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The primary reason for my trip to London in October was for my husband to do business. And, although I am definitely a "Mary Poppins" when it comes to London (If you don't understand this, check out THIS blog post), we stayed by The Tower of London because he had meetings in the City area and it was closer for him since he could just walk.
I was okay with it because I don't usually spend much time over in this part and figured it would be a great time to explore the area more. And, we had tickets for The Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower (highly recommend) and it would be easy to feel like going over there at 9:30pm for the ceremony since it was just across the street.
I also wanted a place with a washing machine. I'm honestly tired of either finding a place to do laundry and wasting part of a day doing that or doing sink laundry and trying to hang it all over the place to get dry. So, being a travel agent and knowing WHERE my client needed to be and WHAT my client was looking for, I went on a hunt.
I came up with Tower Suites by Blue Orchid and we decided to book a room there. I hadn't heard of the brand - they have several properties around London - so I decided it would be good because if the brand was great, I could recommend their properties throughout London. I wanted to do a hotel review for you because it's definitely worth a stay.
My husband ended up going to London 2 days before me, so he arrived earlier. I was loving his "Travel Agent Level" commentary on the room when he got there. He was texting me photos. I was so proud - LOL Anyway, he was impressed with it. The only disappointment was that I had requested a room with a view so that I could share it here. We didn't get one until later in our stay. It's okay, but I felt like they kind of made it sound like a view was much more common than it was.
First, let me tell you that the cleaning and maintenance of the hotel was unlike anything I've seen before. The common areas were always spotless. One of the 3 lifts or elevators wasn't working when we arrived and, after a Doubletree we had stayed at for years seemed to think a broken lift (of two available) was acceptable for over 18 months, I thought, "Here we go again." But the lift was fixed and working by the end of day 2.
Our first room was on the second floor (which is considered the 3rd floor by Americans). The view kind of grew on me. The building was interesting. But it wasn't the tower view I had hoped for. The room, however, was great! It felt like an apartment. And, really, we could have happily stayed there all week. The bathroom was very large. There were washcloths or flannels (uncommon) and even an American plug with 120V by the vanity area. The air conditioning was good (although it wasn't overly warm outside) and the tall window opened for airflow. I love carpet-free hotel rooms. They just seem cleaner to me.
The kitchen had everything you needed for making your own meals and there is a Co-op just around the corner to get food to prepare meals.
The room had an iron and ironing board and a yoga mat plus a safe you could put a laptop in. There was also a hair dryer. I appreciated the 120V for my curling iron. It was dual voltage but it was nice to not have to find the adapter.
On Sunday, Ayush, the manager, reached out to me and asked if we wanted to move to a view room. It was an upgraded room that was much larger. We took it and moved and our stay got even better. First, on the table was a tile of house-made chocolates. They were amazing! Even though the other room felt like an apartment, this actually was more-so. We had a table with chairs and a slightly bigger kitchen area. There were other sitting chairs in the lounge in addition to the sleeper-couch. The bedroom was much bigger and also with a view.
The only potential downside of both rooms was that the bed was VERY HARD. But, weirdly, I slept okay on it. I usually like a medium firm mattress, but these were definitely hard.
We started out in their Executive Suite with Kitchen and ended up in their One Bedroom Apartment with Kitchen. You can request Tower of London views but they are not guaranteed and not every class of room has them. Any of their rooms will be big by London standards and you will have room to move around your luggage. Just note that the Superior studio doesn't have a kitchenette and you have to get at least the Superior Suite with a kitchen to get the washer/dryer combo (takes HOURS to do a wash so start it in the morning - the dry cycle also takes hours).
They do have some nice touches like cotton wool pads and amenity kits in the bathrooms so if you forget something, it's there.
We did not try the restaurant or breakfast (I'm addicted to Pret for breakfast) but we did have room service one night. We had a lovely hamburger with fries and a salad and it was delicious so I'm sure the restaurant and breakfast is just as good.
There were often 2 concierges on the ground floor and when I got out of my transfer taxi from London History Taxi Tours, someone came out to get my bags and take them inside for me. Everyone was extremely nice and professional. The staff is clearly committed to good service.
When we checked out, they were again ready to take my bags to the taxi.
And, just outside the hotel is the Tower DLR Station and just a few steps farther behind the hotel is Tower Hill Station which has the Circle line which is pretty much going to take you everywhere you need to go. For Transporation options, it's perfectly situated.
If you don't have a taxi transfer from London History Taxi Tours, then you can take The Elizabeth Line from Heathrow to Liverpool Street Station (50 mins) and transfer to the District and Circle Line to Tower Hill Station (beware, there will be stairs coming out of the station). Or, grab a taxi outside the station and take it to the hotel - it's a short ride.
So, if you love that area of London and want to stay close to The Tower of London, St. Katherine's Docks, Tower Bridge and even Borough Market, I highly recommend this hotel. If you would like help booking it, reach out to me and I can do it for you.