Win a stay at The Langham Hotel, London

2:50am Thursday 2nd August 2007

Living as close as we do to London, we can often overlook it as a location for a weekend break or overnight getaway.

But a couple of days in our fair capital city can serve as a great reminder of how terrific London really is. For goodness sake, we shouldn't let foreign tourists have all the fun.

When it comes to selecting a place to stay it's obviously advisable to pick the best you can afford. But even then there are other factors to consider. If, like me, you prefer to walk as much as possible and don't want to taxi here, there and everywhere, then location is very important.

The Langham Hotel in Portland Place opposite the BBC Broadcasting House - at the top of Regent Street within strolling distance of some of the best shops in the world - is one of the most centrally located of the top hotels in London and surely one of the most comfortable too.

It makes total sense, therefore, that the hotel is currently promoting its Shopaholics Break and it was this that I sampled in May.

Guests of the two-night Shopaholics Break are given the much-coveted Regent Street Privilege Card, which entitles them to a 10 per cent discount at a host of shops, restaurants and bars. The package, which is available at weekends throughout the year, also includes accommodation and full English or Continental breakfast, a welcome drink, a shopping guide to London, access to the health club and pool and an aroma spa pedicure.

Our girly shopping weekend started with a stroll down Regent Street checking out which shops we could use our discounts in and wondering if we were going to have to buy extra luggage to take all our purchases home. We did.

Back at the hotel that evening we headed straight for the recently revamped and reopened Artesian Bar where we perused pages of cocktail concoctions and selected some delicious champagne-based varieties (a Kir Royal and a Bellini) followed by a supper of monkfish and chunky chips and a posh burger with skinny chips. The food in the Artesian is eclectic and tasty and really hit the spot after an afternoon of shopping.

Up early the next morning we headed for the hotel pool (built into the vault of the bank which used to be the hotel's neighbour). There's nothing like a swim for sharpening the appetite and after 100 laps (okay, 10) we went to the club lounge for breakfast. The hotel is split into regular rooms and club rooms. The club guests have their own lounges with giant plasma screen TV, internet access, daily papers and magazines and an open bar where you can help yourself to drinks. A splendid buffet breakfast is set out here and a tempting afternoon tea later on.

On our second day here, after a heavy duty day scanning the shops up and down Oxford Street, we went for a posh afternoon tea in The Artesian. To be accurate it was a Laurent-Perrier Rose Afternoon Tea (coming as it did with a glass of the delicious pink tipple). A choice of several teas was accompanied by teeny weeny sandwiches, a selection of muffins, fruit cake, iced biscuits, macaroons, cup cakes and mousse shots.

Luckily we didn't have to move far after that and only had to make our way to the spa where we were treated to one of the finest pedicures my feet have ever experienced. This was the daddy of all pedicures (lasting an hour and a quarter). My toes were soaked, exfoliated, buffed, creamed and decorated. Bliss.

The Langham is such a central hotel that in the evening we went to a nearby theatre and were back in our club lounge enjoying a night cap ten minutes after the curtain came down. No scrambling for taxis, hanging around the train station, and arriving home in the wee hours.

No, we were cuddled up in the exquisitely comfortable beds dreaming of the bargains we'd secured and the extra day of shopping ahead.

You could win bed and breakfast for two at The Langham Hotel (including dinner for two in their Artesian Bar with either cocktails before your meal or a bottle of house wine with your meal) by entering our competition by August 31.

The Langham Shopaholics' Break is priced at £299 (£149.50 per person) per night and is based on two people sharing a twin or double room.

Other packages are also available including an offer of two Executive or Langham Club rooms for a rate of £349 for the two per night. Another package includes breakfast, complimentary access to the Langham Health Club & Spa, and two free movies in your room during your stay.

Some of these packages are available Thursday to Monday and others on all days during holiday season until 10th September (subject to availability).

For more information or to book any package call 020 7636 1000.

By Debra Aspinall