The height of luxury in London: Shangri-La The Shard

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Editor’s note: Shangri-La The Shard, London provided TPG with a complimentary two-night stay so that we could get an inside look at the hotel and its amenities. The opinions expressed below are entirely those of the author and weren’t subject to review by the hotel or any external entity.

Unbeatable views of London’s skyline
It’s on the doorstep of some prime London attractions and transit options
Service is full of forethought and care

It’s rare that you can get two tweens and their parents to gasp in unison, but that’s exactly what happened when the elevator doors opened onto the lobby of the Shangri-La The Shard in London.

Occupying 18 floors of the iconic, 1,016-foot-tall Shard tower in London, I expected the views from the 34th-floor lobby to be good, but the first glimpse of the city of London framed by tastefully ornate flower arrangements surpassed all expectations. Surpassing expectations became the theme of my family’s late-spring stay at the Shangri-La The Shard, London, though.

Aside from the views, which are jaw-dropping no matter what angle you’re looking from, the Shangri-La The Shard provides luxurious accommodations, delicious food to suit nearly any taste, incredible amenities and discreet, thoughtful service.

What is the Shangri-La The Shard?

Opened in 2014, the Shangri-La The Shard has 202 rooms and suites and has Asian influences throughout the decor and food offerings as well as plenty of Western touches.

The hotel offers five different types of rooms and six different categories of suites. The ambience is upscale without being too opulent or fussy. The interior design throughout the hotel pays homage to the brand’s Asian roots with Chinese screen motifs and other elements, but also plays up London’s sense of fun with whimsical photos of people, animals and London landmarks in the elevators and hallways.

Where is the Shangri-La The Shard?

The Shangri-La The Shard is literally around the corner from London’s Borough Market, and practically next door to the London Bridge Tube station. The Queen’s Walk and all of its sights, including the HMS Belfast and Tate Modern, are a two-minute stroll away. Tower Bridge is a five-minute walk, and you can walk to the Tower of London in less than 10 minutes.

How to book the Shangri-La The Shard

The hotel hosted my family in two rooms in late March of 2024. Had we paid cash, room rates would have run us $1,892 per room per night before taxes and fees. Altogether, our stay would have cost $7,566 with a nonrefundable prepurchased rate.

Members of the Shangri-La Circle loyalty program can take advantage of slightly lower rates on flexible bookings that allow for cancellations and changes. Circle members can also book packages that include breakfast. Children under 7 who are traveling with Shangri-La Circle members get free breakfast without a package.

The Shangri-La The Shard is part of American Express’ Fine Hotels + Resorts, so cardmembers with The Platinum Card® from American Express or The Business Platinum Card® from American Express who make a booking through Amex Travel will receive benefits like complimentary daily breakfast for two, room upgrades based on availability, a $100 on-property credit to use during their stay and guaranteed late checkout.

The hotel is also part of Capital One’s Premier Collection, however. So if you have either the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card or the Capital One Venture X Business, you can book your stay through Capital One Travel for value-added benefits like free daily breakfast for two, up to $100 in on-property experience credits and room upgrades (if available).

Finally, the Shangri-La The Shard is affiliated with Chase’s The Edit, which is a recent rebranding of its Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection. If you have an eligible card and make your booking through Chase Travel, you can enjoy perks including daily breakfast for two, availability-based room upgrades, early check-in and late checkout based on availability, a $100 property credit to be used during your stay, and a welcome gift. Those with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for stays booked at The Edit properties.

Other cards you can use for The Edit bookings include:

The views are incredible

Since 2013, the Shard has been an iconic, sometimes controversial, part of the London skyline, evoking Sauron’s tower in Mordor or Darth Vader’s castle on Mustafar, depending on what flavor of nerdiness you prefer. With 72 public floors and the Shangri-La occupying floors 34 to 52, the views are a major reason to stay here.

Even on a dreary day, watching boats move up and down the Thames, or using the provided binoculars (with a pamphlet that points out key sights) to check crowds at the Tower of London was a treat. In a bustling city, having unfettered access to those views, instead of having to book the Sky Garden or London Eye, invites you to slow down and savor the feast before your eyes.

To be honest, they could probably put a Motel 6 in the same spot and the views would make staying there worth it. Luckily, there’s nothing Motel 6-esque at all about the Shangri-La.

Shangri-La The Shard is family-friendly

The Shangri-La The Shard is a very family-friendly hotel. I realize that when a two-day stay (during the Easter holiday) costs north of $7,000, saying a hotel is family-friendly may seem like a stretch, but hear me out.

