Kensington Hotel

Kensington Hotel locator is managed by Hotel-assist.Com who are a local London accommodation source. We know every hotel in Kensington and can advise accordingly to suit your accommodation budget and specific requirements.

Location

Kensington is a district of central London just to the south of Hyde Park. On the western border is Earls Court and on the eastern side is Knightsbridge. Immediately to the south is Chelsea.
The whole area is very upmarket and is predominantly residential with many hundreds of high class retail outlets and restaurants. Tourism is high on the agenda here with some of the best world renowned museums such as the Victoria and Albert and Natural History. Of course, it is also the home of the Royal Albert Hall.
The typical Kensington hotel is at least 3 stars and probably 4 with a sprinkling of deluxe 5 stars also. The area is good to walk around being totally flat and of great importance is thats its one of the safest places in London.

Attractions

Staying at a Kensington hotel has many advantages when it comes to visiting local attractions. The most celebrated place to visit is probably the Natural History Museum on Cromwell Road. Just 3 or 4 minutes walk from the South Kensington tube station, this huge building houses an amazing collection of artefacts including the dinosaur exhibition with its animated life size monsters. A great place to visit on a rainy day and its free to enter.
Next door is the Science Museum, again this is free to enter and is especially good for the kids as many exhibits are interactive, in fact the whole museum is child friendly. To the east is the Victoria and Albert Museum where many priceless artefacts are displayed covering a wide range of objects, including ceramics, fashion, furniture, glass, metalwork, paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture, and textiles.
Kensington shopping is also high on the list of things to do. The most famous shops being Harrods and Harvey Nicols, both extremely upmarket but worth a visit. In the streets behind these stores you will encounter Sloane Street with its designer stores.
For those with their feet more firmly on the ground try High Street Kensington, a 1 km road of wall to wall shops.
The Royal Albert Hall is in Kensington. This world famous performing arts venue is best known for the annual Proms concerts. Directly opposite is Hyde Park with over 350 acres and 4000 trees. Here, in Kensington Gardens, you can find the Elfin Oak, an intricately carved tree trunk of fairies and elf's. Also in Kensington gardens is the late Lady Diana's residence, Kensington Palace.
Kensington is also the location of Imperial College, a science based institution ranked 5th best in the world and with 12,000 students. Check out the Queens Tower, built in 1887, this 287 feet Portland Stone building is all that is left of the Imperial Institute.

Eating

This area caters well for the many well to do residents and restaurants can be found on almost every street. They range in budget from MacDonalds and Starbucks right through to Michelin star standard. Check out the Uk's only Michelin Star Indian Restaurant, Zaika.
Around the Gloucester Road tube station, there are many good middle of the road eateries and we recommend Black and Blue for its English Breakfast and its far cheaper than a Kensington hotel breakfast. To the south of here, 10 minute walk, is the Kings Road which is a great mixture of up scale bars and restaurants.
New on the scene is the huge green food store. The Whole Foods Market covers 80,000 square feet and is an excellent place to shop for those organic items or even buy a ready made meal.
Whilst not in Kensington but in Earls Court, the exhibition centre is only a 10 minute walk from Gloucester Road. Here are held many world class exhibitions and music events.

Travel

Simple ! Gloucester Road and South Kensington tube stations are both on the Circle and District line and also the Piccadilly Line. This means that you have direct travel into all 5 Heathrow Airport terminals and in the other direction, direct travel to Piccadilly Circus, Theatreland, Covent Garden, The City and the Tower of London. For you tennis fans, it means that you also have very easy access to Wimbledon.

Kensington Hotels

If you decide to select a Kensington hotel for your visit to London you will have made a wise choice. This area has it all and is less noisy, more sophisticated and cheaper than staying 3 km east in the West End, yet being only a 10 minute journey to get there.
Hotels in this area are 3 to 5 star. In price they are cheaper than the West End but dearer than Bayswater, however the quality of life and living in Kensington is far superior to any other in central london.
As a guide, hotel prices are lowest towards the west of the district i. e. near to Earls Court with most hotels being centred around the two tube stations of Gloucester Road and South Kensington. The former station is better in terms of its location in that its more central to the Kensington area.
the top Kensington hotel bracket includes the Royal Garden, Baglioni and The Milestone. Three very differing hotels, the Royal Garden is modern and overlooks Kensington Gardens, The Milestone Hotel is in a period building and rightly deserved has a great hospitality track record and the Baglioni is a boutique hotel.
A Kensington hotel to consider is the Baileys Hotel. Located at Gloucester Road, this period building is now a lovely well appointed hotel offering sensible prices. In the same area is the Holiday Inn Forum (not to be confused with the Holiday Inn Kensington), this is a huge high tower hotel and can at times offer good rates. Do not bother paying for breakfast here its better and cheaper to stroll to one of the many eateries surrounding it.
In the 3 star market, The Montana is worth a look but do not pay more than 120 gbp for a 2 person room unless nowhere else is available and if its less than 100 book it as they include tax and breakfast. One hotel we particularly like is the Base2Stay, each modern room has a kitchenette and as a bonus its on a very quiet yet convenient side road.
There is a link for each Kensington hotel mentioned to the right of this information.