When it came to Pip's birthday this year I decided to make it special as it was her first while we've been together. So as a surprise I arranged a weekend in London, a decent hotel, show and a trip on the London Eye. Having consulted a number of websites and talked to a few people about the best places to stay I opted to try the Novotel as they seemed to have some very reasonable deals on. Once I'd decided that it was then choosing one to stay at and it made sense to get one near the London Eye and near to the Tube stations, so I opted for the Novotel in Southwark.

The hotel is located on Southwark Bridge Road, around about a 5 minute walk from London Bridge tube station and about 10 minutes from Southwark tube station. Once we got out of London Bridge station it was nice and easy to find using the directions on the Novotel website. The hotel is quite easy to spot as you come to the back entrance and the car park if you are coming from London Bridge station. The car park itself is quite expensive, working out at about £16 per 24 hours.

As neither of us are accustomed to staying in 4 star hotels the first thing we noticed was the need to use your room key card to access the lift. This was certainly a security feature I quite liked as it meant anyone using the bar couldn't just head up to the floors where the rooms were. Our room was easy enough to find and once we went in we were both very impressed by the size of the room and the facilities available to us.

I thought it was a little odd that the bathroom and the toilet were separate but it actually turned out to be quite handy if one of us needed the toilet urgently while the other was using the bathroom. The toilet was simple a toilet on its own in a lockable room. While the bathroom consisted of a sink, bath and a very spacious power shower in its own separate cubicle. The bathroom, like the rest of the room, was quite spacious and both certainly gave good value for my £79 a night fee.

We did try to order some room service, even though we did find it a little expensive it seemed like a good idea. However when we phoned to order at 11pm on Saturday night they had already changed to the night time menu, an hour early, and we didn't have the night time menu in the room. The Hotel also has a gym and sauna but due to the nature of our stay and the fact we only really used the hotel for sleeping in we didn't get to use either so can't comment on what they were like.

Overall the hotel did exactly what we were looking for. It provided us with a nice central base from which to explore London. It was easily accessible by tube and train, making it easy to find our way to where we wanted to go. The bed was comfortable enough and despite the price of the extras, the room was very good value and incredibly comfortable. If you are looking for a Hotel to explore London or for a theatre break I can certainly recommend the Novotel in Southwark. If you don't mind paying a little bit more than Holiday Inn Express or Travel Inn it certainly is worth the small amount more you will pay, if you can guarantee your trip will go ahead. I'll certainly be going back.