Each staff member who interacted with my kids seemed genuinely happy to have them there. While there wasn’t a kids club, staff members made an effort to speak directly to the children and make their stay more pleasant.

Ting, the main restaurant, has kids menus for all meals and teas. The hotel asked for my children’s names and ages and left personal messages in wipeable markers welcoming them on the window of their room. Each of my children also had a stuffed fox waiting for them on their beds. Why a fox? During the Shard’s construction, a fox climbed the building’s frame and had to be rescued, becoming a mascot of sorts for the building. Amenities like the hotel’s pool are also enough to impress even the most jaded little traveler.

The touches perhaps don’t go far enough to justify spending roughly half of a year’s college tuition at the University of Virginia on a two-night stay, but if you’ve got the scratch and are traveling with young ones, Shangri-La The Shard is very welcoming.

The service is impeccable

The welcoming atmosphere wasn’t just for the kids, however. Every staff member we interacted with during our stay provided friendly, thoughtful and unobtrusive service. They each went the extra mile without calling attention to the fact that they were doing so.

Once our rooms were ready, we got to them only to discover our keys didn’t work. Not only did the front desk clerk apologize, but he also went back to the rooms with us to make sure the new ones he programmed were functioning properly.

The personalized service didn’t stop there, however. When the housekeeper working turndown service noticed my (apparently feral) kids had left their suitcases on the floor, luggage racks appeared magically while we were out of the room.

Another instance? When you enter the hotel from the ground level, you need to go through a security screening that involves having your bags checked. What could have been an annoying experience actually ended up being pleasant. Each time we returned, the security staff did their job unobtrusively and professionally, chatting with us as they checked our bags and wished us a pleasant stay.

The best example of the service came one morning at breakfast, however. We were seated at an east-facing table and (somewhat surprisingly for London) the sun came out. I pulled out my sunglasses and was perfectly happy to pretend that I was an incognito celebrity for the morning when, not 30 seconds later, the motorized shades started to lower and stopped once they had blocked the sun from my face. No one had to be asked to do that, and no fuss was made. The staff was just paying attention, saw a way to make a guest more comfortable and took care of it. That’s the essence of hospitality.

Surprisingly, privacy may be an issue

When you’re sleeping 40-some floors above the ground, you might be surprised that privacy could be an issue. However, the building has missing corners — that is, where a corner room would be, there’s open space (this is veiled by glass, so it isn’t apparent from the outside). Because of the missing corner, rooms at the ends of each floor are in an L formation and you can quite easily see into the rooms you’re sharing that configuration with.

This wasn’t a big deal for my family, since we were the only people on our L. However, the setup meant we could see into the rooms below us, and I assume the rooms above us could see into our rooms. We didn’t see anything more salacious than a Nintendo Switch left out on a desk, but it’s worth keeping in mind that your room may not be as private as you think. You can solve this by closing the motorized shades in your room, but take in the views in your birthday suit at your own risk.

Rooms at Shangri-La The Shard

Beyond the slight issue of privacy, our rooms were exceptional. We had a Deluxe City View room that adjoined a Premier Shard room. The rooms were connected not by a door in a wall, but through a small vestibule off the hall.

That vestibule had a locking door (hence our keys not working initially) that made our stay feel more like we were in a suite than connecting rooms. We had plenty of space, but didn’t need to worry about the kids leaving their room door open to a public hallway.

The kids actually had a larger room than we did. Their Premier Shard room had two single beds as well as a small sitting area looking out the window. My husband and I had a king room that had a table and chairs, but they weren’t situated to take full advantage of the views.

Each room was outfitted with a Nespresso machine and pods, an electric kettle, and a minibar. Robes and slippers were provided in various sizes, including kids sizes. A full line of high-end vegan toiletries and amenities, from bath salts to dental kits by Jo Loves, were also provided.

Sturdy umbrellas that stood up to some pretty terrible London weather were in each closet, as were a shoehorn, lint brush and laundry bag. The bedside table even had a leather catch-all for watches and jewelry.

The beds were exceedingly comfortable, which became a little problematic when we needed to get up for a packed day of sightseeing. The Frette linens were smooth, soft and spotless. Turndown service was provided nightly, and the rooms were also well insulated in terms of sound. I didn’t hear a single noise from other guests while in our rooms.

We were awakened one morning by a bird that had chosen to perch on the side of the building and sing its head off, but we were not awakened by the sun, even with floor-to-ceiling windows. Excellent electronic blackout shades kept light pollution out at night and the sun out in the morning. There were controls for the shades, both by the room’s door and by the bed.

