A romantic stay in London

We stayed 3 days at the Miller's hotel in Notting Hill - The perfect set up for a romantic stay in London. If you have never been in London before there are a few historic attractions you must see:
Trafalgar Square - a very impressive and busy square with an beatiful water fountain.
Hyde park - where wacky street personalities give speaches of all kinds.
Leister square - A busy square close to Chinatown with cinema's, restaurants, ect.
Other must see places are: Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Covent garden, to name a few.

For exclusive expensive shopping go to Bond or Sloane street where you'll find flag ship stores from Prada, Gucci, Donna Karen, etc.

For a less costly experience experience try the Portabello market in Notting Hill.

Quick Tips:

London is a very expensive city and you should decide early if you want to spend a fortune and experience the unique London high life or whether you are satisfied to find the cheapest options. If you choose the first you should do a lot of research to find the hippest clubs and restaurants. The most trendy places are often well hidden and do little or no advertising. Ask around and check out journals like this one. Or even better ask someone who lives in London. In some of the best places you need to be on a guest list and reserve the restaurant a few days ahead. If you don't want to spend too much, stay away from taxi's and restaurants and eat sandwiches and pizzas.

Best Way To Get Around:

Getting to London from Heathrow:
Take the Heathrow express to Paddington station, and a taxi from there to your hotel. This is the best option, however it is a bit expensive - about £24 for a return ticket on the Heathrow express. The underground tybe is the best way to get around in London. It is quick and fairly inexpensive and the system is simple when you have tried it a few times.

Location:
The Hotel is situated in Notting Hill a 10 min walk from the Portabello market. This area is best known from the film "Notting Hill" with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The area is more relaxed than central London yet the undergroud takes you to central London in 10 min.

The hotel:
The hotel is owned by a man named Martin Miller and you almost feel invited for a private stay with him and his staff.

The hotel only has 8 rooms and a large living room that the guests can use. Guests are allowed to bring and drink their own wine in the hotel.

When we arrived we were invited to a glass of wine in the living room by the hotel manager. This was a great opportunity to ask questions about places to see in London, etc.

After that we were guided to our room. The room was nice and clean. The style of the room and the hotel in general is traditional (historic) British. The best way to desribe the hotel is to think of the Sherlock Holmes movies. Visitng the Miller's hotel is just as visiting Sherlock Homes.

The Hotel is almost overdecorated with historic furniture and carpets but it goes well the style and attitude of the hotel.

The hotel does not have a minibar but since you are welcome to use the kitchen, this doesn't matter. Included in the price of about £140 was a continental breakfast. Again everything is customized to your personal need and they will serve anything they have in store.

We did indeed feel at home at Miller's and I can highly recommend the hotel for a romantic get-a-way to London. If you are looking for history and personality, I can definitely recommend the Miller Hotel. If you want privacy and the luxury of all the modern facilities the £130 should be spend in a new hotel like the Regents Park Hilton hotel.

Location:
In a seedy back alley between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street on 8 Hanway Place. The restaurant is in an old factory building.

Style and crowd:
The restaurant is one very large hall with a bar at the end of the room. The style of the restaurant is a mix between trendy London minimalism and Chinese decorations. The room was filled with people and the noise level was quite loud. Even though we had a reservation we had to spend the first 30 min. in the bar and wait for a table - this is a thing people expect when you visit the most hip restaurant in town. The crowd consists of the rich and famous I noticed Tia Carrera, Simon Le Bon and Gwen Stafani.

We where 5 people at the restaurant and we choose 12 Chinese dishes which was more than enough food. The standard of the food was excellent and the atmosphere of the restaurant was at least half the experience. The dishes were traditional Chinese specialties with a slight twist of modern London fusion kitchen. It was the best Chinese food I have ever tried. It was spicy but not too spicy and the fusion inspiration only lifted the dishes to a higher level.

The atmosphere in the restaurant became more and more party like the later it got, and a visit to Hakkasan is the perfect place to "warm up" before hitting the London club scene.

The wine was of a very high quality too. We had a Chardonnay from France and it was reasonable too at about £20 a bottle.

The service at the restaurant was good and professional but everybody was very busy so don't prepare too many questions with the order.

I can definitely recommend the place if you are ready for a hip experience and ready to try new things. However if you hate crowded places with a lot of noise don't go near Hakkasan.

To get the perfect Hakkasan experince book a table at around 21:00 and stay until at least 24:00.

Opium is a restaurant and nightclub in one, and the perfect place to eat if you want the best of both worlds.

The kitchen can best be described as modern Asian fusion kichen, combining both fish and meat dishes and very Asian spices.

The design of the nightclub is also inspired by Asia, and the furniture is kept in dark wood. The most interesting thing about the place is the energetic upper class crowd.

The food was very delicious, we were a party of 5 and tried both the fish, chicken and meat dishes. Everybody were more than satisfied with the inventive fusion food.

The crowd is fairly young the girls are from 20-30 and the men 25-45. The place appeals to the rich and famous and the prices are quite steep. As a nightclub you need to be on the guest list to enter and a reservation for dinner is absolutely neccesary.

How to get there:

Take the tube to either Southwark or Blackfriars and walk the rest of the way.

Tate Modern is housed in the former Bankside Power Station. The museum displays a collection of international modern art from 1900 to the present day, such as works by Dalí, Picasso, Matisse, and more contempoary artists like Dorothy Cross, Gilbert & George and Susan Hiller.

I have to admit that I found Modern Tate a bit disapointing - I think you need to be very interested in modern art to understand to qualities of the collection.

Of course the works of Dalí, Picasso and Matisse are nice but having seen these paintings before I had hoped to be pleasantly surpriced by the newer artists.

I found the buildning a bit boxy but still quite impressive. However I won't spend the time to see Modern Tate the next time I visit London, there are so many other great things to do.

London may at the moment be one of the most expensive cities in the world if you are looking for trendy clothes. One of the cheaper options is the Portabello market.

However the main reason for going to Portabello is to experience the relaxed yet lively atmosphere. The Portabello Road is about 2 miles of smalls shops and people selling stuff directly on the street.

You can find antic furniture of a very high quality, clothes both new and second hand, CD's and a lot of different suveniers.

If you are in Notting Hill it would be a shame not to visit the Portabello market.