The Strand Palace Hotel, London > Reviews > Good location for the price

We were visiting London to see a couple of West End shows and the Strand Palace is, as the name suggests, right on The Strand. Theatres are like Chinese restaurants in Chinatown on The Strand so we knew that the hotel was in a decent location.

There are over 780 rooms in this hotel, so it's pretty large and there always seems to be availability at any time of the year. We booked directly through the hotel website where they often have special online deals. You can also call the hotel direct to make a reservation. Various discount hotel websites also list The Strand Palace so my advice would be to shop around for the lowest price. Like other major cities, London hotel prices are extortionate, but I would class The Strand Palace as a fair-priced hotel, considering its location. You can see the main entrance to The Savoy across the street which will generally charge around double, so do shop around, but I think prices generally are reasonable. For a twin room, we paid £109 for one night in February 2005 which included all taxes and the breaskfast.

The Strand Palace is about a 6 minute walk from the nearest London Underground station at Covent Garden which is served by the Piccadilly Line. The walk is extremely pleasant as you can take in the sights and sounds of Covent Garden on your way. Taxi is the most direct option, but also generally the most expensive. You can get a taxi from all major mainline stations and be at the hotel in no time at all. If you are driving in London, don't forget the congestion charge, and plan ahead if you're parking overnight as this facility is not available at the hotel.

We had booked online and had our printed confirmation. Our timing was very good at check in as we walked straight to the front desk without queuing. The man who checked us in was incredibly friendly and made us feel very welcome at the hotel. He joked about charging us over £600 for a suite during our stay. I guess he could tell we were trying to see London on a budget as we politely refused him. The whole process was not a chore like many hotels who get you to fill in tons of forms and took only a couple of minute. We were soon on our way to the room. As we had finished checking in, quite a large queue had formed behind us (probably over 30 people). This hotel is large and the staff did not seem phased by the sudden influx of people, and there were plenty of staff to check guests in. Don't be put off if you see a huge queue at check in - I'm sure you won't be stood there long.

As you entered the hotel from The Strand, you have to walk through a large corridor before coming to a large open plan reception area with the Front Desk to your left. This area seemed to get extremely busy at time, but this is probably due to the size of the hotel. Everything did however, seem to run smoothly.

As we entered our room we were shocked at the size of the room - it was enormous! We had a twin room but you could easily have fitted two double beds in and still be left with loads of room. This size of room is very unusual for all but the most upmarket hotels in London. This was classed as a Standard Room. Speaking to other guests, there are much smaller rooms, so maybe we were just lucky. I also got the impression that the upgraded Club rooms, for which the hotel only charges a fraction more for, are generally no larger but are decorated to a high standard with added facilities and access to a Club Lounge. Our Standard room, however, looked reasonably new. The décor was tasteful and modern and everything was very clean. The bathroom also looked fairly new, and again was spotlessly clean. Unfortunately the bathroom didn't quite match the actual room size in proportion but had everything you could ask for.

The hotel does not have a great deal of added extras within it. Included in almost every room rate is a buffet breakfast. We turned up relatively late one morning and as a result were taken across from the main dining room to the bar area. The selection of food here seemed much better and the less crowding of people made for a more enjoyable breakfast. The food was good considering it is included in the price.

I would not hesitate to stay at The Strand Palace on my next visit to London. The location is good, the rooms are of good quality and at least our first room was huge! This is a great base from which to explore London, and the general attitude of the staff we encountered was pleasant. This is not a luxury hotel to meet your every demand, you can pay double for that at The Savoy across the street, but for a city break in the nations capital you could certainly do a lot worse.