We visited Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park at Christmas and I’ve truly never been anywhere more magical over the festive period. Maybe I never will again… Door staff in pillarbox-red tailcoats and top hats helped us through the grandiose entrance, where a towering decorated tree stood proudly next to a pop-up Gluwein bar. As we checked into the Park suite, we felt truly spoiled. Christmas or not, this is the kind of hotel room that makes you realise life should be celebrated. Ideally here.
In traditional Mandarin Oriental style, the suite’s lounge area is all ornate gilded accents and plush neutral-toned furnishings, and there’s enough space for an invitingly plush sofa to sit bang-smack in the middle of the room, with a desk propped strategically behind it and a huge cinematic TV in front of it. The mirrored mini-bar is a decorative statement in its own right, its drawers home to neat lines of coffee capsules and perfectly placed ceramics, and the fireplace on the opposite wall adds a homely, cosy touch. Windows run the length of the room, and views span Hyde Park. On the streets below, shoppers bustle past on their way to Harrods, stopping in at some of the city’s most Instagrammed coffee-and-cake spots for a sugar fix and a photo-sesh on route.
From high above, I feel worlds away, and I enjoy watching the buzz of the city from the calm of my ‘room’. In the bedroom, an enormous bed and a fitted dressing table with a halo-light mirror and state-of-the-art styling tools. A spacious wardrobe (I can only assume most guests stay here for longer than a night, lucky things) and for our children, two identical wooden cots lined with personalised keepsakes: a towel, a teddy and a tiny toiletries set.
We’re assigned a butler, who we’re told we can contact at any point in the day or night, and we use WhatsApp to order room service, having driven late into the evening with two sleeping babies. It arrives with a flourish on a silver-domed platter, and is served on a round, white-clothed table that’s wheeled in especially for the event. I’ve never had such a fancy bowl of fries and glass of Diet Coke in my life, and it accurately summarises how indulgent it feels to stay somewhere so swanky, Christmas or not. Sarah Leigh Bannerman