Where to Stay in London: The Best Areas & Hotels (2026)

Best for first-timers who want to walk to everything. Covent Garden & the West End. If you only know one London area, make it Covent Garden. The piazza, the theatres, Trafalgar Square, the river and the National Gallery are all within ten minutes on foot, and you're in Zone 1 on the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden, the Northern and Piccadilly at Leicester Square, and the Bakerloo and Northern at Charing Cross, which is Trafalgar Square itself. Big Ben is one District line stop from Embankment, a couple of minutes further down Villiers Street, or about 15 minutes' walk down Whitehall from Trafalgar Square. The catch is that it's the most touristy part of central London, expensive for the room size, and loud, with theatre crowds until 11pm and street performers all day. Light sleepers should ask for a courtyard-facing room, and anyone on a tight budget will get more space for the money a few stops out. Full guide: the best hotels in Covent Garden and the West End.

The Savoy is the Covent Garden splurge and the hotel I'd pick if the trip is a once-in-a-lifetime one. It opened in 1889 on the Strand, entered from Savoy Court, and it's still the full Edwardian-and-Art-Deco production: the American Bar, three Gordon Ramsay restaurants, a naturally lit indoor pool on the third floor and more than 260 rooms and suites. Charing Cross station is a six-minute walk and Trafalgar Square itself about ten, Covent Garden's piazza seven, and Big Ben is one stop from Embankment on the District line or a 17-minute walk down Whitehall. It holds a 4.7 on Google across more than 11,000 reviews.

What the lead-in rate buys is the thing to know. A Superior Queen was £941 room only on a Tuesday in November, non-refundable, and it's 27 square metres facing the inner courtyard or the city, not the river; breakfast is another £45 a head. River views start at the junior suites, north of £1,500. One Google reviewer in a Deluxe, a grade above the lead-in, put it bluntly: "Deluxe room. Quite small." The same review praised the location and staff. Book it for the bar, the service and the address, and pay the upgrade for the water if the view is the point.

Strand Palace is the value answer to the Savoy, and it's literally across the road. A 1909 hotel renovated in 2019, it's big, busy and central in a way nothing at this price matches: Charing Cross station is six minutes on foot and Trafalgar Square ten, Covent Garden's piazza three, the theatres of the Strand and Aldwych are outside the door, and Charing Cross, Embankment and Leicester Square are all under half a mile. The cheapest Standard rate was £252 room only on a Tuesday in November on the hotel's own engine, with bed and breakfast from £324. Every room has air conditioning, there's a free gym, and Joe Allen's theatre-district restaurant and the Gin Palace bar are in the building.

Space and scale are the compromise. The smallest double on the rooms page, the Classic Double, is 13 square metres and the Superior rooms 18, so pack light or pay for the Superior. It's a large hotel and reviewers note queues for the lifts and breakfast at peak times; one Google reviewer called a basic double "well appointed overall and comfortable and a good size for a basic room", which is about right. There are no dedicated family rooms (every room sleeps two, though some have a sofa bed for one child) and no on-site parking. For a first visit where you'll be out all day, it's the sensible West End base.

Best for nightlife, restaurants and a late-night walk home. Soho. Soho is the square half-mile of restaurants, bars, jazz clubs and theatres between Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Avenue. Stay here and you never need a taxi back: Chinatown, Carnaby Street and the West End theatres are on your doorstep, and Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines) is a minute from Trafalgar Square by Tube, seven from Westminster. It's Zone 1 and about as central as London gets. What you give up is quiet, seven nights a week, and space: Soho's hotels are squeezed into narrow Georgian plots, so a "double" here can be 10 square metres. Families and anyone who wants quiet after 10pm should look at Bloomsbury or Marylebone instead. Full guide: the best hotels in Soho.

Ham Yard Hotel is the Soho hotel I'd book for a celebration. Firmdale built it around its own pedestrian courtyard, so you get the Soho address with a buffer from the noise, and the place is a small village: 91 individually designed rooms, a 190-seat theatre, an original 1950s bowling alley called The Croc, a spa, a rooftop garden and a bar and restaurant that Soho itself uses. Piccadilly Circus is three minutes on foot, Trafalgar Square one Tube stop or just over ten minutes on foot, and Big Ben about seven minutes by Tube.

You pay properly for it: a Superior room (31 square metres) was £624 room only on a Tuesday in November on the advance-purchase rate, £690 flexible, and breakfast is extra. The rooms are big for Soho and the design is joyful rather than corporate; a Google reviewer described a visiting cousin's room as "spacious, beautifully decorated & very clean". Rooms face either Soho or the courtyard, and one Google reviewer found the courtyard side loud at night, so ask which side is quieter for your dates rather than assuming. The hotel doesn't publish anything about parking, so assume there's none.

The Z Hotel Soho is the cheapest way to sleep in Soho itself, and it makes no pretence about what it is: a compact-room hotel on Moor Street where Soho meets Chinatown, with rooms that run from 8 square metres for a single to 10 to 12 for a Z Queen. The lead-in Z Double is published from £90 a night, and that's what Booking.com's calendar showed for a quiet Sunday in November too, though the busy Tuesday two nights later was about £170. Leicester Square station is three minutes away, Trafalgar Square is one Northern line stop or a ten-minute walk, and every bar, theatre and dim-sum place in Soho is within five minutes.

