As our regular readers will know we have been to London several times over the past few months, so for our half-term visit to London we wanted to stay and explore a part of the city that we hadn’t been to before.
With so many hotels to choose from when visiting London it can be overwhelming but we are so glad we chose the impressive Hilton London Canary Wharf hotel – let me tell you why it’s a great choice for families.
Location
We had an early morning train into London Paddington and took the new Elizabeth line to Canary Wharf. This new rail service is a real game changer, providing speedy access from west to east London. Within 20 minutes of leaving Paddington we had arrived at the brand new station in Canary Wharf and it was a pleasant 5-10 minute walk to the hotel.
Before the Elizabeth line opened getting to Canary Wharf and East London would have taken multiple tube journeys and a long commute, so we would have never considered staying in this part of London but this new rail line changes all that.
This was also our first time in Canary Wharf, and we loved it. It offered a great mix of family friendly cafes and restaurants, including our favourite The Ivy. The girls love a little retail therapy while we are away so they enjoyed having a wide range of shops close by in the underground malls of Canary Wharf.
As you explore Canary Wharf you encounter lots of cool sculptures on display, which are part of the free-to-visit, public art collection.
Another must visit whilst in Canary Wharf are the Crossrail Place Roof Gardens which are free to enter. The gardens are almost exactly on the Meridian line and the planting is arranged according to which hemisphere they are from with Asian plants such as bamboos to the east, and plants such as ferns from the Americas to the west. When you exit the gardens, check out the futuristic Adams Plaza Bridge which has had a really cool makeover and the perfect setting for some content for your social channels.
A pleasant five minute walk from the hotel was the Canary Wharf London Underground station and South Quay DLR station with the brand new Elizabeth line a 10 minute walk away, so it was an ideal location for two locations on our bucket list during this visit – the O2 and Greenwich.
With this abundance of rail links on the doorstep of the hotel, it meant that we could get to any of the main attractions across the city with ease. The O2 arena was just a stop away and central London on the Jubilee line was 15-20 minutes.
We took the DLR to Stratford for our visit to the London Stadium, where we had a behind the scenes tour of the stadium, enjoyed shopping at the huge Westfield mall and it’s in this part of London where you’ll also find the amazing ABBA arena .
The DLR was one of our favourite ways of getting around this part of the city as its elevated railway allowed us to take in panoramic views of the city.
Arrival
On arrival at the hotel, you enter the spacious and modern lobby area, which made a good first impression. There were lots of stylish communal spaces to relax in, with a bar and restaurant off the lobby area with plenty of comfortable seating areas.
As Hilton Honors Gold members we typically tend to choose Hilton because of the benefits it offers us and more importantly we find that Hilton is a brand that’s very accommodating to families.
Although there were many business people using the hotel, it very much had a family feel and catered for children brilliantly. I really liked the fact that for families with younger children they had a separate check-in desk complete with activities and sweets, making the experience a fun and engaging one for kids.
We had a warm welcome to the hotel who acknowledged our Hilton Gold status and as we were a couple of hours early off the hotel check-in time, our luggage was stored securely allowing us to start exploring this part of the city.
After a busy first day in London, where we visited the London stadium and Olympic Park in nearby Stratford we headed back to the hotel and were so excited to check out our room.
Family Rooms at the Hilton London Canary Wharf
The hotel has 282 rooms across the following different categories – standard, executive and suites all of which were modern and sleek.
Executive rooms occupy the top floors of the hotel and our junior suite on the 13th floor was stunning and well worth the extra cost. Calling it a room would not do it justice, our home for the next two nights consisted of a junior suite and an interconnecting executive twin room providing apartment size accommodation.
The suite featured two bedrooms, one with a king-sized bed and the children’s bedroom had two twin beds, separated by a reasonable sized lounge space.
What made the Hilton London Canary Wharf stand out were the many thoughtful little touches. The girls room was decorated with balloons and gorgeous birthday pillow cases along with a table set up with treats, snacks, soft toys and non-alcoholic fizz to celebrate the occasion.
