Where to Stay in Richmond, Kew & Twickenham: The Best Hotels in South-West London (2026)

Richmond town and the riverside: 1 to 22 minutes from the station. This is where to stay if it's your first time out here: the station, the high street, the green and the river are all within a few minutes of each other, and the train to Waterloo takes about half an hour. The Orange Tree is the one I'd book first. It's a Young's pub (Young's is a London pub group) with 13 air-conditioned rooms directly opposite Richmond station (a 1-minute walk), 24 minutes on foot from Kew Gardens' Victoria Gate, with an honesty bar and Nespresso machines in the rooms. A Boutique double was £170 non-refundable or £187 flexible, room only; breakfast adds £30 for two.

The rooms are on the second and third floors above a busy pub, and the hotel doesn't mention a lift, so it's stairs with your case. It also goes early on rugby weekends: it had nothing for the England v New Zealand night, even for two-night stays, and a plain Saturday (31 October) was £200. There's no car park.

The Selwyn is a wisteria-covered Victorian house on Sheen Road, 3 minutes from Richmond station, turned into a small boutique hotel with an Art Deco dining room, the Paisley Room, and a garden. It rates 4.6 on Google from 301 reviews, and Google reviewers mostly single out the staff. The Cabin rooms (up to 12 square metres) were £170.10 prepaid or £189 flexible, room only; a 15-square-metre Classic was £174.60.

Cabins are small, with the shower over the bath, so pay the few pounds more for a Classic if you'll spend time in the room. On the England v New Zealand weekend it only sold two-night stays, and on a plain Saturday (31 October) the Cabins had gone and a Classic was £233.10. The family rooms are the reason to pick it with children: two doubles, and under-12s stay free.

Travelodge London Richmond Central on Paradise Road is the cheapest bed in the middle of Richmond: £68.99 non-refundable or £81.99 flexible, 6 minutes from the station. Rooms are air-conditioned with king-size beds, and the Standard Room Plus (from £78.99) is in the quieter part of the building.

It's a Travelodge, so there's no restaurant, and the car park is the council's, not the hotel's. It's also the clearest example here of what the rugby does to prices: £106.99 on a plain Saturday (31 October) and £269.99 on the England v New Zealand night, nearly four times the Tuesday rate.

The Red Cow is a proper local pub on Sheen Road, 4 minutes from the station, with a few refurbished twin, double and family rooms upstairs that come in through their own entrance rather than through the bar. The kitchen is Heng Heng, a Thai and Cambodian street-food menu, which beats the usual pub-with-rooms fare. A double en-suite was £140, room only,.

Check the calendar before you book: live music on Saturday and Sunday nights and a Tuesday quiz at 9pm mean it isn't the quiet option at weekends. It doesn't mention breakfast at all, and cancellation terms aren't shown when you book, so ask.

The Dukes Head Inn is a small family-run pub with 11 en-suite rooms on The Vineyard, a quiet street on the lower slope of Richmond Hill, 9 minutes from the station. It's the cheapest room in Richmond with a cooked breakfast included: a double was £145 with a full English, and that rate could still be cancelled up to the night before.

It's a pub first. The rooms are above a bar that shows football, there's no lift, and the one Superior King (£150) is on the second floor. One recent reviewer marked it down for the mattress. For a couple who want a local's pub and a cooked breakfast rather than a hotel lobby, it's my pick in town at this price.

NOX Richmond is a small modern studio hotel at the foot of Petersham Road, 10 minutes from the station. It's the cheapest room on the river in Richmond: £95 for a Small Double Studio prepaid, or £105 flexible, and £5 less if you join its free scheme. Family and triple studios are bookable, and some studios have a jacuzzi or a river view.

You're paying for the location. It rates 3.7 on Google from 140 reviews, the lowest in Richmond, and reviewers mention small rooms, poor soundproofing and no lift, which matters with a heavy case. There's no restaurant and no parking. Fine for a night or two if the budget is tight; book the Travelodge if you want a lift.