The room is what you're sacrificing. A double here is 9 to 10 square metres, there is nowhere to spread out, and the cheapest Inside Double has no window at all (the hotel says so itself). Rooms sleep two at most, so it's no use for families. There's air conditioning, no breakfast included, and the free cheese-and-wine hour that Z Hotels were known for is now listed as a benefit of its free membership scheme rather than a promise to every guest. Book it if you'll only be in the room to sleep and want the address; anyone who wants to spend time in their room should pay for Ham Yard or go to Bloomsbury.

Best for families and the classic postcard view. South Bank & Waterloo. The south side of the river between Westminster Bridge and Blackfriars is where the London Eye, the Southbank Centre and the riverside walk sit, with Tate Modern just beyond, and it's flat, traffic-free along the water and easy with a stroller. Waterloo station (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, Zone 1) is one stop from Westminster and two from Charing Cross, so you're a couple of minutes from Big Ben by Tube or a ten-minute walk over the bridge. The downside is that the immediate streets behind the river are busy and a bit charmless (Waterloo is a transport hub first), and the big riverside hotels are chains rather than characterful. Book here for the view and the convenience, not for a neighbourhood feel. Full guide: the best hotels on the South Bank and around Waterloo.

Sea Containers London is the South Bank hotel with the most personality: 354 rooms in the old Sea Containers House right on the Thames path by Blackfriars Bridge, with Gordon Ramsay's riverside restaurant, the Lyaness cocktail bar, a cinema, a spa and the 12th Knot rooftop bar. Tate Modern is 11 minutes' walk along the river, the London Eye 17. Southwark station (Jubilee line) is nine minutes on foot and three minutes from Westminster; Blackfriars, on the District and Circle lines, is ten.

It's not cheap for the South Bank: a Standard room was about £394 room only on a Tuesday in November, non-refundable (a discount on a £469 list price), and that room doesn't face the river. Thames views start at the Riverview Deluxe, about £495, and breakfast is £25 a head. One reviewer found their room overlooked by the offices opposite, so ask for a high floor. There are proper family rooms (interconnecting, with two singles alongside the double), which is rare in a design hotel, and dogs are welcome. One Google reviewer's verdict: "the rooftop bar has some of the best views you can get from London's Southbank."

Premier Inn London County Hall is, for my money, the best-located budget hotel in London. It sits inside the Grade II-listed County Hall, next door to the London Eye and across Westminster Bridge from Big Ben, with Waterloo's four Tube lines a five-minute walk away. A Standard double was £185 on a Tuesday in November on the non-refundable rate, £237 fully flexible, which for this postcode is remarkable. Rooms follow the usual Premier Inn formula (king bed, blackout curtains, air conditioning), there are family rooms and accessible rooms, and up to two children eat breakfast free with a paying adult.

What you give up is everything beyond a clean room and a good bed: the in-house Thyme restaurant is functional, breakfast is extra, there's no parking (the nearest public car park is about £20 for 24 hours), and the building's own staircase is currently emergency-only, so you'll queue for the lifts at check-out time. The streets immediately behind County Hall are busy. None of that matters much when you can walk to Big Ben in nine minutes. For a family or a first-timer on a budget, this is where I'd start.

Park Plaza London Westminster Bridge is the family hotel of the South Bank, and the one I'd point parents at first. It's a big Radisson-group hotel at the south end of Westminster Bridge with the thing almost no central London hotel has: a 15-metre indoor pool, plus a spa, a sushi bar, a brasserie and studio rooms of about 36 square metres with a sofa bed, a microwave and a fridge. Waterloo is six minutes on foot, Westminster station eight minutes over the bridge, and some outside-facing rooms look straight at Big Ben. It rates 4.5 on Google across more than 14,000 reviews.

It is a conference hotel with 32 meeting rooms, so the lobby can feel like an airport and the cheapest rooms (about £261 room only on a Tuesday in November, non-refundable) face the internal atrium rather than the city. Pay for an outside view or a Studio, and don't call the kitchenette a kitchen: it's a microwave and a fridge, enough for baby food and cereal. Breakfast is £25 a head. For a family of four who want a pool after a day of museums and to walk to Big Ben, nothing else in central London does this at the price.

Best for Big Ben on the doorstep and Gatwick trains. Westminster & Victoria. Westminster is Parliament, the Abbey and Buckingham Palace; Victoria, just west, is the station with the Gatwick Express, the long-distance bus station and a run of hotels on the streets behind it, from grand to bargain. Victoria station (Victoria, District and Circle lines, Zone 1) is three minutes from Westminster by Tube and 11 from Trafalgar Square. Against it: Westminster itself is government offices and empties at night, so there's little to do after dark, and the budget hotels along Belgrave Road in Pimlico range from excellent to grim within a few doors of each other. Pick carefully and it's a quiet, well-connected base; pick blindly and you'll regret it. Full guide: the best hotels in Victoria and Westminster.

