Advantages: location, location, location! Disadvantages: Work in progress
When Lee Mead won BBC's 'Any Dream Will Do' my mum was ecstatic. She had probably spent half her wages voting for him, so tickets to see him play Joseph were an obvious choice for her birthday in November last year. Thinking it was a brilliant idea, she then invited my nan and aunt, and just for good measure, I decided to drag my husband along as I'd never experienced a show in Londons famous theatre land. We soon realised it was a fair way to travel and we had might as well make the most of our adventure and booked a show and stay theatre trip. After reading up on the choice of hotels, we opted for the 3 star Strand Palace as it a) looked pretty swanky from the photo, b) was only 5 minutes from the Adelphi where Joseph was playing c) was cheaper than some of the others AND included breakfast! Bargain.
Our cab driver was ...
Advantages: Fantastic Location, A Breakfast to Set you Up for the Day, Very Reasonable Rates Disadvantages: Small Room in Need of a Refurb (but don't let that put you off!)
I was only staying overnight in London for one night in early June, as I was attending a wedding being held in the vaults of the Royal Society of Arts, which is also just off Strand. The Strand Palace Hotel is about 3 minutes stroll from the RSA so it was an absolutely perfect location for me.
I booked via Hotel Pronto (via QuidCo!) way back in March so getting a single room was fine and the room rate of £79 included breakfast, which, if you pay for it separately is £14...so you could say the room only cost £65 if you want to break it down.
Upon arrival at the hotel, which is just minutes walking from Charring Cross tube station, I was quite impressed with the entrance but not agog or feeling out of my league in casual KIT trousers and a summer top!
It's a spacious entrance with gleaming lift frontage, a concierge desk ...
Advantages: Excellent central location; good bars and restaurants Disadvantages: Rooms a bit old fashioned; a little pricey
Two nights at the Strand Palace and a visit to see the new Dirty Dancing stage show - bought for my wife's birthday. I even paid the extra £20 pppn for a superior "club" room. We were really looking forward to it. Total price was around £240 for the two of us for two nights (no breakfast).
We arrived at Covent Garden tube station (the nearest one to the hotel), and after a little finger-in-the-air direction finding, got to the hotel on foot in under 10 minutes at a leisurely pace.
Check-in was a little busy when we got there at 2:30 - we waited in the queue for around 20 minutes, but it was fairly quick when we were seen to. We were checked-in to a room on the 7th floor (there are 9 in the hotel), but we were *so* disappointed when we walked in. The room was tiny - smaller than our bedroom at home. It also overlooked the "well ...