Bingham Riverhouse is the boutique pick on the river: a Georgian house on Petersham Road with 14 rooms, a restaurant and bar, garden dining domes and a small wellness studio with an infrared sauna, 14 minutes' walk from the station. The River Rooms look straight over the Thames, and some rooms have copper bathtubs.

Fourteen rooms means it sells out: Tuesday 10 November was already full in late September. A week later, a River Room was £171.90 prepaid or £191 flexible, with breakfast included when you book direct, plus a discretionary 5% service charge. The cheaper Cosy rooms are compact and on the street side, so if the river is the point, pay for a River Room. One recent reviewer thought the carpets were showing their age.

The Rose of York is a Samuel Smith's pub at the foot of Richmond Hill, below the Petersham, with rooms looking over the Thames and the meadows. The prices are low for the setting: £100 for a garden-view double and £105 for a Thames-view double, room only, and a family room (a double and a single) was £110. Parking is free, which is rare here. It's 22 minutes' walk from the station by Google's route; the hotel puts the town centre 10 minutes away along the river path.

The rooms have no TVs, breakfast is extra, and check-in closes at 10:30pm, so don't plan a late arrival. Food is traditional pub classics served until 8:30pm, and the beer is all Sam Smith's. For a quiet, cheap night by the river it's hard to beat.

Premier Inn London Richmond sits on Lower Mortlake Road, between the town and Kew: 12 minutes from Richmond station, 8 from North Sheen station and 19 on foot from Kew Gardens' Victoria Gate, which makes it the best-value base for a Kew day with Richmond's restaurants in reach. A Standard room was £86 non-refundable or £120 flexible, and it has a restaurant, air conditioning and family rooms.

It's on the A316, a busy main road, not in the old town. Parking is £24 a night and limited. And the rugby hits it hard: £134 on a plain Saturday, £281 on the England v New Zealand night with one room left.

Richmond Hill and East Sheen: 17 to 28 minutes from a station. Up the hill you swap the town for the view: the famous one from Richmond Hill over the Thames bend, and Richmond Park at the top. The walk back from the station is uphill, so these suit a couple with a car or a slow weekend more than anyone sightseeing in central London. The Petersham is the one I'd pick for the view. It's a Victorian hotel from 1865 on Nightingale Lane, overlooking the river and Petersham Meadows, with 61 rooms and a restaurant where the hotel says every table has a river view. It's 22 minutes' walk from Richmond station. A Standard Double was £165 prepaid or £170 flexible, room only, and parking is free.

It's traditional, and one recent reviewer found the decor a bit dated. The Standard rooms have smaller bathrooms, and it's the Superior (from £185) or a Deluxe with a balcony (from £238) that makes the most of the setting. Breakfast adds £61.90 for two.

Richmond Hill Hotel is a Georgian hotel near the top of Richmond Hill, 20 minutes' walk from the station and a short walk from Richmond Park. It's the practical choice on the hill: air-conditioned rooms, a 24-hour gym, family and interconnecting rooms, free kids' bikes and scooters, free parking if you book direct, and 144 On The Hill for dinner. For the rugby, its Rugby Stay & Ride arranges transport to the stadium for £10 a person on the Nations Championship dates in November.

It's the dearest entry rate in Richmond: the Georgian Cosy Double (about 17 square metres, shower only) was £190.80 prepaid or £212 flexible, room only. There's no pool or spa (the Harbour next door has both), and the lift doesn't reach every floor, so ask for a room it serves if stairs matter.

Harbour Hotel Richmond (the former Richmond Gate Hotel, renamed after Harbour Hotels bought it in 2017) is the spa hotel of the hill: an 18th-century building at the top of Richmond Hill, on the edge of Richmond Park, with a pool, a sauna and steam room, and a garden of Scandinavian hot tubs that guests use free. It's 21 minutes' walk from the station. The Cosy Double was £162 on its free-cancellation Harbour Exclusive rate, room only, or £180 for a standard Double.