The hotel’s age only became apparent in the lack of power outlets and USB ports, especially by the beds. There was only one outlet on my side of the bed, and none on my husband’s side. The desk had enough outlets for the few devices we brought with us (a phone and an iPad each), but if we had both needed to bring work along, charging would have been an issue.

You’ll be sending pictures of the bathrooms to the group chat

I mentioned our kids’ room being bigger than ours, but where they really beat us was in the bathroom department. I want to be very clear that our bathroom was better than fine — it had a heated towel rack, a toilet with a bidet and heated seat, a huge shower with a rainfall showerhead, and a large tub. It also had plenty of storage and counter space. It was on par with most bathrooms at luxury hotels, but it wasn’t a standout.

The bathroom in the kids’ room, however, blew every other hotel bathroom I have ever seen out of the water. They had all the things we had, but their toilet was in a separate water closet and they had a freestanding tub. In front of a floor-to-ceiling window. Overlooking the Tower Bridge.

There were no arguments about bathing during our entire stay. In fact, my 10-year-old son, who is at an age where bathing isn’t exactly a top priority, ended up taking two baths a day during our stay.

I got to use their tub one night by pulling the “This is for work!” card. Relaxing in the warm water with a glass of Champagne, watching the lights of London fade in and out of the fog is something I will never forget. If you can get a Premier Shard room, you absolutely should.

Dining and drinking at Shangri-La The Shard

The Shard has one restaurant, Ting, and three lounges: Bar 31, Gong and the Sky Lounge. We experienced meals at Ting and drinks at Gong.

Ting

Ting is the main restaurant at the Shangri-La, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and an incredible afternoon tea.

Each morning of our stay we were greeted enthusiastically at the host stand and led to our table past a display with a dozen different newspapers to choose from. Other guests included families like ours, some who looked like couples on getaways, and a few business travelers — or at least people who like to put on a suit and read the Financial Times first thing in the morning. For breakfast, you can order a la carte or go through an extensive buffet. The buffet includes Asian, Middle Eastern, Continental and American dishes, so offerings run the gamut from wonton soup to pancakes and waffles.

Breakfast was included in our stay, and on our first morning I opted for eggs Benedict. I’ll be honest here: Eggs Benedict isn’t my favorite, but I tend to order it while traveling as a handy breakfast comparison tool. Ting’s eggs Benedict was so good, it changed my opinion of the dish. The English muffins were fluffy and toasted to perfection. The Canadian bacon was tender with just the right amount of salt. The hollandaise was rich without being heavy, and the eggs themselves boasted bright orange yolks that oozed appealingly across the entire dish. With a delicious cappuccino on the side, this ended up being my platonic ideal of a breakfast.

My family hit the buffet, with my son and husband carb-loading up on croissants, muffins and hash browns. My daughter had pancakes. The pastries were tantalizing, and the croissants balanced the crisp, flaky outer layers with a chewy inside. The pancakes were fluffy and very rich, and the hash browns were crisped to a golden brown.

For our second breakfast, I took our server’s recommendation and had the wonton soup. It was both light and filling, with an umami-packed broth. The wonton wrappers were just the right consistency: firm without being overly chewy. The stuffing was a delightful mix of pork and green onions. It was a simple dish, but very well prepared; I can see why it’s a popular breakfast choice.

Breakfast was included as part of our stay; it usually costs 45 British pounds ($57) per person unless you book a room with a breakfast package.

Tea at Ting was an experience I will remember for quite a while. Done in partnership with Alex Monroe, a jewelry brand, the tea had a “Bees in Bloom” theme.

The pastries at the top of the tea trays included a bee, an orange and a ladybug, while the showstopper was a chocolate model of the Shard with honeycomb. Our server placed it in the middle of the table and poured water into a lower section of the dish which had dry ice in it, enveloping the sweet little Shard in smoke, like a foggy London day. The servers paused at each table to allow diners time to get their phones ready.

The tea menu included 35 options (an overwhelming number for this Yank) as well as Champagne. I opted for Earl Grey, while my daughter went for a light berry herbal tea. My son had hot chocolate and my husband stuck with the bubbly.

In addition to being a feast for the eyes, this tea was a literal feast. The bottom of the tea tray was dotted with dainty sandwiches including egg and cress, coronation chicken, smoked salmon and roast beef sandwiches. The second tier featured pate as well as sandwiches with a carrot filling. The top layer of sweets included a white chocolate and orange blossom cake (shaped like an orange, naturally), a lemon and lavender cake shaped like a bee, and a chocolate and jasmine tea cake shaped like a ladybug. After we’d made a dent in the tea tray, our server brought our scones, jam and cream, as well as an almond pound cake. Everything was delicious, and I’m glad we didn’t have a dinner reservation that evening because we simply would have been too full.

