The Trafalgar – Hilton’s Trafalgar Square Hotel

We really struggled over our decision to stay at “The Trafalgar” – a highly modernized Hilton hotel in Trafalgar Square that does not highly publicize its Hilton Brand. The reviews were somewhat mixed and there were several other more traditional Hiltons just a couple miles away. In the end, we selected it for the price / value ratio (we were staying free on HHonors points) and the centralized location that it enjoys to many of the major sites of London.

Our room is in the picture above pointed out with the red arrow.

The welcome was just as we expected per the reviews that we read on TripAdvisor (link). The hotel was hard to recognize (although I driver knew it well) and the only marking on the building showed “The Trafalgar” in small black letters over the door. Other than that marking, you could not tell it was a hotel.
Once entering, it is similarly confusing. As you come up stairs you enter a bar, with a concierge desk (although not identified as such). In the bar, there are a couple of turntables where the DJ spins tracks during the evening. Off in the corned to the left, there are four workstations facing each other where the hotel staff is at. It is not a front desk experience per say, but if you know what you are looking for – it is easy.

I believe that the modern design and layout actually significantly takes away from the charm of this hotel and believe it would be more successful in a traditional format and offerings. But, who am I to say such things – it is not like I own a hotel chain or anything.

At check-in, we received a complimentary upgrade to room #203, which has to be one of the best of the hotel. The view to Trafalgar Square is hard to beat. The only frustrating part is that when I arrived in my room, I realized I did not receive free complimentary breakfast coupons. I called down to the desk and they advised me that Diamond members are entitled to an upgraded room, complimentary breakfast, or complimentary drinks. The only rub here is that I was not asked which I preferred at check-in. Our preference is clearly for the room and the view, so I did not ask to be moved. It would have been nice to be asked or know that the others were an option.


The point above is contrary to many reviews I have read. Other reviews have stated that no complimentary breakfast is available, which is not true for Hilton HHonors Diamond members. You can avoid the ₤15.50 ($30 US) per person breakfast charge if that is your choice. Just make sure to declare that at the check-in time to receive your preference. If not, as with us – there are several relatively reasonable cafés in the area, including the ever preset Pret A Manger, a chain where you can get bread items, fruit, and an assortment of coffees for under ₤10 for two in the morning.

The location of the Trafalgar Hotel is tough to beat. We were able to access Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, the Theatre District / TKTS, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Westminster Abbey with very little walking effort. If you enjoy walking about, plus being located in the same square as the British National Gallery, you will love the centralized location. Plus “The Original Tour” office for the bus tour is right around the corner.

In terms of the staff, they were generally excellent for us. Courteous, helpful, and quick to respond to needs or questions that we have. We even received a nice plate of fruit and sparkling water on our first evening in the hotel. On the night we realized we missed our Eurostar train from London to Paris, we got great attention from both staff and the concierge to get us back on track again. They went out of their way to help solve our problem and that was greatly appreciated and rewarded with tips.

The other notion that I would like to dispel from the reviews that I have read is that the drinks offered are overly expensive. While they are definitely not cheap, they are not out of line with other offerings in London. While by United States standards, $10-12 drinks may look expensive, you would be hard pressed to find a much better value in London outside of the pub scene.

The only real problem that we experienced was the noise level in our room. Trafalgar Square is definitely one of the busiest intersections in all of London. There are multiple bus stops, many of them right outside of the hotel. It’s a happening place, and it should be expected. In our first room #203, which may perhaps be the room with the best view in the hotel – had two windows, both facing towards the square that let a lot of the noise in.

While I am usually a sound sleeper, the frequent sounds of buses, traffic, and police sirens woke me up on several occasions over the three nights we stayed there. I used earplugs successfully on our last night in #203 and slept the best during that stay. On our fourth and unexpected night we were in room #403, which only had one window. The noise was greatly reduced, and with just the fan running in the room – I had no problems sleeping.

With being said, if you are a light sleeper and even a moderate to heavy sleeper – and you value your rest more than the view, then I recommend avoiding rooms #103, #203, and #303. They would be the rooms with the highest noise exposure to Trafalgar Square given the noise levels.

The other item worth mentioning is that Internet price is outrageous here ₤15/day ($30 US) or ₤75/week ($150). More on Internet access in London here

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Hilton HHonors Diamond VIP Status, Finally!

After six months of heavily traveling, I "finally" obtained the elusive Hilton HHonors Diamond VIP status today. What does it mean? There are a few additional perks around bonus points, room upgrades, and availability for any hotel with a reasonable amount of notice.