The Goring is the grand hotel I'd choose over the famous Mayfair names if you want to be looked after rather than seen. It's been owned by the same family since Otto Goring opened it in 1910, it sits on a quiet street behind Buckingham Palace with what it calls central London's most spacious private hotel garden, its Dining Room has a Michelin star, and it's the only hotel ever given a Royal Warrant by Queen Elizabeth II. Victoria station is a four-minute walk, which means the Gatwick Express is too; Westminster is three minutes by Tube and Buckingham Palace nine on foot.

It is expensive for the room size: a Superior (25 square metres) was £765 room only on a Tuesday in November on the non-refundable rate, £900 flexible, and breakfast adds £54 for two. The entry rooms don't face the garden either; that starts at the Deluxe Garden View, around £1,370. There's no spa or pool, just a fitness room. What you're paying for is the service (one regular Google reviewer says each visit "truly feels like returning home") and the calm. As one Google reviewer put it about the afternoon tea, "the dining room is intimate and you have the sense of being in a private garden."

Luna Simone Hotel is the Belgrave Road bed-and-breakfast I'd trust, on a street where the quality swings wildly from door to door. It's been run by the Desira family since 1970 (the two sons have managed it since 1980), every room is en suite, breakfast is included and served 7 to 9am, and it holds a 4.5 on Google from more than 600 reviews, which for a budget B&B in this belt is telling. A double was £249 including breakfast on a Tuesday in November, before the 10 per cent discount code the hotel's own site offers for booking direct, and a family quad (a double plus two singles) £339. Pimlico station on the Victoria line is six minutes on foot, Victoria eight, and Westminster is eight minutes by Tube.

It has the limits every Pimlico townhouse hotel has, and it's upfront about them: there is no lift (elevator), so it's stairs to every floor, and there's no air conditioning, only fans, which matters in a July heatwave. Check-out is 10am. Rooms are simple and clean rather than stylish. For a first trip on a budget, or a family who'd rather have breakfast included and a station nearby than a design lobby, it's a straightforward choice.

Best for museums, families and a leafy, safe-feeling base. Kensington & South Kensington. The three big free museums (Natural History, Science, V&A) sit at the top of Exhibition Road, with Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall behind them and rows of white stucco terraces all around. South Kensington station (Piccadilly, District and Circle lines, Zone 1) is seven minutes from Westminster and about 14 from Trafalgar Square. It suits families and anyone who wants to feel they live in London rather than visit it. You're a Tube ride, not a walk, from the West End and the river, though, and the smartest hotels are pricey; the budget belt is Earl's Court, two stops west on the District line (Zones 1 and 2), which is tired in places but a genuine saving. Full guide: the best hotels in Kensington.

The Ampersand Hotel is the South Kensington hotel I'd book with children, and a lovely one without them. It's a boutique hotel two minutes from South Kensington station whose rooms are themed on the museums up the road (astronomy, botany, ornithology), with a bar and restaurant called Apero set under the Victorian cellar arches, a 24-hour gym, two guest lifts, and a Science Family Suite where the kids get their own bedroom with a rocket-shaped bunk bed. The Natural History Museum is a five-minute walk, and the Piccadilly, District and Circle lines put Westminster seven minutes away and Trafalgar Square about 14. Dogs are welcome, with beds and bowls provided.

The cheapest room for two was £293 room only on a Tuesday in November on the non-refundable rate, £326 flexible (and breakfast is £22 extra), and the entry 'Single & Small Double' rooms have, as the hotel puts it, a small double bed and the smallest footprint in the house. There's no pool. Reviewers keep coming back to the position, as one Google reviewer wrote: "the standout feature of this hotel is the magnificent location. It is steps away from the South Kensington station, which is well-connected for everywhere you want to go in London." The hotel's science-themed afternoon tea is the thing families in the reviews keep mentioning; book it when you book the room.

Premier Inn London Kensington (Earl's Court) is the straightforward budget answer for the museum quarter. Earl's Court is the tired end of Kensington, the belt of converted terraces where London's cheap hotels have always lived, and this big modern Premier Inn beside the station is the one I'd trust there: a Standard double was £135 non-refundable on a Tuesday in November, £173 fully flexible, with family rooms, accessible rooms, a lift and a restaurant where up to two children eat breakfast free with a paying adult. Earl's Court station (District and Piccadilly lines, Zones 1 and 2) is four minutes on foot, Westminster ten minutes by Tube and Trafalgar Square 18. The Natural History Museum is a 15-minute walk or two stops on the District line.

Know what you're getting. Standard rooms have no air conditioning (only the Premier Plus rooms do, for about £20 more), the hotel bills itself as next to the station, which means trains, so ask for a room away from the railway side, and there's no parking. The street outside is functional rather than pretty. But the rooms are clean, the beds are the reliable Premier Inn kind, and for a family who'd rather spend the saving on the museums' gift shops than a lobby, it's the right call.

