Hotel and Shard Deal: Our Buy A Gift Experience

A couple of weeks ago, Doug and I took a trip to the capital of England and experienced Buy A Gift’s hotel stay and view from the shard deal as a belated birthday getaway.

Annoyingly, I’m one of those people who take hours and hours to decide on experience packs. First I read the deal description, then I read the website’s reviews and then finally, I read the reviews on Trip Advisor. With positive reviews, happy customers, a nice hotel and spectacular views, I was pretty happy with my pick.

We decided to make our trip a mini weekend away for Doug’s birthday and on top of our Buy A Gift experience, ‘The View from The Shard and Overnight Stay at Novotel Hotel City South For Two’, I decided to book us a table at one the restaurants up the shard, Oblix East, before our viewing.

Saturday

As soon as we arrived in London, we headed straight towards Novotel City South. It was a quick journey from Waterloo (well, quickish) and before we knew it, we stumbled across our hotel. Quite literally too. Luckily, the hotel is very close to The Shard – less than 10 minutes away.

The hotel itself was more than we expected. In fact, if I’m honest, I was most nervous about the hotel after seeing a few negative reviews on Trip Advisor before we left. To my delight, however, the 4-star hotel turned out to be one of the best hotel’s I’ve stayed in whilst in London.

The decor was right up our street, we had a lovely welcome, our room was clean, modern and well kitted out (hello see-through bathroom) and the staff couldn’t have been more assistant. It really was a true lil‘ gem.

After we checked in, had a mooch around and dropped off our bags, we decided to head along the Thames which was a short walk down towards the end of the road where we came upon a Spanish festival. It was a lovely day so we decided to make the most of it and explore London on foot – despite the increasingly warm weather. My favourite.

After we made it to Green Park, we decided to hop on a tube and make our way back to the hotel ready for the evening.

Novotel City South was even prettier in the evening with industrial lighting, dark tones, edgy decor, geometric patterns and soft background music. Lovely.

Before we headed up to the 69th floor, I decided to surprise Doug to an evening meal at The Shard’s Oblix East restaurant. He had absolutely no idea and instead, thought we were simply eating out at a restaurant nearby. Oh no no.

The setting itself was breath-taking. The views were simply stunning and luckily, we were sat close enough to the window to enjoy the views. Food-wise, it was pretty average. Doug went with their classic burger and I decided on the seafood linguine. Doug really enjoyed his burger actually, but as for my dish, it lacked in seafood and taste. In all honestly, you pay for the view – not so much the food. Despite this being the case, we still thoroughly enjoyed our evening at Oblix East. I mean, it’s not every day you get to eat up the shard, is it? Just be prepared for average food despite its 5-star appearance and price.

After we finished off our plates and drunk our drinks, we headed back down to the main viewing entrance of The Shard. All we had to do was show our printed voucher and voila, before we knew it we were in a lift on our way up to the 69th floor.

The Shard is a 95-storey super tall skyscraper and is probably one of the most well-recognised structures in London. Despite what people say about the views, you really can’t appreciate the beauty of the skyscraper until you’re up it with the birds. With unparalleled 360-degree views for up to 40 miles, every angle offers a sight of breathtaking beauty.

Overall, I think we spent about an hour and a half up the shard as we watched the sunset, admired the views and helped ourselves to the cocktails on offer. I would 100% recommend a trip up the shard to anybody. Not just for the sheer beauty of the views, but to admire the architecture of London’s most famous skyscraper.

Sunday

The best bit about hotels? The breakfast buffet, without a doubt. Seeing as breakfast is one of our most loved meals, Doug and I couldn’t wait to see what Novotel had to offer for breakfast.

From a pancake station to vegan sausages, Novotel put on a spread with more than plenty to offer everyone. Although I’m usually a sweet person at breakfast, I went for the savoury goods (finished with a pancake or two), whilst Doug tucked into the pancakes, pastries, yoghurts and fruit (I told you we don’t kid around). Despite having to wait for food to be restocked (to be expected on a busy Sunday morning), the breakfast was lovely and just what we needed to fuel us for a day at London Zoo.

After we checked out of the hotel and thanked the staff for helping us print off our Zoo vouchers (what a bunch of stars), we left our suitcases behind reception (to pick up later) and headed out.

I won’t go into detail about the zoo (you can watch our whole trip over on YouTube here instead), but I will say that it’s the best zoo I’ve been to in a long while. From lions to camels, we were entertained at every area.

Buy A Gift Hotel and Shard Stay Experience

Overall, for an experience you’re unlikely to forget, and with the ease of a package deal, I would 100% recommend this gift experience from Buy A Gift. The hotel was more than we expected. The shard was breathtaking and the experience welcomed an relaxing and well-planned weekend break away in London. Perfecto.

PS, this is a gifted review with Buy A Gift but all opinions are my own.