Westminster Abbey
Several deals are offering clients the chance to watch the royal wedding procession head to Westminster Abbey.

London will be a huge destination over the next two years, with numerous once-in-a-lifetime events in the pipeline. Before the Olympics and Jubilee of 2012, the city will see the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April, and everyone is hurrying to get ready for the festivities. Naturally, the event will attract visitors from around the world, and hotels and tour operators are offering special rates and deals for the occasion. Whether your clients want to stand on the streets and watch the procession live or stay indoors to catch the ceremony on a big-screen TV, there are options for everyone.

The Ritz London has a long association with royalty: Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 80th birthday there a few years ago. The hotel is offering special rates for the weekend of April 29, starting at $1,233 per room per night for an Executive King room. (A minimum three-night stay is required.)

One Aldwych has a Modern Romance package for couples that includes an overnight stay, breakfast for two, champagne upon arrival and for toasting the royal couple during their procession to Westminster Abbey, dinner and gifts. The package costs $768.

While details are scarce at the moment, we hear a package from The May Fair will include a three-night minimum stay, a “unique high-end dining experience” and royal wedding-inspired souvenirs. The Savoy, which made headlines last year with its triumphant return, does not have any specific royal packages lined up at the moment, we’re told, but there is a three-night minimum stay over the royal wedding weekend. At present, rooms are priced from $845.

 
 

St. James’s Hotel and Club is offering a Mixing with the Royals package that is good through the end of May, just in case your clients can’t be there in April. The package begins at $727 per room and includes an overnight stay in a Deluxe room, full English Breakfast, Royal Afternoon Tea for two (sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and homemade preserves, lemon cake, Dundee cake, Battenberg cake and more, all prepared by Executive Chef William Drabble) and a two-hour walking tour of the royal palaces in the old palace quarter, led by London Walks.

The Royal Garden Hotel’s Royal Wedding Package will be available from April 28-May 1 and comes with a three-night stay, full English Breakfast, a special Royal Afternoon Tea for two and a pair of entry tickets to the neighboring Kensington Palace. The package has been priced from $448 per night for a King Room or from $528 for a Garden Room with a three-night minimum stay.

Kensington Tours has three packages to London for the royal wedding, all of which include a dedicated guide to make sure guests get the most out of the trip. On April 29, guests can join the onlookers on the procession route as the couple heads to Westminster Abbey.

The eight-day Royal Wedding Tour costs $2,800 per person and includes a personal chauffeur and vehicle for private guided tours of Windsor and Stonehenge, a stay in a four-star hotel as well as private airport transfers. The eight-day Royal Wedding in Luxury Tour costs $7,560 per person and among its highlights are a private viewing of the Crown Jewels, a champagne flight on the London Eye and private guided tours of Windsor and Stonehenge. Guests will stay in five-star accommodations.

In addition to these two tours, Kensington can also create a bespoke trip for clients. For example, after taking part in the celebrations journey to Berkshire where Middleton grew up, head to Scotland where William and Kate met at St. Andrews University or travel to Anglesey in North Wales where they will live after tying the knot. (For true royalty aficionados, Kensington can even organize a private safari to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya where the couple got engaged.)

Door2Tour’s Royal Wedding tour begins April 28. The tour includes two nights (and breakfast) in a Greater London hotel, return coach travel throughout, coach rides to and from London for shopping on the first day and to watch the procession on the second as well as a visit to Windsor. Price per person is $223 based on two people sharing a twin- or double-bedded room.

British Airways has come up with several air-and-hotel deals for the wedding starting at $865, with guests staying at such hotels as the Grange Holborn, the Holiday Inn London Regent’s Park, the Royal National and Pembury.

As of press time, all of these deals were valid and available, but book interested clients soon as rooms might disappear quickly.