The Cosy rooms are in the basement, and one recent reviewer who booked a Superior still got a dark basement room facing an internal wall, so ask for a room with a window before you pay. The hotel says plainly that it isn't accessible, and it has no family rooms. It rates 3.9 on Google from 839 reviews, the lowest of the three on the hill. Book it for the spa, not the bedrooms.

The Victoria is a gastropub with seven rooms on a quiet street in East Sheen, near Richmond Park, with a walled garden and a playground. It's the one to book if the park is the point of the trip: a double was £115 with a continental breakfast, bookable direct with flexible cancellation.

It's further from everything else: 17 minutes' walk to Mortlake station (trains to Waterloo in about 25 minutes) and 28 to Richmond station. Recent Google reviews are about the restaurant, and several complain about poor service, so don't count on a quick dinner at weekends.

Kew: 5 to 9 minutes from Kew Gardens. Kew is a village of cafés and red-brick terraces around the station, and the gardens are at the end of the road. Hotels near Kew Gardens are thin on the ground: there are only two of any size in Kew itself, so the Richmond and Brentford hotels fill the gap. Kew Gardens Hotel is the closest bed to the gardens: 5 minutes' walk from Victoria Gate and 3 from Kew Gardens station (District line and London Overground). It's a Victorian building with 20 en-suite rooms over a gastropub with a garden at the back. A double or twin was £140 on the flexible rate, room only, or £154.80 prepaid with breakfast.

There's no lift and no accessible bedroom, check-in closes at 10pm, and it's a pub, with a DJ on Friday nights. One recent reviewer called it a tad shabby. For a Kew day I'd pick it over anything in Brentford, because you walk to the gate.

Coach & Horses Kew is a Young's coaching inn on Kew Green with 31 botanical-themed, air-conditioned rooms, 9 minutes' walk from Victoria Gate. It's the nicer of the two Kew stays and the one I'd book for a couple: a Comfy room was £139 non-refundable or £152.90 flexible, room only, and it has proper parking, which Kew mostly doesn't.

It's on the main road across Kew Green, and the stations are a walk: 10 minutes to Kew Bridge (trains to Waterloo) and 11 to Kew Gardens (District line). The Comfy rooms are the small ones. Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium is 13 minutes' walk away over Kew Bridge.

Brentford and Syon Park: across the river from Kew. Brentford sits on the north bank opposite Kew Gardens, and it's where the big chain hotels are, cheaper than Richmond and handy for Kew, Syon House and Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium. The trade-off is the setting (the Great West Road is offices and traffic) and the trains, which from Brentford and Kew Bridge go to Waterloo rather than the Tube. Hilton London Syon Park is the exception to all that: a modern hotel on the edge of the Duke of Northumberland's 200-acre Syon Park estate, 6 minutes' walk from Syon House, with a restaurant, a health club and spa, and free parking. A Queen Guest Room was £170 prepaid or £199 flexible, room only, or £161 with free Hilton Honors membership.

Kew Gardens is across the river, not next door, and Syon Lane station is 11 minutes' walk away, so it's best with a car. The pool is in the adults-only spa and costs £25 a person for two hours, so families can't swim together. One recent reviewer found the room spacious but a little tired.

Novotel London Brentford on the Great West Road is the best-equipped mid-price hotel out here: a heated indoor pool, a gym, a restaurant and bar, and 24-square-metre Superior rooms with a sofa bed for a child. It's 11 minutes from Brentford station and 36 on foot from Kew Gardens' Victoria Gate, over Kew Bridge. A Superior Double was £103 on the saver rate or £121 flexible, room only, or £92.70 with free Accor membership.

The Great West Road is a busy divided main road lined with offices, so there's nothing to walk out to in the evening, and breakfast is £21.50 each on top. A guest review on Accor's site says the pool runs on booked slots. Good for a family with a car; less so for a first trip to London.

Aparthotel Adagio London Brentford is in the Kew Eye Tower on Ealing Road, 10 minutes from Brentford station: 100 studios and apartments with kitchens, a laundry and a gym, which makes it the pick for a week out here or a family that wants to cook. A 36-square-metre Studio for 2 was £137.70 prepaid or £153 flexible.