Best for luxury, shopping and a quiet night. Knightsbridge, Chelsea & Belgravia. Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Sloane Street are here, along with a thick cluster of five-star hotels and some of the whitest, quietest stucco squares in the city. Knightsbridge (Piccadilly line) and Sloane Square (District and Circle) are both Zone 1, 11 to 13 minutes from Trafalgar Square and five to twelve from Westminster. Money is the catch: there is almost nothing under about £200 a night, restaurants and pubs are few and expensive by London standards, and the streets are dead quiet after 9pm, which is either the point or a problem depending on why you're here. Full guide: the best hotels in Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Belgravia.

The Berkeley is the Knightsbridge five-star I'd choose over its grander siblings for a stylish, less formal splurge. It sits on Wilton Place facing Hyde Park, a nine-minute walk from Harrods, and it's the one with the heated open-air rooftop pool, plus the Surrenne wellness club and gym included with every stay, Cedric Grolet's patisserie counter and a bar and terrace locals use. Knightsbridge and Hyde Park Corner stations (Piccadilly line) are four minutes on foot; Westminster is 12 minutes by Tube, Trafalgar Square 11. Connecting rooms are available on request and cots and extra beds are free, which makes it unusually family-friendly for this level.

The price and the pool are the two things to know. A Superior room (about 37 square metres, facing the church or the courtyard rather than the park) was £918 room only on a Tuesday in November on the non-refundable rate, £1,080 flexible, and the hotel adds a discretionary 5 per cent service charge to the bill. The pool is open-air; the hotel frames it as a spring-and-summer pleasure and doesn't publish winter hours, so ask before booking a November stay around it. As one Google reviewer put it: "one of the very few London hotels with a rooftop pool. One of the best hotel breakfasts in town and my favourite spot for a martini."

Sloane Square Hotel is the way to sleep in Chelsea without a five-star bill. It stands directly on Sloane Square, a minute from the District and Circle line station, with the King's Road and Sloane Street shops outside, Harrods a 14-minute walk, and Westminster five minutes by Tube. There's a lounge one floor up for breakfast and afternoon tea looking over the square (with a complimentary cream tea for guests), a Côte brasserie next door and The Knox, a late-night cocktail bar hidden in the basement. A Small Double was £236 room only on a Tuesday in November on the non-refundable rate, £295 flexible.

Read the small print on the rooms. The lead-in Small Double is 14 square metres with a small double bed and, in the hotel's own words, best suited to solo travellers; a proper 20 square metre Double was £320 flexible. The site doesn't say anything about a lift or air conditioning, so ask if either matters, and note the basement bar keeps late hours. Sloane Square station itself has no step-free access. For a couple who want Chelsea's postcode and a decent breakfast for the money, it's the sensible pick in an expensive area.

Best for a splurge, or a village feel next to Oxford Street. Mayfair & Marylebone. Mayfair, between Piccadilly and Oxford Street, is London's grandest hotel district: Claridge's, the Connaught, the Dorchester and their neighbours. Marylebone, just north of Oxford Street, is a calmer, more local high street of delis, pubs and independent shops with a run of good mid-range hotels. Bond Street (Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, Zone 1) is four minutes from Westminster and seven from Trafalgar Square; Marble Arch (Central line) and Baker Street serve Marylebone. Against it: Mayfair rates start where most people's budgets end, and Oxford Street between them is shoulder to shoulder on a Saturday. Full guide: the best luxury hotels in Mayfair. Full guide: the best hotels in Marylebone and Fitzrovia.

Claridge's is the Mayfair splurge, and if the trip is a milestone it's the one I'd book: the Art Deco grande dame on the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street, founded in 1812, with the Foyer's afternoon tea, Claridge's Bar and the Fumoir, a bakery and café, a fitness studio and a heated indoor pool under a vaulted ceiling in the spa, all included with a stay. Bond Street station (Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines) is a two-minute walk, which puts Westminster four minutes away and Trafalgar Square seven; Oxford Street is eight minutes on foot. It holds a 4.7 on Google across more than 4,000 reviews.

The lead-in was £1,173 room only on a Tuesday in November on the non-refundable rate, £1,380 flexible, for a Mayfair Room of about 40 square metres facing the inner courtyard rather than the street, and a discretionary 5 per cent service charge goes on the bill. There's no parking on site. Street-facing rooms with a balcony start around £1,530. It's a hotel that rewards booking the room you actually want rather than the cheapest one; a Google reviewer who did called the suites "beautifully furnished", with "a private connecting corridor to both", and praised the restaurant, breakfast and tea alike.

The Zetter Marylebone is the townhouse hotel I'd pick for Marylebone: a Georgian house on Seymour Street between Marble Arch and Marylebone High Street, with individually decorated rooms, a cocktail parlour downstairs and, on the top floor, a suite called Lear's Loft with a bath on its own outdoor terrace. Marble Arch station on the Central line is four minutes on foot and Hyde Park seven; Westminster and Trafalgar Square are each about ten minutes by Tube, and the delis and pubs of Marylebone High Street are a short walk north. It holds a 4.6 on Google from around 400 reviews.

