Our Festive Weekend in London {The Amba Hotel, Winter Wonderland & Kids Cinema Club}

We live thirty minutes outside of London (and I used to travel in every day to go to work), so it’s no surprise that it’s very rare for us to stay in the city overnight. It seems too close for some reason but this weekend we did just that! We packed our over night bag, took the thirty minute train journey into London Victoria and headed over to the new Amba Hotel Marble Arch to check in for the night.

The Amba Hotel opened last month and is a super stylish four star hotel, conveniently located on Oxford Street - literally two minutes from Selfridges and Marble Arch. The staff were so amazingly friendly and our room was tastefully designed, comfortable and above all a really good size. The girls slept on the sofa bed in the living room, while Dom and I slept in the king size bed in the separate bedroom. The suite also had a small kitchen and a complementary minibar.

My Top Five Reasons to Stay at The Amba Hotel

1. Fantastic location for shopping on Oxford Street

2. A really good breakfast that will set you up for the day

3. Friendly staff that really make you feel at home

4. Super comfortable suits that are NOT SMALL! - which is very rare in London

5. Did I mention the free minibar?! Which included Green & Blacks chocolates, beers and soft drinks.

So what did we do while we were in London?

Our first stop had to be Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. I’ve been wanting to take the girls for a few years now, so it was great to be able to take them this weekend. As you can imagine they were utterly blown away by all the attractions, lights, music and general festive atmosphere of the giant fairground.

This magical event, really put us in the Christmas spirit. We visited the incredible Magical Ice Kingdom, which was full of ice sculptures and snow statues. We sat on ice thrones and the girls truly felt like they were Anna and Elsa. It was very cold in there (I’m guessing around -5oC), which meant they kept singing “The cold never bothered me anyway” - for obvious reasons.

After a wonder around and going on a few of the rides, we went on the Giant Wheel, which again was pretty special and gave us an amazing view of the fairground and the city as a whole.

The next day we did a little last minute Christmas shopping before heading over to the Soho Hotel, where we were booked into the Children’s Film Club. The film club includes a delicious buffet lunch (of mini burgers, bowls of pasta, hot dogs, fish and chips and fruit skewers), followed by a film in the sofa filled screening room. This weekend the film on show was The Polar Express, which happens to be one of my favourite Christmas movies (massive Tom Hanks fan). Thankfully, the girls agreed with me - they both loved it too! If I’m honest I wasn’t sure how Poppy was going to be as she’s a little young for some of the screens and themes but she seemed to really enjoy it, as she snuggled into my arm.

Our last stop was the winter roof garden at John Lewis. This is a free attraction that they’ve created to promote their Christmas ‘Man in the Moon’ advert. The roof garden is decorated with snow covered Christmas trees, log cabins and has a fantastic view of Oxford Street and the Christmas lights.

Being almost seven months pregnant, I can tell you that I was quite relieved to arrive home after two full days on my feet. I will now be hibernating at home in Wales until after Christmas with my feet up and a box of chocolates at my side.

‘Staying in’ really will be my new’ going out’ for the next few weeks. I was recently sent a fabulous winter warmer, festive hamper that included, a gorgeously soft and fluffy blanket, a big Christmas candle, some chocolates, a hot water bottle and lots more cosy goodies. This will definitely come in handy as I snuggle up on the sofa to watch all the festive TV highlights (Downton Abbey and Stick Man come to mind), Christmas movies and reruns of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Christmas specials.

How will you be spending your Christmas this year?

Disclosure: Thank you to the Amba Hotel for inviting us to review their new hotel. We honestly did have the most fantastic stay.