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World's Best

Travel + Leisure Readers' 10 Favorite Hotels in London of 2023

Readers voted these iconic hotels as their go-to spots in England's capital in our annual "World’s Best Awards" survey for 2023.

By

Peter Terzian

Published on July 11, 2023

Is it reductive to say that when choosing a hotel in London, you have two options: the past and the future? We don’t think so. As the skyline has risen dramatically over the past couple decades, visitors have been presented with the opportunity to stay at hotels that occupy sleek, modern high-rises with windows that take in the sweeping cityscape below. For example, Shangri-La The Shard, London, the No. 3 winner and a perennial World’s Best Awards favorite, occupies 18 floors of the tallest building in Western Europe. We’ll argue there’s no better way to see London than from the edge of an infinity pool 52 flights above its maze of streets.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 165,000 T+L readers completed the 2023 survey, an increase of nearly 25 percent over pre-pandemic voting levels. A total of more than 685,000 votes were cast across over 8,500 unique properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Rooms/facilities
Location
Service
Food
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

Exterior of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel in London — Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

What Readers Loved

While the advances of the 21st-century beckon, London is a city rooted firmly in tradition, and our readers overwhelmingly opt for the stately and historic. At the Hotel Café Royal, tied in the No. 4 spot this year, you can have afternoon tea in the same bar where Oscar Wilde once liked to hang out. At Brown’s Hotel (No. 10), Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call in London. After his surprise election defeat in 1945, Winston Churchill took rooms at Claridge’s (No. 8). London’s most beloved hotels excel at comfort and service, but they also give us the chance to feel close to other times, other worlds.

The Winner

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park: London, England

Ornate lounge space at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London — Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

In 2018, a fire closed this grand Edwardian building for six months — but one of London’s finest properties has come back better than ever. A reader described it as “a stunning, proper luxury hotel,” noting the “professional service and friendly atmosphere.” Still, the best aspect might be the location: just opposite the peaceful tree-lined pathways of Hyde Park.