The rooms are the compromise. A Deluxe Double was £420 room only on a Tuesday in November prepaid, £467 flexible, and it's about 19 square metres (the hotel calls them 'quaint and cosy'); the Deluxe Kings at 27 square metres are worth the step up. The free Zetter Friends scheme prices the same prepaid room at £357, so join before you book. The site doesn't mention a lift or parking, so ask if either matters, and breakfast is about £31 for two on top. For a quiet, characterful base a few minutes from Oxford Street, it's my pick.

Best for value, the British Museum and arriving by Eurostar. Bloomsbury & King's Cross. Bloomsbury is the garden-square university quarter around the British Museum, with the best concentration of honest mid-range and B&B hotels in central London. King's Cross, at its northern edge, has the Eurostar (the train from Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam), six Tube lines at King's Cross St Pancras (Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan) and a regenerated canalside of restaurants behind the stations. Both are Zone 1; King's Cross is ten minutes from Trafalgar Square and 15 from Westminster by Tube, and Bloomsbury is a 20-minute walk to Covent Garden. Neither is beautiful in the way Kensington is, Euston Road is a traffic sewer, and the cheapest Gower Street guesthouses have stairs, no lifts and shared bathrooms. Full guide: hotels near King's Cross and St Pancras. Full guide: the best hotels in Bloomsbury.

St. Pancras London, Autograph Collection is the hotel for anyone arriving by Eurostar, and one of the great buildings of London to sleep in: George Gilbert Scott's 1873 Midland Grand Hotel, all red-brick Gothic spires and a grand staircase, attached directly to St Pancras International. The Eurostar entrance is a one-minute walk, King's Cross St Pancras station with its six Tube lines two, and the regenerated canalside of Coal Drops Yard is a 14-minute walk behind the stations. Trafalgar Square is ten minutes by Tube, Westminster 15. There's an indoor pool, a spa, a 24-hour gym and 207 rooms plus 36 suites. It was the St Pancras Renaissance until Marriott moved it to its Autograph Collection brand; same building, new name.

Two things to know. First, the Victorian rooms you've seen in photographs are the suites in the original Chambers wing; the standard rooms are in the modern Barlow House extension behind, comfortable but ordinary, so book a Junior Suite or above if the architecture is the point. Second, prices jump on busy nights: on Tuesday 10 November only a Chambers Junior Suite was left on Booking.com, at £713, while the two nights before started around £352 to £369. Dogs cost £100 plus £50 a day. Reviews are split between the building's admirers and guests who found the service short of five-star; one Google reviewer's summary is fair: "the incredible, historic, Harry Potter staircase is a highlight and the location can't be beat."

The Standard, London is the fun answer to the St Pancras across the road: a 1974 Brutalist former council building at King's Cross reworked into 266 rooms, a 10th-floor restaurant (Decimo), an 11th-floor rooftop bar and a ground-floor pub-restaurant (Double Standard) that locals actually use. It's one minute on foot from King's Cross St Pancras and the Eurostar, ten minutes by Tube from Trafalgar Square, 15 from Westminster, and dogs stay free. The Standard now books through Hyatt, which is why the rate below comes from hyatt.com.

The entry rooms are the weak point. A Standard Queen was £423 room only on a Tuesday in November on the advance-purchase rate (£415 for World of Hyatt members), and it's 16 to 19 square metres; the cheapest King rooms are cheaper because they have no window. Pay for a Deluxe King (25 to 33 square metres) or a Premium King with a view, and don't expect a pool or spa (there's a 24-hour gym). Service gets mixed reviews on Google, from a family who called it their "#1 choice" to Hyatt regulars unhappy about benefits, but the design is the draw, as one reviewer put it: "rooms are cleverly designed with bold, vibrant interiors and a playful edge."

The Ridgemount Hotel is the old-fashioned Bloomsbury B&B, family run for more than 50 years and still doing the same simple thing well. Two Georgian townhouses on Gower Street, 32 rooms, a full English breakfast included, a private garden at the back, and the British Museum a six-minute walk away. A standard double with its own bathroom was £174 including breakfast on a Tuesday in November, booked on the hotel's own site with free cancellation; family triples and quads run £231 to £248. Goodge Street station on the Northern line is five minutes on foot and three stops from Charing Cross; Euston Square six minutes, which makes the Eurostar at St Pancras a short hop.

It is what it is, and it doesn't pretend otherwise. Only 15 of the 32 rooms are en suite, with their own bathroom (the rest share, which is how the cheapest rates are so low), the rooms are spread over four floors with no lift mentioned anywhere on the site, and there's central heating rather than air conditioning. There's no bar or restaurant, just tea and coffee in the lounge around the clock. Pets aren't allowed. If you want a clean, well-run room with breakfast in walking distance of the museum, the West End and the trains, and you'd rather spend the difference on the trip, this is the Bloomsbury pick.

