The best child-free retreats in London
- Live like a bachelor in Notting Hill at the Laslett — from £283
- Optimise sleep at Mandarin Oriental, Mayfair — from £1,000
- Health with a side of hedonism at 1 Hotel Mayfair — from £500
- Culture at the Four Seasons Park Lane — from £750
- Sustainable wellness retreat at Inhabit Queen’s Gardens — from £178
Wracked with guilt and exhaustion from the extensive childcare communications required for a two-day Provencal wedding, I made an oath to strip things back and keep any Lady Sackville-style, parental bolting antics on home turf.
As a heavily pregnant mother of two, the laborious efforts to have others cover my children's’ various clubs, lifts and general life routine simply doesn’t wash for luggage-laden Heathrow queues and a few pricey hours of Autumn sunshine. No, I’ve since discovered that the best way to fill up my empty cup is a 24 hour jolly no more than a short cab ride away.
London is well-equipped to pamper weary parents in its world-leading spas and plush hotels, to give their bodies a reboot with top-drawer fitness classes and to re-aquaint them with a sense of self through creative workshops and lively bars (remember those).
So with those 24 hours in the bank, courtesy of your partner, mother, father, sister, brother, heroic friend or distant relative, here are five sensational ways to maximise that sacred me time in London.
Live like a bachelor in Notting Hill at the Laslett
Spanning five handsome, stucco-fronted townhouses on Notting Hill’s Pembridge Gardens, the Laslett is a neighbourhood boutique hotel named after Rhaune Laslett (founder of Notting Hill Carnival), that channels the bohemian, arty spirit of this leafy district.
Local art adorns the walls of a brooding library and the Henderson Bar and Kitchen, where parquet floors, retro velvet benches and mid century furniture paint a retro, masculine picture. The Laslett took me into its warm embrace one recently brittle, autumnal morning, thawing my body in piping hot heritage baths, and nourishing my abused, Penguin-for-breakfast stomach with hearty chicken salads and smashed beans on flatbread.
Beneath the crisp white sheets and the amber glow of the rooms’ Tom Dixon lamps, I managed two grand chapters of a book that has been lying idly by my pillow for months. From these pied-a-terre-style rooms, guests can scurry up Portobello for treasure hunts, or plod a little further as we did to Golborne Road, to peruse Muirshin Durkin’s antique furniture, try on pre-loved Gucci at Found & Vision then sink our chops into Layla’s wildly delicious almond pastries.
The Canteen’s Fat Badger (thefatbadgerw10.com) effortlessly reignites that pre-parent excitement for an evening out , while Enrica Rocca’s (enricarocca.com) unassuming side door is where to head for an Italian cooking class. And any excess can be marched back up the Portobello (following the Laslett’s haute sausage patty brioche bun breakfast) to chic fitness joint, The Method (themethod.com) on Westbourne Grove, or, stay put at Wellness at The Laslett to depuff with an OSKIA skincare facial and remedial stint in the Ozone Sauna.
From £283; book it here
Optimise sleep at Mandarin Oriental, Mayfair
The joy of a London spa break, for Londoners, is that all the faff and costs of travel can be pooled into an even more elevated level of pampering. Mandarin Oriental’s new Hanover Square number has mastered the art. Parents hanging by a thread can check into this two-floor sanctuary (just off Oxford Circus) for East-meets-West pummellings as part of an Ultimate Sleep Retreat package.
BodySpace Reset and Restore yoga sessions promises to calm the nervous system, along with a two-hour Tranquility of Mayfair treatment (featuring massage and binaural vibroacoustic therapy), and long-overdue down time in the steam rooms, saunas and vitality pools. Bodies accustomed to crouching over smalls can be unfolded and stretched out in the dark and moody 25-metre indoor pool, along which cloud-soft sun loungers line-up to transport you to warmer climes.
Read more: best adults-only hotels in Europe — from £160
Once lathered in body lotions and potions from the changing rooms, guests can drift back to ludicrously comfortable beds, where Mandarin Oriental dials up the turn-down tea service with an exclusive Sleep Tea blend. Sweet dreams.
