Aloft London Excel, City Airport and Docklands, Central London

The huge expanses of water and relatively fresh air are an exciting change from other parts of London. It’s also close to City Airport and Canary Wharf. The area has been revitalised in the past 10 years, with new apartments, shops and restaurants, and the Emirates Air Line, a cable car that takes visitors over the river from the docks to The O2 venue at North Greenwich.

The hotel is connected to the Abu Dhabi-owned ExCel London exhibition centre, on Royal Victoria Dock in London’s Docklands, 11 kilometres from the centre of London.

Inside, the staff are upbeat and helpful. I take my luggage up in the lift, walk over the railway footbridge and skirt the edge of the ExCel centre, before arriving at the funkily designed hotel within a couple of minutes.

I travel to the hotel on the Docklands Light Railway, and get off at Prince Regent station it’s lucky that I consulted the hotel’s website first, because the hotel itself isn’t visible until the last minute and I’ve got a big suitcase.

Aloft London Excel, City Airport and Docklands, Central London