The 6 Best Hotels for Spending Christmas in London

If you want to Christmas like the Royal Family, staying at The Goring is the next best thing to being with them at Sandringham. Close to Buckingham Palace, it is a favourite of the Middleton family and the turkey lunch on its Christmas Day menu is as customary (in the best way possible) as it comes. A large private garden behind the hotel features a tall Christmas tree to compete with the decorations that the hotel always hangs. Ladies planning on donning voluminous Christmas frocks will be pleased to know that the hotel’s wide hallways were designed specifically to provide ease of passage for just such attire.

Stylish and contemporary, The Zetter Hotel is located in a colourful building in Clerkenwell. Rooms are smart, comfortable, and hip, and come decorated in quirky, modern-vintage style. Christmas in Clerkenwell is almost Dickensian in spirit, with its quiet cobbled streets, atmospheric old pubs, and nearby Smithfield Meat Market lending it plenty of traditional appeal. Across the cobbled square the Zetter’s sister hotel, Zetter Townhouse, serves award-winning cocktails in its cozy, intimate bar.

Located within London’s international train station, the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel is a grand, historical building with striking Victorian architecture. Dramatic and romantic, it will set the mood for Christmas with its elegant original features. Below the hotel is the Booking Office Bar (the station’s former ticket office) where you can spot the giant Christmas tree, built out of plush Disney toys, that dominates the concourse this year.

The exquisite, individually designed rooms are the main attraction at The Milestone Hotel in Kensington. While the hotel also has a spa, pool, personal butler service, complimentary morning papers and a lounge area complete with a Christmas tree, it's the period luxury of the rooms that makes this boutique townhouse hotel famous. The service at The Milestone is also a key feature, and over the holidays, when it’s time to serve the champagne ,you’ll find bar staff practicing the art of sabrage -- that’s slicing off the top of the bottle with a sabre for dramatic (and festive) effect.

Festive afternoon tea, Christmas Eve cocktails in the Champagne Ba,r and a car service that whisks you to and from Midnight Mass on the night before the big day are all part of the service at the Dukes Hotel. Elegant but modern, Dukes Hotel is a prestigious, luxurious place to spend Christmas. Smart and refined -- the bar has a dress code -- the hotel was once frequented by Bond creator Ian Fleming, which almost certainly means that this is where 007 might have opened his presents.

London may be a traditional Christmas city, but the ME London is so contemporary it has been known to dress its atrium’s oversized bonsai tree with baubles instead of the usual spruce. So if you’re not a "Queen’s Speech" type of person, then this hip design hotel with opulent, daring decor could be the tonic. Created by Norman Foster, the avant-garde building features an “Aura Team” who fill its public spaces with assorted music, lighting, and aromas (which we hope would include notes of pine, Christmas pudding ,and mulled wine). Party through Christmas at the restaurant and rooftop bar with views of the London skyline. 


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