From £1,000 per night; book it here
Health with a side of hedonism at 1 Hotel Mayfair
Svelte in its mid-century coat and smothered in greenery, 1 Hotel Mayfair strikes the eco-luxe balance.
There’s the hedonistic gents’ club exclusivity, the low lighting, the sexiness. Then, quite abruptly, a living plant wall, an eco-loo, a placard singing sustainable principles. Interiors don’t twist too far into hemp territory, but rather hone in on that creamy-toned, soothingly pared down Mayfair aesthetic the punters come for. But it’s very much a bastion of biophilic architecture and design, a few steps away from the Ritz and Bond Street’s fine jewellers.
A fittingly urban spot then to reconnect with nature, without contending with the M25. I checked in to escape the domestic drudgery of home for a blissful 24 hours, and to take my third baby bump for some much-needed pampering (the pocket-sized Bamford spa’s pregnancy massages are divine and generously long). If luxury has rebranded itself as stolen moments of peace since having two children, a yoga session and afternoon massage in the spa followed by a siesta in a linen-louche hotel suite overlooking Green Park can only be described as nirvana.
Add the nourishing, morish superfood salad and pumped-with-goodness green juice room service, and daytime TV, and there really is little reason to leave the chic, minimalist, confines of the room. Except, that is, for Chef Tom Sellers’ Dovetale downstairs: a suave, caramel-hued design den plating up moreish Dorset crab tarts, lobster linguine, and pork belly bites. Settle in with caviar and Billecart-Salmon Le Réserve – makes a nice change from the kids’ hummus and crudite hors d’oeuvre.
From £500 per night; book it here
Culture at the Four Seasons Park Lane
Positioned on the fringes of Mayfair, with bird’s eye views over Hyde Park, Four Seasons Park Lane lifts worn-out parents high above the daily grind, up into the clouds and onto a cushioned therapy bed for an Omorovicza full body massage or Cellcosmet facial. They’d be missing a trick, not to place their shiny, contemporary spa on the 10th floor, for the views (those from the sauna and steam are particularly impressive) but also the ethereal light that seems to only exist high above the city soot.
As such, the vitality pool sparkles in the sunshine – the ultimate spot to stew in and catch up with a friend, brother, sister, mother. Downstairs, the hotel’s Michelin-starred Pavyllon props diners up at the bar for tapas-style lunch – artistic enough without feeling pretentiously alchemic and foam-focused, and finely tuned with crisp white wine.
But it’s Four Seasons Park Lane’s clever partnership with the V&A that makes this escape particularly special, satiating parents’ lust for a blockbuster exhibition (even sold out numbers such as the much-lauded Marie Antoinette exhibition).
Subdued, modern rooms, flooded with light, are heavenly cocoons to recuperate in for 8+ hours of unbroken sleep, and the protein smoothie, quinoa and chia porridge, sliced fruit healthy breakfast in bed is a must for parents keen to report in for duty feeling fully recharged and glowing with gut goodness.
From £750 per night, including breakfast; book it here
Sustainable wellness retreat at Inhabit Queen’s Gardens
It’s hard to believe this shoulder-lowering, radically sustainable hotel exists ten minutes from Paddington’s bustle. Indeed, Inhabit Queen’s Gardens prides itself on plonking its soothing Scandinavian design right in the heart of the city. Eco-inclined parents-on-the-run can lean into furniture designed by Goldfinger (they only source sustainable timber), swan about aimlessly on carpets crafted from fishing nets and tuck into delicious, plant-centric menus by Devon-based wellness aficionados, Yeotown.
The wellness timetables are cleverly designed to weave into the day (a morning meditation session, a pre-supper yoga sweat), and along with the spa’s GAIA treatments, essentially offer a pick n’ mix wellness retreat. Alternatively, guests on nightly rates from £178 and above can book the spa packages, receiving a jammy £100 to spend on treatments during their stay and a nutrition-packed, healthy Yeotown breakfast (think rhubarb and strawberry french toast and almond butter acai bowls).
From £178; book it here
