A HEADS UP
This walk is The Secrets of London’s Luxury Hotels. Its fraternal twin – the two walks are complementary – is Untold Stories of London’s Luxury Hotels. Untold Stories of London’s Luxury Hotels takes place on April 24.
TO RECAP
Bears repeating. This walk, The Secrets of London’s Luxury Hotels, is a standalone walk. It can be enjoyed before or after its complementary walk:Untold Stories of London’s Luxury Hotels.
MEET YOUR GUIDE – IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING
Here’s a fab interview with Andy Hotels Makes for a fascinating – and illuminating – backgrounder for this walk.
New York Times First
“London Walks puts you into the hands of an expert on the particular area and topic of a tour.” The New York Times
Guide Next
It all comes down to the guiding. Andy – we call him Andy Hotels – is an acknowledged expert on luxury hotels and the golden age of travel. The official historian of Brown’s Hotel, Andy Hotels is the author of the definitive histories of Brown’s and The Savoy. No surprise then that he’s the go-to expert for television documentaries and radio interviews on the subject.
The Walk
Let us go then, you and I and Andy Hotels, up the red carpet and through the portals into the world of white glove service. The walk is your Platinum Pass to what goes on behind the gilded doors and top-hatted doormen of the city’s luxury living quarters. It’s your entrée to a cast of characters more intriguing than a novel by frequent guest Agatha Christie, from royals to roués, writers to rakes, bon vivants to bankrupts…let alone con artists and crooks, spies and war criminals, actors and musicians, upstairs and downstairs.
We stop by the capital’s finest stopping places during the golden age of luxury hotels. Learn about Oscar Wilde’s fall from grace, Rudyard Kipling dying at his desk and Stephen King’s resulting Misery, Britain’s first phone call, King Zog of Albania checking in with the crown jewels, the world’s greatest chef creating culinary classics, the mystery of the body in the bathtub, the nervous breakdown of the world’s greatest hotelier, Bob Dylan writing lyrics on his dry cleaning inserts and King Charles going public with Camilla. And that’s just for starters.
Yes, welcome to our new five-star walk. Five-star in every respect.
A Smoking Cocktail of a Walk
Patrick Larvie –
The walk was expertly coordinated, informative and lots of fun. Andy is full of great stories and knows his way around the hotels and the history they represent. It was so much fun to learn about what the well healed get up to when they’re temporarily housed in London’s fanciest hotels.
Richard Baumgarten –
This was a tremendous tour. My wife and i are huge fans of London Walks.
Andy’s tour of several famous hotels of distinction was first-rate. The Browns Hotel was wonderful in its understated elegance. Andy’s vignettes and jokes were great. We have a favorite hotel in Michigan, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, in the straits between the Lower and Upper peninsulas of our “Great Lakes” State’. The Grand has a professional historian, Bob Tagatz, who is very similar to Andy “Hotels”, the host of this London Hotel Walk.
We look forward to going on Andy’s other Hotel Soiree, as well as, the other several he is formulating for the future.
Richard and Cheryl, Grosse Pointe Michigan
L –
Fun and interesting tour. Great job Andy!
Carol Griesedieck –
What a surprising and enjoyable tour!Andy was knowledgeable and so entertaining! I was so inspired by his information on the Brown hotel I can’t wait to get his definitive book! The walk was at a great pace and full of people and history. Thank you !!
Imelda Shanahan –
That was a fun and informative morning with Andy. Lots of stories and insights and his second tour must be even more informative. The Dad jokes were not toooo bad!!
Chris T –
What a great walk for a sunny, Sunday morning! And what a fabulous guide we had in Andy! He told us so many stories, about so many people, bringing these hotels to life for us. Having been in a couple of them before, we thought we knew a thing or two about them, but Andy’s knowledge is unsurpassable! Why the steps are there from the Savoy lobby to its Gallery, why no party is really complete without a gondola and a baby elephant, why Oscar Wilde’s statue can be found a stone’s throw from The Cleremont, why Browns hotel (no apostrophe) is bigger at the back than the front (or is it the other way round?), why the most famous hotelier in the world had a nervous breakdown and why the most expensive cocktail known to man is, well, so expensive!! And what are the actual credentials that make a luxury hotel the oldest in London? We cannot wait to go on Andy’s sibling tour to visit yet more of these fabulous places and be treated to yet more fascinating stories! Thank you so much Andy and we’ll see you soon!
Joan –
I went on both of Andy’s walks and they were both fantastic. I enjoyed the history of the hotels as well as the many individual stories of people who stayed there as well as those who built and developed them. I stayed in London for a few weeks after going on the walks and they added even more background to places and events I visited/studied while I was here. I have been on many London Walks and these are two of the best! Andy was good at creating a good group dynamic and the two hours flew by!
Emma –
What a terrific tour! Many thanks to Andy for keeping this super informative and fun and having a kind word for everyone there. There were small children in our group and he made sure to include them too. You won’t be entering any of the hotels (I’d suggest booking afternoon tea at Brown’s following the tour) but the insight and trivia into the building and running of those hotels was absolutely fascinating and really make you look at hotels differently – what we take for granted now took a lot of time and hard work to become a reality! My favourite was Brown’s – Andy wrote a book about this hotel and you’ll understand why when doing the tout, it’s a really special place. Highly recommend this!
Judith –
A wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning with a VERY engaging guide. Andy is extremely knowledgeable about these luxury hotels, including their history and the price per night of a room… WOW! I liked his jokes also 🙂 I thoroughly recommend this walk.
Ian –
Entertaining, informative and lots of fun. Thoroughly enjoyed Mr Hotels tour of London’s grand hotels and giving us an insite into an exotic world of luxury and opulence. If only he’d arrived on a baby elephant. (Go on the tour to understand the reference)