Best for Heathrow arrivals and a base beside Hyde Park. Paddington & Bayswater. Paddington is where the Heathrow Express (15 minutes) and the Elizabeth line (28 minutes, far cheaper) arrive from the airport, and the streets around it and along the north side of Hyde Park are packed with hotels, from stucco B&Bs on Sussex Gardens to a couple of genuinely good design hotels. Paddington station (Bakerloo, District, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Elizabeth lines, Zone 1) is ten minutes from Trafalgar Square and 13 from Westminster. It's a hotel district, not a neighbourhood, though: bland at street level, with a lot of tired three-stars trading on the station. Pick one of the good ones and use it as a launch pad, or stay one night here after a late flight and move on. Full guide: the best hotels in Paddington and Bayswater.

The Pilgrm is the design hotel of the Paddington strip, and the one I'd choose for a night either side of a Heathrow flight. It's a restored Victorian townhouse on London Street, a one-minute walk from Paddington station (the Heathrow Express is 15 minutes to the airport, the Elizabeth line 28), with 73 stripped-back rooms, reclaimed cast-iron radiators, a ground-floor café pouring Monmouth coffee and a lounge one floor up with a terrace that does breakfast, cocktails and guest-chef residencies. Trafalgar Square is ten minutes by Tube from Paddington, Westminster 13, Hyde Park a 12-minute walk. A double was about £239 room only on a Tuesday in November.

It's a no-frills model, and the hotel is upfront about it: no room service, no doormen, no in-room tea and coffee, no baths, electric fans rather than air conditioning, and rooms from 7 square metres for the bunks and single nooks, with the cheapest double, the Snug, at about 12 (the hotel says it's best for one person; book the 14 square metre Comfy to share). Above all, it's stairs: the hotel says none of its rooms has step-free access and you climb the Victorian staircase to get anywhere, so travel light or ask for a low floor. As one Google reviewer put it, "if you have mobility issues this may not be the venue for you as there's no elevator. That said, I believe it's only four floors so not a big deal for most people."

Hilton London Paddington is the big, dependable choice for anyone who wants the station under the same roof. It's the 1854 Great Western Railway hotel, built as the grand front of Paddington station to a design credited to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and it's linked to the station, so the Heathrow Express (15 minutes to the airport), the Elizabeth line and four Tube lines are steps away. A Queen room was £340 on a Tuesday in November on the hotel's own engine, taxes included, a King £349, and a Family room £358; connecting rooms can be confirmed at booking, which parents of teenagers will appreciate. Trafalgar Square is ten minutes by Tube, Westminster 13, Hyde Park a ten-minute walk.

The limits: there's no pool (a fitness centre only), no parking, pets aren't allowed, check-in isn't until 4pm and breakfast is extra. Its Google rating is a 4.0 across more than 4,600 reviews, which reads as a solid chain hotel rather than a special one, and the Praed Street side is a busy road. Pay the extra for a Signature room on a high floor if you want the Executive Lounge and quiet. For a late arrival or an early flight, though, being able to roll a suitcase from the platform to the reception desk is worth a great deal.

Best for nightlife, street food and a younger crowd. Shoreditch & East London. Shoreditch, on the north-east edge of the City, is bars, markets (Spitalfields, Brick Lane, Columbia Road on Sundays), street art and some of the most interesting hotels in London. Old Street (Northern line) and Shoreditch High Street (on the Overground, London's orbital rail network, same fares) are both Zone 1; Liverpool Street, with the Central and Elizabeth lines, is a 10 to 15 minute walk. You're 13 to 16 minutes from Trafalgar Square by Tube and 16 to 19 from Westminster, which is the honest catch: you'll ride in to see the sights. The other downside is noise on Thursday to Saturday nights, and a neighbourhood that has lost some edge to office blocks. For a second trip, or anyone under 35 who cares more about dinner than Big Ben, it's the pick. Full guide: the best hotels in Shoreditch.

The Hoxton, Shoreditch is the original Hoxton, opened in 2006, and still the hotel that defines the area: 210 industrial-styled rooms on Great Eastern Street, a rooftop Peruvian restaurant (Llama Inn), an Italian trattoria, a lobby full of laptops by day and drinks by night, and "Flexy Time" check-in and check-out at any hour for free. Old Street station on the Northern line is five minutes on foot, Shoreditch High Street six, and Liverpool Street with the Central and Elizabeth lines about 13. Trafalgar Square and Westminster are each around 16 minutes by Tube.

Prices swing with the calendar here more than most. On the hotel's own site a Cosy double was £409 for Tuesday 10 November (a 12 square metre Shoebox £399), while the same Cosy double was £214 that Saturday: Shoreditch is dearer midweek, so shop the dates. The cheapest Shoebox rooms are genuinely 12 square metres, there's no parking (and you're inside the congestion-charge zone, so driving in costs extra), and the free breakfast bag the Hoxton used to be famous for is no longer mentioned on its site, so don't expect it. Dogs are welcome in the Cosy and Roomy room types (not the Shoebox) and there's an accessible lift at the back. For nights out in Shoreditch with a decent bed afterwards, it's still where I'd stay.

citizenM London Shoreditch is the budget-design option in the East End: every room is identical and compact, built around one extra-large king bed with a tablet that runs the lights, blinds and temperature, and there's a 24-hour canteen, self-service check-in and a bar. It sits on Holywell Lane between the Shoreditch High Street Overground station (three minutes on foot) and Liverpool Street (14), where the Central and Elizabeth lines get you to Trafalgar Square in about 13 minutes and Westminster in 19. A King room was £263 room only on a Tuesday in November, non-refundable, £309 flexible.

