It’s always hard to know where to stay when planning a weekend city break, especially when it’s going to be somewhere as huge, and with such choice as London.

We’re no strangers to London really, having stayed in lots of different places over the years, from the extremely luxurious to the ‘on-a-budget’ choices.  On this occasion though we were going to return to somewhere we’d been before, albeit quite a few years ago.

The Hilton London Kensington is situated on Holland Park Avenue, just off Shepherds Bush roundabout and around the corner from Westfield Shopping Centre.  It’s really easy to get to by road or rail and gives easy access both to the west for Heathrow and the M25 or east to the City.  There are buses every couple of minutes from right outside the hotel in both directions and Holland Park and Notting Hill Gate tube stations are just a few minute’s walk away.

It’s a modern, busy hotel yet the staff go a long way to ensure you’re still made to feel special.  The welcome at reception was lovely, although we did think that it was quite brief and that there might have been a few more things to explain to us before pointing us in the direction of our room.

We had a lovely room overlooking the tree-lined Holland Park Avenue and though not huge, it was smart and comfortable, with everything we could need and was well presented and clean.  Now Mrs C has the nose of a bloodhound, and by her reckoning, someone had been smoking in that room previously and great efforts had been made to mask the smell of smoke.  I, on the other hand, don’t seem to have a nose (no, don’t go there.. you know, the ‘how do you smell?’ one…) so it wasn’t an issue for me.

One thing we remember from our previous visit was the Executive Lounge that used to be located on the top floor at the back of the building, where we remember sitting out on the balcony one evening with a G&T and watching the goings on in the lanes and streets below.  This has now been relocated to a new lounge on the ground floor, with all the same amenities, but without the French doors, balconies and views.  It was still, however, a lovely place to relax before dinner after pounding the streets  all day.

The main bar, just off reception is light and bright with a friendly and informal atmosphere and the Restaurant is decked out, in our opinion anyway, with a slightly over-the-top ‘This is Great Britain’ theme.  It’s well laid out though, and is obviously very popular, judging by the number of people dining.  Breakfast, especially towards the end of the sitting time, could involve a wait, but it was still only a few minutes and we didn’t consider it to be an inconvenience.  The breakfast itself was excellent – and worth the short wait.  I’m sure if we’d gone down a little earlier it would have been fine.

Parking is available in the hotel’s own car park in the basement.  It’s a secure and safe area and is accessible directly from reception – ideal for those rainy autumn weekends where you don’t have to brave the deluge before getting on your way.

Overall we had a great time and would thoroughly recommend the hotel. We would certainly go back again and again for its easily accessed location, friendly service and comfy rooms.  The Executive Lounge is a great bonus and is something we both looked forward to and really enjoyed.

We visited during July, right in the middle of the School Holiday period. It gets The Thumbs Up for definite!