Ritz London

Top choice in The West End


What can you say about a place that has lent its name to the English lexicon? This 136-room hotel, opened by the eponymous César in 1906, has a spectacular position overlooking Green Park and is supposedly the Royal Family’s home away from home. (It is very close to the palace.) All rooms have Louis XVI–style interiors and antique furniture.

Various formal-dress and smart-casual codes (shirt and tie) apply in some of the hotel's outlets. For stunning cocktails in art deco opulence, take a seat in the Rivoli Bar.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The West End attractions

1. Royal Arcade

0.11 MILES

Running perpendicular to Burlington Arcade between Old Bond and Albermarle Sts is this more recent arcade dating from 1880.

2. Burlington Arcade

0.11 MILES

Flanking Burlington House, which is home to the Royal Academy of Arts, is this delightful arcade, built in 1819. Today it is a shopping precinct for the…

3. Royal Academy of Arts

0.13 MILES

Britain’s oldest society devoted to fine arts was founded in 1768 and moved here to Burlington House a century later. For its 250th birthday in 2018, the…

4. Green Park

0.14 MILES

At 19 hectares, Green Park is the smallest of the eight royal parks. It has huge plane and oak trees and undulating meadows, and it’s never as crowded as…

5. Spencer House

0.16 MILES

Just outside the borders of Green Park is Spencer House, completed in the Palladian style in 1766 for the first Earl Spencer, an ancestor of the late…

6. Faraday Museum

0.18 MILES

Housed for the most part in the basement of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, this low-key and neon-lit museum is a tranquil escape from the bustle…

7. St James’s Piccadilly

0.22 MILES

The only church (1684) Christopher Wren built from scratch and one of a handful established on a new site (most of the other London churches are…

8. St James’s Palace

0.24 MILES

The striking Tudor gatehouse of St James’s Palace is the only surviving part of a building initiated by the palace-mad Henry VIII in 1531 on the grounds…