A recent review describes wear and tear, including a blocked shower that nobody could fix that night. It's a 37-minute walk from Kew Gardens, and its own page still points football fans to Griffin Park, which Brentford no longer play at (their ground is now the Gtech Community Stadium).

Premier Inn London Kew Bridge on Brentford High Street is the value pick for Kew: 30 minutes on foot from Victoria Gate over Kew Bridge, 13 from Brentford station and 14 from Kew Bridge station, with a restaurant, family rooms and Premier Plus rooms. A Standard room was £76 non-refundable or £105 flexible.

Two recent reviewers had trouble with a hot room or the air conditioning. The car park is small (£15 a night), so arrive early if you're driving.

Holiday Inn London - Brentford Lock stands beside Brentford Lock on the Grand Union Canal, 13 minutes from Brentford station and 14 from Syon Lane, with a canal-side restaurant, a gym and parking. On Booking.com a Standard Queen Room was £103 with free cancellation, room only. Recent reviewers praise the staff and the canal setting.

The extras add up: parking is £17 a day and breakfast £13.95. It's a 43-minute walk to Kew Gardens, so you'll take a bus or drive. One reviewer's only real complaint was too much air freshener.

Premier Inn London Brentford on the Great West Road is the cheapest room in Brentford after the Travelodge: £69 non-refundable or £95 flexible, 9 minutes from Brentford station, with a restaurant, air conditioning and on-site parking at £15 a night. Regular guests write warmly about the breakfast staff.

It's an office-and-traffic setting on the A4, 39 minutes' walk from Kew Gardens, so it's a bed rather than a base. Book it for price and parking; book the Kew Bridge Premier Inn if you want to walk to the river.

Travelodge London Kew Bridge is the cheapest room near Kew Gardens: £55.99 non-refundable or £63.99 flexible, 26 minutes on foot from Victoria Gate and 9 from Kew Bridge station, by the river on the Brentford side. It has a Bar Café, family rooms and parking at £11 a day.

It rates 3.6 on Google from 1,109 reviews, and recent ones are rough: tired decor, bathrooms that need work and noise. Wi-Fi only works in the café, with a purchase. Take it for the price and the walk to Kew, and read the latest reviews first.

Twickenham: 3 to 29 minutes from Allianz Stadium. Twickenham is a riverside town that fills up on England match days. On a normal night its hotels are good value; on a match night they sell out or cost several times as much. Radisson RED London Twickenham is the hotel inside Allianz Stadium, on its south side, 3 minutes' walk from the gates and 14 from Twickenham station. It has about 150 rooms (some with a view over the pitch), The Huddle restaurant and bar, and free use of the gym and pool at the TW2 Health & Fitness Club. A Standard Room was £127 prepaid (the free-membership rate) or £149 flexible, and £133 on a plain Saturday.

For England v New Zealand it had no rooms at all on its own site, even for two nights, so for a big match treat it as sold out unless the hotel releases a package. Parking is free on normal days but charged on match days, and breakfast is £21.50 a head. It's a good hotel on a non-match night; the pitch-view rooms are the ones to ask for.

Travelodge London Twickenham is next to Twickenham station (1 minute) and 15 minutes' walk from the stadium, on London Road in the town centre. It's the best-placed cheap room for the rugby, and on a normal night it's the cheapest room in Twickenham: £54.99 non-refundable or £61.99 flexible. The hotel says it has been fully refurbished, and it has a Bar Café and family rooms.

Match nights are where it bites. The same room was £104.99 on a plain Saturday (31 October) and £329.99 on the England v New Zealand night, six times the Tuesday price, and it was still on sale in late September. There's no car park of its own, one recent reviewer found it noisy with the window open, and another called the rooms dated.

The Alexander Pope is a Young's pub-hotel on the Thames at Cross Deep, south of Twickenham town, with 32 air-conditioned rooms (some with a river view, a balcony or a bath), a covered garden and a car park. It's 9 minutes from Strawberry Hill station and 29 on foot from the stadium. On Tuesday 10 November a Boutique room was £138 prepaid or £151.80 flexible, room only, and £158 on a plain Saturday.

