by I recently had a Eureka moment. Instead of going in the European city during the school holidays, you can spend such a city break in London – the city in which I live.
It is the kind of revelation that shows a serious cognitive decline in parents. Why have we already thought of it? Well, that’s what has eaten sleepless nights and the food of UHP -Müsli for years.
Nevertheless, take your victories wherever you can and go on vacation here in our city, children, the needs for flight tax and annoying with children who either try to flee through the doors at 30,000 feet or play a candy crush until they explode at the speed of guilt. And it does not enable them to see London with the eyes of a tourist with a taxpayer from the Council.
It also opens the door to luxury. Because instead of spending all the money on travel, why don’t you treat yourself to a high -quality hotel? Or indeed the best hotel in London.
And so my partner and I and our two children (nine and 12) took the bus and arrived in the Dorchester.
Where is it?
The Dorchester is of course in the Lane Park with a view of Hyde Park. I mean, this is one of the most famous hotels in the world that opened in 1931 and quickly gained a reputation as a cultural center in which the literary set would mix.
During the Second World War, President Eisenhower planned Normandy invasion while he stayed here. And then it is from home of royal providers and statesmen and stars such as Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Cary Grant, Liberace (whose mirrored piano is still in the artist).
Only the sight of the place is enough to give you goose bumps with its elegant design and the classic yellow and white awnings over the windows. Certainly it suddenly lets children switch to the best behavioral mode, especially if they were greeted by their first names in the warmest greetings by one of the teams of butlers.
“Never let us go,” I murmured to them when we made our way to our suite, and they nodded ceremoniously and understood that they cry, beg, whine and clamp on the walls when it came.
style
Well, the hotel had a great refreshment in 2023 through the French interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, who lived the whole place. The Art -deco lobby ensures a breathtaking opening, which then leads to the promenade, a dazzling duration of the splendor in the middle of the hotel. It is a turmoil of art and flowers (from the legendary Cake & Flower shop on the corner of the hotel) and rosy lights on the happy afternoon tea (see below).
The rooms were also revised, and our suite was the type of luxury that we did not get used to luxury and had to suppress an impulse to swing around in ecstatic mania, like a puppy suddenly allowed on the furniture.
This was a wasteful series of rooms with a bedroom and a bathroom for the parents, and away on the other side, another set for the children.
Her names were written on their bathroom mirrors, welcome sweets were on their bedside tables and the intelligent toilet was a source of the greatest fascination for her. This is a toilet that was the lid lifts when they approach and wash their butt when they are interested. Unfortunately, at some point, she pressed the wrong button for my daughter and got a soaking. You don’t get such things in New Cross.
In the meantime, I have viewed the safer tech brands, all B&O TVs, the Brewista kettle at which they dictate the temperature, the Sjostrand coffee machine, the Dyson hair dryer. Everything I would use, even the latter. I was sitting on an elegant desk on an elegant chair, staring out of the window, past the awning, in the Hyde Park, and decided that this was not just the best hotel, but the best place in London. Yes, that includes the Devonshire, people.
Food & drink
Things began to be really higher here and made your stay in an all-timer for the children (and the parents).
First, afternoon tea. Now I have never really understood afternoon tea. A few sandwiches and a cup of coffee. What is the point? For tourists and grandma, I thought. How wrong I was.
These were sandwiches that I have never tried before. The salmon was sensational. The gravy was amazing. The cucumber – a cucumber sandwich! – was magic. I have never seen my children ate so quickly. That means until the chocolates and pastries and scones arrived. As a conservative guy, the tea for which I plumed was the afternoon mix, but my partner chose Vanilla Black, for whom I practically fought her after trying a sip. I didn’t even know that tea could be so beautiful, I have brewed the factory floors over the years.
The service was extremely fantastic, an additional glass champagne sent us to us, and that was just the beginning.
Tom Booton’s grill is one of the three restaurants. They organize breakfast there and are the type of place where a child – let’s say, mine – have a cooked egg with soldiers, it will do it for them, and it will be the best cooked egg with soldiers that everyone has ever had. But the great pleasure for the children came when they were invited to a pizza by the wonderful team.
They came up for a few hours, while the parents stayed back to play with the devices in the room-not with a euphemism-when they came back, they were in full cooking equipment, aprons and hats, pizzas and ridiculous grin. It turned out that they were not only trained by the chefs in the art of the pizzas, but also a tour of the kitchens, including a special room in which they produce all chocolate extinguishers. Willy Wonka Fantasy.
Later the dinner in the grill was a joy. I honestly had an incredible beef tartar as a starter; A game of chance, if you get a bad one, can ruin your night. But not a gambling, I was in good hands and it was beautiful. My grilled brille was light and lush, my partner’s rib eye melt in my mouth. But the chips were the big topic of conversation for the family. The Maitre D ‘explained the process of manufacturing, which includes a lot of pressure and cooling and scientific breakthroughs in the course of several days, which leads to a number of thick chips that need to be eaten slowly. So nice that it is practically criminal.
We were invited to the kitchen to say the chefs hello, which explained some details and engagements that flow into the dishes. They did not have the wages of the children – I had a few glasses of wine at that time – but I got over it and we returned to sit down in the dessert bar, where we were again organized by a nice genius that started to be a selection of beautiful things in front of us.
I had a strawberry and Matcha cake with pistachio ice cream that I almost cried over. But the real pleasure came when he all presented us with a rhubarb and pudding ice cream from the soft serve machine. A soft serve machine that cost £ 30,000. Let’s just say it was worth it.
Extracurricular
Well, that’s London! It is our city, but we suddenly were tourists in it, so we saw it again. It was a pleasure to take a walk across the street in Hyde Park. The serpentines glitter and the flower gardens in full bloom.
We recorded a show – Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, very good family fun – went through Mayfair and had this dreamy time that London has always promised over the years, but has never completely arrived.
Which space?
Our room. Hands off. It belongs to us.
But really, our Hyde Park Suite was obviously first class, but every room offers what the whole world wants of London, sophistication, charm, refinement and warmth.
Best for
Well, look, that’s the ultimate stay. A unique joy for a family. To be honest, I can’t see how to take a city break to Europe if you can just stay here and do London in this way.
That may not sound adventurous, but if you had the kind of adventure in the high living that the villain gives you, trust me that you will never want to see an airport again.
And yes, they pulled out to us, stepped and screamed …
The details
Room from £ 643 per night. The Dorchester, 45 Park Lane, W1. Book it here
