Mick Gannon got a taste of cool living when he stayed at one of the trendiest hotels in London.

AFTER a weekend in The Halkin you could be forgiven for thinking that you have made the big time.

Situated in the heart of London in a quiet side street off Hyde Park Corner, this contemporary oasis is where the rich and trendy visiting London choose to stay.

The Halkin's Georgian facade looks like any of the other embassy buildings in the Belgravia district but inside it is a different matter.

Conceived, created and owned by fashion guru Christina Ong, The Halkin has been listed as one of London's trendiest hotels. Its post-modern interior creates an impression of space and tranquillity and was designed by the Italian architects Laboratorio Associati of Milan.

The serenity of the design and the faultless service on offer creates a feeling of being inside a bubble, away from the hustle and bustle of one of the world's busiest cities. With only 41 individually designed rooms, it plays on its exclusivity. Each of its floors is designed along the themes of water, air, fire and earth.

This is a seriously cool place.

My other half reckons she could be royalty - I call her the Duchess - but in any case the wonderful staff treated us as such.

Our cases were delivered to our room along with a complementary drink (always a nice touch) and nothing was too much trouble, even carrying the Duchess' case, no mean feat.

Also it was lucky that we were escorted to our room as each door is hardly distinguishable from the wall, with only a number and a key hole to mark it and we could have been wandering around our fire-themed corridor for hours searching for the room. Once inside and on our own the Duchess' jaw had to be scraped off the floor, as the interior of the room was like nothing she had seen before.

With cutting edge technology (she had a field day with the bedside touchscreen control gadget), wonderfully modern decoration and a marble bathroom with sunken bath and walk-in shower, we felt as if we had died and gone to hotel heaven.

If it hadn't been for a copy of Hello magazine as bait, I don't think I would've been able to entice the Duchess out of there for long enough to hit the London tourist trail.

Downstairs the post-modern feel is continued in the restaurant, Nahm, the only Michelin-starred Thai restaurant in the world, which was worth an entire feature on its own, it must be said. That style is also present in the funky bar, where plenty of beautiful people meet and greet before heading out to the night-spots.

Of course, this sort of luxury comes at a price and the Halkin is not exactly cheap. But although it is often the case that the price tag doesn't seem justified, sometimes, like Stella Artois, something can be reassuringly expensive.