It’s this warm welcome and little special touches that make the Hilton Canary Wharf such a great place to stay especially with kids – Holly in particular would have taken the balloons around London with her if she could!
In our junior suite my husband and I had welcome gifts of cava and Canary Wharf branded chocolate truffles – yum! and some mini spa treats from Temple Spa on our bedside table.
The housekeeping service were also really attentive and thoughtful, the girls loved the surprise towel art left on the beds in our rooms each day.
As many of our readers will know I’m a big fan of family interconnecting suites and rooms especially with the children getting older. Plus, I keep mentioning in some of our other hotel reviews that we don’t tend to travel light so having the extra space for all of our cases was a definite plus point.
Our suite had all the comforts of home and more. Every detail of what we look for in a hotel was covered.
Whilst we relaxed in the lounge area of our suite, the girls were more than happy to chill in their own room, using the free high speed Wi-Fi for their iPads.
There were three huge TVs to choose from in our suite so there were no arguments, the girls had their favourite programmes, my husband could watch the sport and I could catch up on my favourite programmes.
I lost count just how many windows our suite had but all of them offered the most amazing views of the skyline of Canary Wharf.
One of my favourite things during our stay at the Hilton London Canary Wharf was opening the curtains each morning to see the sweeping views over the city below, I could never get tired of it and is one of the lasting impressions we have of our stay.
One of my favourite parts of staying at a Hilton is their serenity beds- and our beds at the Hilton Canary Wharf were super comfortable with a thick duvet and huge pillows.
Another reason why I really like interconnecting family rooms and suites is the fact that you have more than one bathroom, so it’s perfect for a family of four. Both of the bathrooms in our rooms were spacious and modern with a separate shower and bath, so it’s great for families with younger children.
Executive level rooms also have other benefits including bathrobes, slippers and more importantly lounge access.
Facilities
One reason why it’s well worth upgrading to an executive room is for access to its executive club lounge on the 14th floor.
We could use the lounge for all day refreshments and in the evening between 6pm and 8.00pm a selection of canapes and drinks were available, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. This was a great place to start our evening with pre-dinner drinks.
Chloe and Holly made themselves at home helping themselves to the complimentary snacks and drinks whilst watching their favourite streaming programmes on their iPads.
The girls really loved it here as did my husband and after busy days exploring the sights of London, the lounge was a lovely family friendly area to call back, unwind and relax.
Food and Drink
Using our Hilton Gold benefits we had breakfast at the hotels Cinnamon restaurant each morning. Hilton breakfasts are typically excellent and the buffet style breakfast offering at the Hilton London Canary Wharf certainly didn’t disappoint.
A wide range of options were on offer from hot cooked breakfast options to small pastries, yogurts, fruit, and cereals. The girls in particular loved making their own hot chocolates paired with a delicious giant muffin.
This was the perfect start to each day before setting out to explore some of London’s sights and attractions which included visiting the 02 and exploring the Royal Observatory, Maritime Museum and Cutty Sark in Greenwich, all of which were one stop on the tube away from the hotel.
We also went into central London, stopping off at the stunning Royal Exchange and visiting one of our favourite US stops – Eataly before challenging each other to golf at the amazing Puttshack.
For a unique vantage point of London, I really recommend taking the cable car across the River Thames, we used it to get to the 02 and it was a really unique way to see the skyline of the city of London.
Checkout was as friendly and efficient as our check-in, and the hotel kept our luggage for the rest of the day so we could continue to enjoy our London city break until it was reluctantly time to return home.
Overall and is it family friendly
Definitely, the Hilton London Canary Wharf is an excellent family friendly hotel and we highly recommend it. It is a hidden gem for families – we had such a wonderful stay.
The level of service provided was exceptional which made our stay so special and memorable. We had such a wonderful stay and it was the perfect location for us to explore the great family attractions of London – Canary Wharf has become one of our favourite areas to stay in the city.
Ready to book?
Prices at the Hilton London Canary Wharf when booking direct at Hilton.com start from £456 per night for family interconnecting room.