E what a good ride
Walking in to the reception you are hit by the grandeur of the hotel. Receptionists check you in in super quick time.
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
You will know from Monopoly that Park Lane is famously expensive. It is also a great location. You can stroll in Hyde Park or jump on the Tube and be anywhere in London in minutes. Buckingham Palace and the Royal Albert Hall are only half a mile away. The V&A Museum, the London Eye and Parliament are all pretty close.
THE ROOM
There are 453 spacious rooms available in this tower of a hotel. We stayed in a deluxe room and had a great view of Hyde Park. No need to pack your own hairdryer or bathrobe as all you need is provided. Plus much-needed airconditioning. Galvin at Windows, on the 28th floor, is a Michelin-starred restaurant and bar serving French haute cuisine with 360 degree views of London. Another option is Trader Vic’s, a Polynesian-inspired restaurant and home to the Mai Tai cocktail. You can also taste modern British cuisine at the Podium restaurant and bar. I can highly recommend the chocolate afternoon tea. We had a wonderful time. It tasted delicious and was presented beautifully. If you want to carry on late into the evening there is CC Bar serving cocktails. And Drama offers a clubbing experience, also with cocktails.
THE SERVICE
Faultless. Really friendly and helpful staff and super quick when I needed extra pillows.
THE SCENE
Great location, good access to lots of nearby attractions yet feels exclusive and quiet.
LOVED
The delicious afternoon tea fit for a queen and the view from the room.
HATED
Not really hated but frustrated by lack of a phone charging plug by the bedside.
VERDICT
A great place – comfortable and very grand.
BOTTOM LINE
Rooms from £309pp per night.
CHECK IT OUT THE FOOD
www.hilton.com/londonparklane. IF you fancy a cycling holiday but fear your fitness is not up to scratch you can now do it on an electric bike. Freewheel holidays has e-bikes for 60 of its 90 European tours which have a 30-mile range between charges. Battery power could also help weaker family members keep up with a fit cyclist. Call 0800 755 5385 or see freewheelholidays.co.uk. EUROPE’S lakes can get overlooked in the dash for the beach, but they have qualities you don’t see at the coast – and you won’t get sand in your pants. Watery sisters Bled and Bohinj are the bestvalue lakes in Europe. Lake Bled is the glitzier, with its church-topped island, luxury hotels and the spa resort itself. But we’d recommend crystal clear Lake Bohinj, in the Triglav national park, where Agatha Christie used to take her holidays. Asked if she was writing a book there, she said it was “too beautiful for murder”. Bohinj hotels may be simple, but there’ll be alpine meadows, wildflowers, cable cars and boat rides. Plus the option to visit Bled on a spectacular rural railway, which sometimes has steam trains in summer. GO FOR IT: Inghams offers a week, half board, in Bohinj’s four star Hotel Kristal, including flights, from £594pp. See inghams.co.uk. Setting out on Lake Lucerne is a bit like stepping into a glamorous film set. Firstly there’s Lucerne itself, with its air of oldfashioned refinement and famous 14th century wooden bridge. Several of the lake boats which depart from here – included in the price of a Swiss Travel Pass – are antique paddlesteamers, complete with white-linen waiter-service restaurants on board. They stop off at Lucerne’s sandy Lido, its belle epoque waterside towns such as Weggis and Vitznau, rich with expensive fish restaurants. They also connect at Alpnachstad which has the steepest funicular in the world, also included in the Travel Pass, running to the top of Mount Pilatus. GO FOR IT: Three nights in Lucerne, in a three star hotel with flights from Luton, from £658 with Thomson, thomsonlakes.co.uk. Details of the boat services are at lakelucerne.ch/en. Up to a thousand lakes and watercourses are nestled in the soft woodland and rolling agricultural land of Mecklenburg, some 50 miles north of Berlin. These living waterways, many with handsome water-facing towns, have long been a mecca for German boating holidays. Their appeal is more Norfolk Broads than Lake District – a watery world of gentle adventure, sometimes reed-fringed, broad and lumpy, at other times placid, hemmed in by necklaces of willow and pillows of land. The biggest lake is Müritz, Germany’s second largest, where fishermen still work their nets. GO FOR IT: Cabin cruiser hire is available from Kuhnle-Tours, who have a base on Müritz and one in Berlin. A sleeps-five Vetus 900 costs £1,250 a week. kuhnle-tours.com. This lake, in the foothills of the Alps, is supposedly the cleanest in western Europe. Fortunately its strict protections for water quality don’t limit the range of watersports on offer. The lake has a dozen excellent beaches, is within easy reach of Geneva and the spa town of Aix-les-Bains, and its nearby mountains include Mont Blanc. Meanwhile nearby Lake Geneva is the home of Evian, famous for its pure spring water. GO FOR IT: Newmarket Holidays’ Lake Annecy, Chamonix and Mont Blanc combines lakes and W What better than a gentle pedal along a grassy sh shore, plunging into crystal clear water to cool do down whenever you feel the need? Fly to Graz to enjoy the multiple lakes – the German word is See – in Carinthia, southern Austria. They may be mountain-fed, but they warm up beautifully in summer. Best of the bunch are the M Millstattersee and Wörthersee, with small re resorts, grassy campsites and public beaches. GOG FOR IT: Wheel2Wheel’s Carinthian Lakes is an eight-day self-guided holiday which starts an and ends in Villach, taking in half a dozen lakes en route. The £579pp price includes bike hire,