In 2025, we finally realized our goal of seeing Wimbledon in person. My dad loves tennis, so for 2026, Leandra set up an account for my parents and watched the secondary market for tickets. After weeks of checking, she managed to snag a pair of Centre Court tickets for the first Saturday, July 4th. We wanted to split our time in London with some time in the countryside, so this year we decided to try the nearby Cotswolds. Lucky for us, we traveled between heat waves, so the weather was warm but not oppressive.
On our trip we stayed at the following:
The Pelham London – Starhotels Collezione
This hotel sits in a great location, right across the street from the South Kensington tube station and within easy walking distance to several major museums.
Check-in was a bit of a frustration. We arrived at 7am and were initially led to believe our room would be ready shortly after noon, but we didn’t actually get in until after 3:00 PM—even though we noticed other arriving groups were being given rooms. The front desk staff definitely could have communicated the status much better.
When we did get to our room, we found it was situated between elevator floors, meaning we had to walk up or down a half-flight of stairs to reach it. That wasn’t a problem for us, but it is certainly a watch-out for anyone with mobility concerns or heavy luggage.
The Wi-Fi was another issue. Upload speeds were completely inconsistent, making it virtually ineffective for our phones, though it fared slightly better on our laptops. When we mentioned it to the front desk, they admitted it was a known problem, but their secondary network was equally unusable. In the end, we managed to connect to the neighboring Ampersand Hotel’s network instead.
The bathroom shower had a confusing array of knobs and featured a half-glass wall, which resulted in water constantly splashing all over the floor. On the plus side, they provided nice towels, robes, and slippers.
Inside the room, the bed was very comfortable, and the thick, light-blocking drapes kept the room impressively dark and quiet at night. We also appreciated the full-sized clothes hangers. However, the AC had a habit of repeatedly turning itself off, and housekeeping was mediocre at best—by our third day, the bathroom wasn’t looking particularly clean. Lastly, the physical room keys were unusually bulky to carry around.
Overall: I doubt I’d return, and would likely choose the Ampersand instead in the future.
The Kings Head, Cirencester
Because the main hotel elevator wasn’t working during our stay, they ended up putting most guests—including us—on the first floor. The Wi-Fi here was outstanding, consistently clocking in at over 200 Mbps for both upload and download.
We did run into a few issues during our stay, mostly around climate control and communication. The AC worked well in our own room initially, but it failed completely in my dad’s room, which required multiple complaints to get addressed. Then, on our final night, our own AC unit wasn’t running nearly as cold as it had been earlier in the week. While the front desk staff were pleasant enough in person, they weren’t very proactive with updates, and several emails sent to the hotel went completely unanswered.
As for the room itself, we noticed several visible stains on the carpet. On the positive side, the room was extremely quiet and we both slept very well.
Breakfast was a real highlight. Rather than a standard buffet, they offered a menu of made-to-order items. The granola with fresh fruit was fantastic, and the French toast was equally excellent.
Public parking was fairly easy around town, never full and within a five minute walk.
Overall: while our experience was mixed, I might consider a return if we are in the area in the future.