Tea costs 78 pounds ($99) per person, or anywhere from 88 pounds ($112) to 149 pounds ($190) if you want to add Champagne (which ranges from Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label at the low end to Dom Perignon Brut 2012 at the high end).

One detail I absolutely loved at Ting was the small stools at each table for diners’ handbags. This was an unexpected touch, and one that was thrilling for me because I collect bags and am quite superstitious (“bag on the floor, money out the door”). Having these stools is indicative of the thought and care that infused every part of our stay.

Gong

Gong is a lounge on the 52nd floor of the Shangri-La. It serves an impressive list of cocktails and wine, but the true standout is, once again, the view. You should reserve a slot ahead of time, and on busy nights you are asked to limit your stay to an hour. My husband and I went on a Tuesday night, however, and the staff had no problem with us staying longer.

I ordered the Alter Ego, one of Gong’s signature cocktails, which was a heady mix of rum and plum flavors. My husband had an old-fashioned. Both were delicious. Service at Gong was attentive, with our dishes of little nibbles (mixed nuts, plus some olives) never getting empty, and our server jovially suggesting another round.

Gong is on the side of the building that overlooks the Tower Bridge. We were there on an evening that was perfectly London: a little damp, a little chilly, but overall quiet and calm. Watching the lights of Tower Bridge fade in and out through the fog was an excellent cocktail companion.

The only misstep at Gong was the seating. Our two-person table had one chair and one small ottoman. It was nice not to have an extra chair back potentially blocking the view, but perching on an ottoman isn’t particularly comfortable and doesn’t encourage lingering. Not all tables had this setup, so you might want to request a different type of seat when making your reservation.

Bucket-list amenities

One of the coolest things the Shangri-La The Shard offers is the highest hotel pool in Western Europe, sitting 52 stories above the ground. Making time for a dip is a worthy carveout for your trip, even if you’re only there a short while. The pool itself is not huge, and while you could swim laps, the best use is to simply float and enjoy the view of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

One note on the pool: It is on the same floor as the Gong lounge, and the elevators to the 52nd floor open into the Gong waiting area. There’s a changing area near the pool, which I suggest you use instead of changing in your room. We changed in our rooms and stepped out of the elevators in robes and bathing suits into a group of well-dressed men waiting to be seated at Gong. If you want to avoid a moment like that, bring your suit up and change at the pool.

The pool area has many loungers, tables and chairs, as well as fresh fruit, water and tea available. There’s also a large sauna in the pool area as well as a shower. The only thing missing is a hot tub.

You do need to book in advance for the pool, which ensures it’s not crowded. Kids can’t swim after 6 p.m.

My family had the pool to ourselves during our twilight swim and had an amazing time. I was able to relax in the sauna, which had views of the Thames stretching to Westminster and beyond. Reserving a time for the pool felt awkward and unnecessary at first, but being able to experience the pool privately was worth the preplanning.

Reasons the Shangri-La The Shard might not be for you

The Shangri-La The Shard delivers thoughtful luxury, but the price is as high as the hotel’s pool. If you don’t need the views, you should stay elsewhere.
The vibe of the hotel is Zen-like and quiet, even in the bars. This isn’t the place to stay if you want to party.
If you suffer from acrophobia, do not stay here. The building’s height is apparent almost everywhere you look.

Accessibility

The Shangri-La The Shard London is generally accessible, but it does fall short in a few areas. Hallways are narrower than you might expect, given the building’s relatively recent construction. If you use a large mobility device, you may find the areas outside elevator banks tight, especially if you have bags or other people with you. We also didn’t see a lift in the pool, and a ladder was the only entry point. It’s possible there’s a mobile lift for the pool and the attendant can help guests who need it enter the water. Elevators are large and bright, however, with buttons at an accessible height.

There are accessible accommodations with features including bathrooms with roll-in showers and toilets with grab bars. However, to ensure your room has features you require, you should call the hotel directly to reserve.

Checking out

Shangri-La The Shard London is a top-flight hotel that gives guests a luxury experience that’s thoughtful and demure. Staff members quietly and proactively work to make guests as comfortable as possible. The views are the standout feature, but the understated interiors, incredible amenities and soothing quiet make looking inside well worth it.

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