Those are pretty good perks, but it took a little arm twisting from Hilton HHonors to get the upgrade to Diamond status. The reason, if you travel towards the end of a month, and points are granted 72 hours after your stay towards the end of the month, the system does not re-calculate your status once they are applied, especially in the next month.

For example, my stay in San Francisco on Saturday night pushed me into the Diamond Hilton HHonors bracket. However, since the points did not register until today, when calculating my base points or nights (60 nights or 100,000 base points) it was not included retroactively for the period ending September 30th.

After a couple of emails, Hilton HHonors hooked me up with the upgrade. There should be word to the wise here. Hilton really should change their system to recalculate qualifications each time points, nights or stays are recorded. Currently, it appears that they are only time-based which means people are potentially loosing the status they deserve!

That being said, I am definitely looking forward to an upcoming personal trips to Maui in February and Italy next summer. Not only will they be free, but if they are anything like out trip to Waikiki last February, with the Hilton HHonors Gold VIP -- we will have both a great room and a great time! In previous visits, those had been due to the Gold status granted by the American Express HHonors card.

If you were not aware of the Hilton HHonors American Express card, that's an easy and convenient way to get Hilton HHonors Gold status.

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Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort – Our Opinion

We really enjoyed this week’s stay at the Hilton resort here in Cancun, Mexico. As with any resort hotel stay, there are both good and bad things to say about them. In addition, among the other Hilton properties that we have stayed at – we most closely associate this with the Hilton Hawaiian Village from a comparison perspective.



Overall, this is a very good resort and is worth considering for any vacation. Especially if you want to stay close to the beach, pool, or do a lot of activities outside the Center of Cancun.

The concierge staff here makes that stay at the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort that much better. At every opportunity, including before one even arrives – they take very good care of you. We were able to have questions answered, opinions provided on tour options, and reservations made in very quick order. This staff is definitely a huge plus for this hotel.

The beach and pools are perhaps the best part about the resort. They are huge, spacious, and there is plenty of available space poolside in and out of the sun. Shaded cabanas both by the pool and by the beach are free without any charges in a first-come-first-serve manner. This is a big advantage that this property has over the Hilton Hawaiian Village where space, including shade is tough to come by even during the slow season. And if in Hawaii you want to spend the day on the beach, expect to shell out $50 for a couple of chairs and an umbrella. The poolside service staff and bar are relatively timely and friendly which is not always the case at resorts. And, there are a bunch of activities all poolside during the day for kids and adults alike including water aerobics, water volleyball, and ping-pong.

In terms of the property, restaurants, and rooms – they are all relatively expansive and impressive – as the hotel is somewhat of a sprawling mega-resort. The rooms themselves are fairly typical Hilton rooms with all the standard amenities, standard United States plugs, and generally over-sized balconies. The restaurants serve a variety of inter-continental foods including Sushi, Italian, Mexican, and American flavors.

If you want to take a little time to look at the negatives of the resort, here they are:

1. Distance from Cancun Central forces a bus ride ($1.30 for two each way) or a cab ride ($10 each way) to get anywhere without walking approximately 4-5 km (2-3 miles). It can be somewhat inconvenient.
2. Rooms and hallways can be very loud, especially in the upgrade wing. Because of the Mexican themes with the use of all tile and marble flooring in rooms and hallways you hear everything that goes on in the hallway as well as potentially everything above you such as chair moving. That means if someone comes in loudly and shuts their door at 2:00am, you are likely to hear it. The best way we found to mitigate this was by making sure the fan in our room was running on high anytime we are in there. The only way to fix this would to be change the setup of the rooms and hallways with materials that better absorb sound.
3. The free breakfast that HHonors Gold or Diamond members receive is only the continental buffet. This is the way that Hilton Hawaiian Village used to be and after a lot of complaints did away with this as well as the tip not being included. Having to upgrade for “meat” or other items seems a lot like hitting people up for nickels and dimes. It should just be a free breakfast.
4. Linens are clean, but not always “clean”. What we mean by this is that mainly the towels will have some stains on them. They are definitely clean, but do not appear to be as “new” because of some stains from water, rust or what have you. Normally you would expect these to be re-bleached or thrown out.

Other than those, the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort is an excellent place to spend your vacation – on par with a resort like the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Hawaii. In some areas it is better and other areas it is not. However, definitely an enjoyable place to spend the week – even better if it is free with HHonors points!

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