The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

London

Destination guide

London

View guide
London - Photo: istock London - Photo: istock
The hotel lobby.

The London hotel so fabulous, you could live in the loos

Built in the 1800s, this iconic hotel remains as stylish as ever, and a place to see London at its most vivacious.

  • Penny Watson
London views from floor-to-ceiling windows.

London hotel with a pretentious name is surprisingly laid-back

For a hotel with such a pretentious name, art’Otel London Hoxton is surprisingly laid-back and welcoming.

  • Mark Chipperfield
A new capsule hotel near Piccadilly Circus… Zedwell Capsule Hotel.

I tried London’s new $60-a-night capsule hotel

In the centre of the capital, the Zedwell Capsule Hotel offers Japanese-style “pods” at prices to rival hostels.

  • Francesca Syz
Entertainment options are limited.

This airline’s reputation for service is bad, and it lives up to it

Even in premium economy, it’s hard to get a flight attendant to bring me a drink – and I only want water.

  • Sue Williams
Passengers queue at Heathrow last weekend after a cyberattack shut down systems and delayed flights.

Australian airports, take note: This is how you look after frustrated passengers

Heathrow is a place passengers love to hate, but last weekend it left me far more impressed than Australia’s airports.

  • Ute Junker
Advertisement
Treehotel, Sweden. For sheer wow-factor, it’s hard to beat the hotel’s most recent addition, Biosphere, which was designed by Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group.

Banishing bland: The most stylish hotel and airline cabin designs in 2025

From an 1881 merchant’s house transformed into a boutique hotel in Athens, to Mondrian’s entry into Australia on the Gold Coast, we celebrate the brands getting creative and banishing bland.

  • Traveller Team
The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, London.

Is this London hotel the ultimate in luxury?

Mandarin Oriental’s second London hotel is a new-build with only 50 rooms in the heart of Mayfair.

  • Trudi Jenkins
Lady Chapel, also known as Henry VII Chapel.

London’s most magnificent royal church is a trove of delights

The stones, bones and thrones of the famed Westminster Abbey provide a wonderfully cluttered walk through its religious, royal and architectural past.

  • Brian Johnston
London calling… without a phone.

My battery dead, I struggled to remember how to travel without a phone

I spent decades of my adult life travelling without devices, and got along fine without them. How hard can it be?

  • Tim Richards
A Singapore Airlines aircraft at Changi Airport.

I felt smug about my airfare, until I realised it was the wrong airline

The time was almost identical, the price likewise, the flying time ditto. But why am I flying home via Delhi?

  • Karl Quinn