Runway View Room at Radisson Blu Stansted Review

If you’re looking for a hotel at London Stansted Airport, one of the closest hotels to the terminal is the Radisson Blu Stansted. The hotel is literally a 5-minute walk from the terminal, perfect for early morning flights! It is actually closer to the terminal than the short-stay car parks. They also offer runway-view rooms!

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Radisson Blu Stansted Review

Reception

As mentioned, the Radisson Blu is right next to the terminal at London Stansted Airport. For the most part, the walkway is undercover, however, there is a small section across the car park that is ‘open air’.

When you first enter the hotel, there are several check-in desks in a large foyer. I was impressed with the check-in and out times, they were a little more generous compared to some other hotels now. With check-in opening at 2pm and check-out at 12pm.

Check-in was efficient and we were given our keys and directed to the lifts that head to the upper floors.

Be aware that parking at the Radisson Blu Stansted is EXPENSIVE, just like the parking elsewhere at the airport. If you can arrive by train or bus, which is again, a short walk from the hotel, you may be able to save yourself a bit of money.

Wine Tower Bar

One of the most impressive parts of the Radisson Blu Stansted, is the Wine tower in the Wine Tower Bar. This 14m tower looks similar to Canary Wharf and is full of wine bottles. Once upon a time, they were famous for the ‘Wine Angels‘, who used to do acrobatics up the tower to collect the bottles. Unfortunately, this stopped several years ago though.

As well as the bar, there are some areas to relax, with TVs and a ping pong table. Several conference rooms are on the ground floor too.

Breakfast

For sit-down meals, there is the Collage Restaurant. This is also open for breakfast (additional cost), with ‘grab and go’ breakfasts starting at 4am and the buffet breakfast from 6am/6.30am. Depending on if you are flying out of STN, there are also breakfast options within the airport terminal.

Runway View Room

The Radisson Blu Stansted has 500 rooms. Runway view rooms cost a little extra compared to the standard ones, but it does give you something interesting to watch out of the window! My room was located on the 2nd floor.

Emirates 777 coming into land at London Stansted — Emirates plane coming into land (from runway view room)

Because of where to hotel is positioned, you can only really see a small section of the very end of the runway. Depending on the direction of the flight path, you’ll either see them coming into land OR taking off. During my stay, I could see landings, but not touchdown, that was hidden behind part of the terminal.

FlightRadar24 is great if you are interested to see the flight routes and plane information. They have both desktop and app versions.

It also looks over the gates for Ryanair, so you’ll be able to see these planes loading and unloading. I did go up to one of the higher floors (suites), as there is a window at the end of the corridor, but the view wasn’t that much different, you’d only be able to see a tiny bit more.

Ryanair planes at London Stansted Airport — Ryanair planes from Radisson Blu Stansted runway view room

There was absolutely no airplane noise at all. The room was extremely well soundproofed airport side. The most noise came from the corridor, but generally, it was pretty quiet throughout my stay.

Facilities

The room was comfortable, I had a twin room. There weren’t plug sockets next to the beds, however, there were USB/USB-C ports, which is handy (although the USB on one side didn’t work in my room).

Radisson Blu Stansted Room — Twin runway view room at Radisson Blu London Stansted Airport

There was a large desk, a TV, a fridge, a kettle (with a selection of teas, coffee, and one hot chocolate sachet), a safe, and a wardrobe with a hair dryer, and an iron and ironing board. The free WiFi had great connectivity. I loved the reclining chair, that I set up in front of the window, so I could plane spot!

Radisson Blu Stansted in room tea and coffee making facilities — Tea and coffee facilities at Radisson Blu

The window was quite narrow. The curtains go along the full length of the room, however a good 50% was just a solid wall, not actually covering a window.

The bathroom had a bath and a shower, with refillable shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. Next to the sink, you’ll find a single-use body lotion, a bar of soap, a shower hat, and a face and nail kit (with an emery board and cotton buds and pads). There was also a washing line that you could pull out across the shower.

Runway view hotel room at Radisson Blu London Stansted Airport Essex — Runway view hotel room at London Stansted Airport

Swimming Pool & Gym

Radisson Blu Stansted also has a hotel gym and an indoor swimming pool. It is accessed through a door in the main lobby next to reception. It’s free to use for hotel guests, including the use of pool towels.

We were also offered a bag to put wet swim stuff in. You may have to keep in mind that it might not completely dry in time before a flight. Despite hanging it on the washing line all night, ours were still damp when we left at 11am the following day.

Radisson Blu Stansted Pool — Swimming pool at Radisson Blu Stansted Essex

You’ll find changing rooms with hair dryers and showers, as well as number-coded lockers where you can set your own access code.

The pool is quite small and shallow (1.2m deep), but there is also a sauna and steam room which are lovely! There are a few places to sit along with a water dispenser.

Final Thoughts for Radisson Blu Stansted Review

Overall, the Radisson Blu at London Stansted Airport is very convieniently located for flights arriving and departing into Stansted. It is expensive, but you pay that for the premium location.