It's a rugby pub on match days, with the games on screens in the garden, and the price shows it: £550 room only for the England v New Zealand night, paid in full up front with no flexible rate, four times the Tuesday price. On a normal night it's my pick in Twickenham for a couple: the river, a good room and a pub downstairs.

Premier Inn London Twickenham Stadium is on Chertsey Road (the A316) in Whitton, 25 minutes' walk from the stadium and 6 from Whitton station, which has trains to Waterloo (a local pub, the White Hart Inn, calls it far less stressful than Twickenham on match days). It has free parking, which is rare this close to the ground, and meals in the Winning Post pub next door. A Standard room was £89 non-refundable or £141 flexible, and £125 on a plain Saturday.

It was sold out for England v New Zealand by late September, so book as soon as you have tickets. The setting is a main road, not the river.

Teddington and Hampton Court: the far end. This is the edge of London: Teddington's high street and Bushy Park, then Hampton Court Palace across the river. It's the base for a palace visit or a riverside weekend, and the slowest ride into central London (see getting into town, below). The Park Hotel, Teddington is a Grade II-listed Victorian Young's hotel with 44 rooms, a restaurant, a big garden and a car park, 3 minutes from Teddington station and 32 minutes' walk from Hampton Court Palace. A Comfy room was £179 prepaid or £196.90 flexible, room only.

Most rooms are the plain Comfy type, and one recent reviewer was surprised there's no phone in the room, so any request means a trip to reception. For a family, the Family Comfy has a king and a bunk bed at the same starting price.

The Mitre, Hampton Court is the hotel for the palace: a riverside hotel across Hampton Court Bridge from the palace, 7 minutes' walk to the main gate and 3 minutes from Hampton Court station, with a riverside brasserie, terraces on the Thames and breakfast included when you book direct. It's technically in Surrey (East Molesey, across Hampton Court Bridge). A Heritage room was £235 with breakfast on the early-bird rate (book at least 21 days ahead), or £270 flexible.

It's the dearest starting rate out here, check-in isn't until 4pm, and the car park can't be reserved. Ask for a room facing the river and the palace. One recent reviewer was refused a cooked breakfast 17 minutes before the advertised 10:30am close, so don't cut it fine.

The White Hart Hotel, Hampton Wick is a Fuller's pub-hotel at the Hampton Wick end of Kingston Bridge, 5 minutes from Hampton Wick station (trains to Waterloo in about 38 minutes) and 26 minutes' walk from Hampton Court Palace. It has 37 rooms, a lift, free parking and a good breakfast, which on Booking.com was included in the £165 non-refundable Deluxe King rate (£183 flexible). It rates 4.5 on Google from 1,079 reviews, the best score in this corner.

The pub is the mock-Tudor building on the corner; most rooms are in a block built behind it in 2000. It's the best-equipped choice here for anyone who needs a lift, and Kingston's shops are over the bridge.

The Lensbury is a private members' club with a 155-room hotel attached, in 25 acres on the Thames at Teddington. Hotel guests get the club: swimming pools, a gym, 24 racquet courts, a spa and, from March to October, a watersports centre, plus free parking. It's the one for a sporty family or a weekend where you don't want to leave the grounds. An Ascot Twin was £189 on the Book Early rate or £230 flexible, room only.

It's 21 minutes' walk from Teddington station, so it's a car or a taxi base. Club rules apply, and recent Google reviews complain about service and one recent guest was moved out of the Ascot building they'd booked.

Travelodge London Teddington is the cheapest bed out here: £46.99 non-refundable or £54.99 flexible, 4 minutes from Teddington station and just off the high street, with Bushy Park on the doorstep and Hampton Court Palace a 34-minute walk. Parking is £6 a day and there's a Bar Café.

It rates 3.6 on Google from 857 reviews, and recent reviewers found rooms hot and a smell of smoke. Fine for a cheap night before a palace visit, if a basic room is all you need.