The limits are built into the concept. Rooms take two adults maximum, with no cots or extra beds, so it's no use for families; the space is deliberately small (the brand's own line is "compact in size, big on comfort"); breakfast is £20.50 extra; and pets aren't allowed. One more thing: citizenM is now part of Marriott, so citizenm.com sends you to marriott.com to book, which is where the direct link on the card goes. For a couple or a solo traveller who'll be out in Shoreditch until late and wants a great bed for the money, it works.

Best for weekend bargains, the Tower and St Paul's. The City. The Square Mile is the financial district: Roman walls, the Tower of London, St Paul's, Borough Market across the bridge, and a skyline of towers with restaurants on top. Its hotels fill with business travellers Monday to Thursday and drop their rates at the weekend: the Apex by the Tower, for example, was £209 for a City King on Saturday 14 November and £189 on the Sunday on its own site, against £339 for a room on the Tuesday before, which makes the City one of the best-value places in Zone 1 for a weekend. Bank (Central, Northern, Waterloo & City and the DLR, the driverless Docklands Light Railway) and Tower Hill (District and Circle) are 13 to 15 minutes from Trafalgar Square and 10 to 13 from Westminster. The flip side is the weekend hush: shops and many restaurants close, streets empty, and it can feel like you have London to yourself, which some people love. Midweek, prices go back up and the pubs are full of suits. Full guide: the best hotels in the City of London.

The Ned is the City's showpiece: Sir Edwin "Ned" Lutyens' 1924 Midland Bank headquarters on Poultry, a Grade I-listed banking hall the size of a cathedral now filled with around ten restaurants and bars, with 248 bedrooms upstairs and a members' club on the roof. Bank station (Central, Northern, Waterloo & City and the DLR) is one minute from the door, St Paul's an eight-minute walk, and Westminster or Trafalgar Square 13 minutes by Tube. It rates 4.5 on Google from nearly 8,000 reviews, and it's the one City hotel people book for the building alone.

Be clear about what you're buying. The rooftop pool belongs to Ned's Club and isn't included with a room; the indoor spa pool and gym are, but only if you book direct (the hotel says so, and Booking.com's rates say the opposite). A Cosy double (around 20 square metres) was £626 room only on a Tuesday in November, £695 flexible, with breakfast £32, and the entry rooms are small for the money. Some reviewers find the whole thing overpriced and busy; others love it, as one Google reviewer put it, for "convenient access to everything we needed" and "impeccable" service. The Heritage rooms on the listed fifth floor, with the original walnut panelling, are the ones worth paying for.

Apex City of London Hotel is the sensible four-star next to the Tower of London, and my pick for a family or a first-timer who wants to use the City's weekend lull. It sits on Seething Lane, a six-minute walk from the Tower and four from Tower Hill station (District and Circle lines), with Tower Bridge and St Katharine Docks about 15 minutes' walk beyond; Westminster is ten minutes by Tube, Trafalgar Square 15. Rooms are clearly sized and well kept (a 4.6 on Google from more than 2,000 reviews), there's a 24-hour gym, a proper restaurant called The Lampery, and family rooms with a super-king bed and a sofa bed for the kids.

A City Twin (23 square metres) was £339 room only on a Tuesday in November on the hotel's own site, non-refundable, with no City King offered that night; breakfast adds about £39 for two.50. The drawbacks are the City's: no parking, no pool, and a neighbourhood that empties on Friday evening, when the shops and many restaurants around it shut and the rates drop: a City King was £209 for Saturday 14 November and £189 for the Sunday. That quiet is the appeal for a weekend, and a headache if you wanted a lively street outside.

Best for a film-set neighbourhood and Portobello Road. Notting Hill. Pastel terraces, the Portobello Road market (Saturday is the big antiques day), good pubs and a west-London village feel that many visitors come specifically for. Notting Hill Gate (Central, District and Circle lines, Zones 1 and 2) is 12 minutes from Westminster and 16 from Trafalgar Square. The snag is that there are very few real hotels here, and they're either boutique and pricey or basic; Saturday brings market crowds to Portobello; and the Notting Hill Carnival, over the last weekend of August, closes streets and sends rates up. Stay here for the neighbourhood, not the convenience. Full guide: the best hotels in Notting Hill.

The Portobello Hotel is the Notting Hill stay people fly in for: 21 individually decorated rooms in a townhouse on Stanley Gardens, open since 1971, with round beds, canopy beds, Victorian bathtubs in a couple of the attic rooms, an honesty bar in the drawing room and a bohemian-regency style the hotel has kept since the seventies. Portobello Road market is a three-minute walk, Notting Hill Gate station (Central, District and Circle lines) nine, and from there Westminster is 12 minutes by Tube. A Good Room, the smallest category, was £301 room only on a Tuesday in November, with breakfast £42 more for two.

