Experience London And Scotland Through Two Historic Hotels

From a historic hotel in the historic streets of London, to a playground for leisure in Scottish highlands, Radhika Tandon experiences two lavish sides of British hospitality.

- Radhika Tandon

While staying in the timeless Hotel Café Royal on a recent trip to London, I had the pleasure of experiencing my favourite city from a heady new perspective. It isn’t just the unbeatable location—in the heart of London’s West End. What elevates the Café Royal to a league of its own is the unique blend of its exciting history and a very modern luxe.

The Café Royal began life as a restaurant with a fine wine cellar in the mid-1800s. At the time, Regent Street was coming into its own as the epicentre of all things fashionable, and Café Royal quickly became the favoured haunt of the leaders of London society. Over the years, rooms such as the opulent Pompadour Ballroom were added, hosting everything from boxing matches to fashion shows and weddings. Rare black and white photographs of iconic figures caught in candid moments at the hotel are a priceless documentary of this vibrant past. From Rudyard Kipling to Muhammad Ali, Princess Diana to Elizabeth Taylor—if these walls could talk, they’d have a thousand stories to tell.