The teas, the hotels, the stars, the Row and the season, with a car that is waiting.
London does luxury quietly: the best of it is a table, a tailor and a car that is waiting when you come out. This is the short list, with what each costs and how to book it, plus the executive cars and V-Class that get you between them at a fixed price.
The grand five: Claridge's, the Connaught, the Savoy, the Ritz and the Dorchester; the newer set: the Peninsula (Hyde Park Corner), Raffles at the OWO (Whitehall), the Emory (Knightsbridge). Afternoon tea at any of them is £75 to £95 and needs booking two to four weeks ahead; the Ritz asks for a jacket. Rooms from about £700; suites from £2,000. Most will arrange a car, at their price; ours is fixed and usually half.
Three Michelin stars: Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (Chelsea), Core by Clare Smyth (Notting Hill), Sketch Lecture Room (Mayfair), Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, Hélène Darroze at the Connaught. Tasting menus £200 to £300 a head before wine; lunch menus are the way in. For the room rather than the stars: the Wolseley, Scott's, the River Café, Sessions Arts Club. Book at the 30-day release, at 09:00.
A bespoke suit on Savile Row (Huntsman, Anderson & Sheppard, Henry Poole) is from about £5,000 and three fittings over three months; made-to-measure from £1,500 in six weeks. Bond Street for jewellery and the maisons, Jermyn Street for shirts and shoes, Burlington Arcade for the rest. Harrods and Selfridges offer personal shopping by appointment, free with a minimum spend. See the London shopping guide.
The Chelsea Flower Show (late May), Royal Ascot (mid June, dress code), Wimbledon (late June to mid July, the Queue or debentures), Henley Royal Regatta (early July), Glyndebourne (May to August, black tie, picnic), the Proms (July to September, the cheap tickets are the best). Cars to Ascot, Wimbledon and Henley are fixed-price with a driver who waits; book a month ahead for the finals.
Executive saloons (Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5 Series) and Mercedes V-Class for up to seven, drivers in suits, water in the car, meet and greet with a name board at every airport. Fixed price per journey, or as-directed by the hour for a day of fittings, tea and the opera. Heathrow to Mayfair in an executive car is about £115; a V-Class about £130. Corporate accounts with monthly invoicing are available for family offices and PAs. Related: the Thames, best time to visit.
Afternoon tea at the Ritz or Claridge's, a suite at the Savoy, a private view at the Royal Opera House, dinner at a three-star (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Core, Sketch), a tailor on Savile Row, a Bentley or V-Class for the day, and Wimbledon or Ascot in season.
Yes: executive saloons (Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5) and Mercedes V-Class for up to seven, fixed price by the journey or as-directed by the hour, with a driver in a suit and meet-and-greet at every airport.
As-directed hire is quoted by the hour with a minimum; a full day in an executive saloon is typically £350 to £500 plus any parking. Message WhatsApp with dates for a fixed quote.
It is standard on every airport booking, at no extra cost, in every terminal at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City.
Terminal confirmed from your flight number, pickup timed backwards from check-in or tracked forward from landing, name board standing where you exit — London's entire airport system run the way it should have always worked. Sixty seconds books any of it.
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