Ramada Hotel and Suites, London Docklands

I don’t often stay in London but after my shocking stay at Ye Old Crown I decided to treat myself for the Zumba Convention at the Excel - unfortunately I had an equally bad first night at this hotel and can’t recommend it.

I wrote the review into my blog about the whole convention - on this occasion my choice of hotel really had me in tears again as it was meant to support a great weekend for me, but instead I found myself dreading going back there and finally making a room switch when I should have been showering and eating (ah showering and eating - the things my life revolves around when I’m instructing!)

Fox and Grapes, Wimbledon Common is a much nicer alternative.  Now I can’t officially recommend this hotel as I haven’t actually stayed here - but I booked my friends in recently and they had an amazing stay and the room was divine - small but boutique hotel quality and amazing walk-in shower.  Downstairs is a gastro pub, and there are also many great places to eat close by.  The only issue is that it is practically on Wimbledon Common so it’s dark at night - like staying in a country pub on the edge of London - but 5 minutes from Wimbledon Village which is a cosmopolitan London type village and one of my favourite haunts.  It’s right next door to Cannizaro Park and about 10-15 minutes walk from the stunning Buddhapadipa Temple.  Buses go regularly from here to Putney and Wimbledon so if you have to be in London be here.

I love Tripadvisor - it’s one of my most used websites for double checking those glam website photos of hotels (I don’t use it so much for spas because I find it’s very much based on people’s expectations which seem to be all over the place).  Anyhoo I really wanted to warn anyone booking about their hell room in which I stayed on my first night - avoid at all costs:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186338-d289306-r125841211-Ramada_Hotel_and_Suites_London_Docklands-London_England.html

Don’t get me wrong, some of these are excellent, but I couldn’t, in good conscience give them a Pearl Recommendation.  Sometimes they were just beaten to the punch, or I couldn’t decide a clear winner, other times they had a lot right, but I felt they just weren’t there.  I don’t really want to give bad reviews, but anything I felt was really best avoided you’ll find in the Jellyfish section.