It is a boutique hotel in the old sense, so read the rules. Every room is for two people only, with children counted as adults; there's no restaurant (breakfast comes to the Sitting Room or your room); Saturday stays need two nights; the entry rooms are 14 to 15 square metres; and several rooms have had their televisions deliberately removed. The hotel's engine lists lift access and air conditioning on every room, though the floors are, as one Google reviewer put it, "quirky, crooked floors, creaky stairs and yet somehow it all works." Reviews are mixed on the welcome: a couple of recent Google reviewers found the service offhand, while most loved the rooms and the charm. For a couple who want the neighbourhood more than the facilities, nothing else in Notting Hill feels like this.

The Laslett is the Notting Hill hotel I'd book for practicality: 50 rooms across five adjoining listed townhouses on Pembridge Gardens, styled like a well-off friend's house with British art and antiques, and a proper restaurant and bar, The Henderson, named after the Carnival pioneer Russ Henderson, serving breakfast through to dinner. It's one minute from Notting Hill Gate station (Central, District and Circle lines), so Westminster is 12 minutes by Tube and Trafalgar Square 16, and Portobello Road is a nine-minute walk. A Spare Room Double was £270 room only on a Tuesday in November prepaid, £337 flexible; there's a family rate with a free extra bed for under-12s, connecting rooms, and dogs are welcome for a £30 donation to a dog charity.

The limits: the Spare Room Doubles are 18 to 19 square metres and the hotel calls them cosy, breakfast is £52 for two on top, no room sleeps four, there are no twin rooms, and there's no on-site parking (the nearest car parks are £29 to £38 a day). In its favour, two lifts serve all five floors. Check-out is 11am. If the Portobello is the hotel for a romantic weekend, the Laslett is the one for a family or a longer stay that wants Notting Hill's streets and a station at the door.

Best for a show at The O2, river views and weekend rates. Greenwich & Canary Wharf. Across the river from each other in the east: Greenwich is the Royal Observatory, the Cutty Sark, the park and the meridian line; Canary Wharf is glass towers, riverside hotels with pools and the Elizabeth line, which gets you to the West End in about 25 minutes. Canary Wharf (Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, Zone 2) is about 19 minutes from Westminster; North Greenwich (Jubilee, Zones 2 and 3) is 21. Distance and atmosphere are what you give up: Canary Wharf is a business district that goes quiet at weekends (which is why its Saturday rates drop), Greenwich is lovely but a real commute to the West End, and neither feels like the London on the postcards. Book here for a concert night, a business trip, or a family who want a pool and a view over a central location. Full guide: hotels near The O2 and Greenwich. Full guide: the best hotels in Canary Wharf.

InterContinental London - The O2 is the hotel you book for a concert, and a better hotel than that sounds. It's a riverside tower on the Greenwich Peninsula joined to The O2 by a covered walkway, with an indoor pool that's free for guests, a spa, an Indian fine-dining restaurant (Kinaara) and the Eighteen Sky Bar looking across the river to Canary Wharf. North Greenwich station on the Jubilee line is seven minutes on foot and 21 minutes from Westminster; the Uber Boat pier is a 15-minute walk if you'd rather arrive by river. A Cosy King was £458 room only on a Tuesday in November on IHG's engine.

You are on a peninsula, though. The West End is around half an hour away by Tube, parking is £52 a day, breakfast is extra, and one Google reviewer with a toddler found the lounges age-restricted and the hotel "not a family friendly hotel", so check the lounge rules if you're bringing small children. On a show night, though, it's unbeatable, as another reviewer put it: "Location was ideal for us as we were seeing a show in the O2 arena. Quick and easy to get into central London on an Uber boat." Book a river-facing room and treat the Tube ride as part of the outing.

Novotel London Canary Wharf is the value-and-view pick in the east: a 39-storey tower on Marsh Wall with 313 rooms, a pool, a sauna and a gym, and the Bokan restaurant, bar and roof terrace on the top floors with a 360-degree look over the Thames and the City. Canary Wharf's Jubilee line station is a seven-minute walk and the Elizabeth line station 11, so Westminster is around 19 minutes away and the West End about 25. A Superior double (21 square metres) was £233 room only on a Tuesday in November on Accor's own engine, £209.70 at the free member rate, and there's a Superior with a sofa bed for a child at £259 and a Studio Suite sleeping four at £399.

It's a business hotel in a business district, and both show. Rooms are compact, there are nine meeting rooms, and Accor's own guest scores give the location 9.5 out of 10 but cleanliness under 6, which is the honest signal: come for the view and the pool, not for polish. Breakfast is £25 extra and there's a £50 damage deposit on arrival. Canary Wharf goes quiet at weekends, and the rates follow: the same Superior double was £180 for Saturday 14 November on Accor's engine against £233 for the Tuesday. For a family who want a pool and a skyline for a mid-range price, or an O2 concert with a Jubilee line ride home, it earns its place; as one Google reviewer wrote, "the views are absolutely amazing, especially from the higher floors and the rooftop".