speed Internet access in the business center. The hotel’s adjoining traditional pub and Argentine-style restaurant attract both guests and local business people, and behind the hotel a small public-access courtyard with trees, lawn, and benches offers a quieter haven.
Insider tip: Just a half-block from the hotel, Leadenhall Market, with its cobbled streets and wrought-iron-and-glass roof, dates back 600 years. Established as a 14th-century poultry market, the present structure was erected in Victorian times and has since become an attractive place to relax over a drink or a light meal.

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