TravelValue: England: London, England: The Belvedere

The Belvedere Hotel

52-54 Norfolk Square

London W2 1RT, United Kingdom

Paddington Station

Phone number: +44 (207) 723-8848

Prices: ££££

"Belvedere" actually comes from Italian, literally meaning "beautiful to see", but translated as "fair sight" or "fair view" when referring to an architectural structure built to take advantage of a scenic view. The view, in this case, over Norfolk Square ain't bad, but the hike up four flights of stairs nearly killed me!

The price sure was right at £59 per night ($81 - double), including VAT and full English breakfast (7am - 9am), that is if you like pork and beans and bacon that looks more like ham for breakfast, but I will save that for a future article.

Surrounding Norfolk Square, a lovely park just a block away from London's busy Paddington Station, these five story Georgian buildings (all hotels) look nearly identical and are all nicely cared for, at least on the outside. The Belvedere is nice with recently renovated rooms and a prefabricated bathroom in the corner, obviously having been built before indoor plumbing, which is small, but functional. Our room was a decent size even with the strange bathroom, having a window overlooking the rooftops, one full bed and one twin, a dresser/desk unit, wardrobe, flat screen TV, and a kettle with cups, glasses, tea, Nescafe, milk and sugar.

They use radiator heating and there is no air conditioning, so take that into account if the forecast is for hot weather, not normally a problem in England, but possible. The beds are comfy, the Wi-Fi fairly fast and the cable (DirectTV) options decent, but we were not in the room enough to utilize the latter two. Breakfast consisted of four slices of toast, butter, jam, coffee and, as mentioned, a full English breakfast, including one egg, one small sausage, some English bacon (ham) and pork and beans ... not bad, not great.

Checkout is quite early, 10:30 AM, and breakfast ends early as well (9 AM). A young Japanese lady was heading down the stairs to breakfast at 9 AM on the button and was turned away, so DO NOT BE LATE! We were told when we checked-in that we could keep our bags in the lobby after checking out if necessary, but would be charged £5 an hour after 2PM if late, so, again, DO NOT BE LATE!

The area and hotel are much nicer than you would expect to find near most European train stations and there is a very good, eclectic variety of restaurants, shops and markets close by. At $81 per night, the hotel was actually quite nice and a great TravelValue, especially considering its proximity to transportation and the fact that it is located in one of the most expensive cities in Europe.

CombatCritic Gives The Belvedere 7 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!