We all love to splash out - to make like a film star for the night, breezing through endless high-life bars, sipping cocktails and flashing the cash, then dragging everyone back to the hotel pad, where the party really takes shape.

Hotels are the ultimate - there's nothing more extravagant than spreading your clothes over the penthouse suite of some boutique guestroom, throwing yourself on the bed with room service at hand, ordering heavenly desserts at all hours and dissolving into the 007 fantasy with your choice company till dawn. Breakfast in bed, sipping on Margaritas and happiness in the knowledge that the bed will be made & the mini-bar restocked by midday. If all that hedonism takes its toll, then a trip to the gym at brunch or a spot of self-pampering in the spa for an hour or two will compensate before swinging on by the lobby bar for some more superstar misbehaviour.

The Sanderson, The Metropolitan, St Martin's Lane, The Trafalgar - all belong to the fabulous world of hotel heaven. Their bars - The Purple Room, Met Bar, Light Bar and Rockwell respectively, home to the jet-setting glitterati of superstar lifestyle. If you're looking to grand it up, then a night in one of London's top boutique pads is the only way forward. Expensive, maybe. Extravagant, most definitely. But worth every penny, without a doubt.

You can group the A-list London hotels into three families. Firstly, there's the close-knit, touchy-feely family of the boutique hotels. These intimate surroundings could be as small as a cottage or as big as a mansion, but house no more than a few dozen rooms.

Blakes fits into this category. In this case, just a handful of rooms, which Anushka Hempel has decked out herself, travelling the world and sending back furniture befitting the various themes. Each room individually decorated from opulent Oriental to slim-line Mediterranean. The Hempel too has this intimate home from home attitude, though at The Hempel, the theme is crisp and airy, whitewashed walls with wispy drapes, sunken Japanese baths - it even has a private garden. At the boutique hotels, you will get the ultimate personal touch and are more than likely to cross paths with Elle or Kate at reception.

The next family is the bigger, modern variety of cool hotel. The Sanderson, St Martin's Lane, The Trafalgar and The Great Eastern all eat at this table. We're talking big, bold, busy buildings with a hundred or so rooms. They probably won't remember your name at reception, but depending on your behaviour that may be a blessing. With the modern variety, you still get the cool surroundings - the Space Odyssey lifts at The Sanderson, the art gallery lobby of St Martin's Lane, individually designed rooms and immaculate, staff in between modelling jobs - but on top of that, you get all of the mod cons. You'll get the CD & DVD player, the Playstation console, the chauffeur service, internet and the gym and spa. The bar will be bigger, busier and the service more anonymous.

The final family is the traditional family, where minimalism has no home, replaced instead by opulence and luxuriance. Here we're talking the Langham, The Mandarin Oriental and The Landmark. Grand, majestic hotels, where money is no object and where the top suites will set you back a cool £3k+ per night. The Mandarin Oriental is pure self-indulgence. You can have your own butler and spend the whole day in the spa, where you will while away six and a half hours having your face 'nourished', enjoying salt & oil scrubs, balanese synchronised massage (that's two masseurs working on you in tandem) and a luxury aromatherapy facial.

The bars of these superhotels are all well known in the right circles. The Sanderson's Long Bar and private Purple Bar, St Martin's Lane's Light Bar, The Rockwell (Trafalgar), I-Thai at The Hempel.- all offer that truly exclusive experience that makes for a perfectly extravagant night on the town. While the cocktail capabilities of your local Holiday Inn will be all but non-existent, in the grand world of exclusive hotels, drinks are a speciality. Trader Vic's and Zeta (London Hilton) have inspired many of the best mixologists about. Rockwell houses over 100 bourbons, The Whiskey Bar at The Athenaeum offers one of the best whiskey selections in Europe and the Purple Bar a knock-out array of vodkas. Then when it comes to cocktails, they come into their own. Bars like The Met, The Light and The Long Bar are supreme masters in their class, conjuring up the most magical potions and offering page after page of temptation.
Everyone moans about getting home from the West End after a night on the razz, but remember, credit card permitting, there's always the option of finishing the night in style, sleeping it off in comfort and lavishing yourself with a touch of the grand life.

The bars of London's top hotels are unarguably a breed of their own. Sophisticated and speckled with celebrity faces, they are the unsung heroes of the bar world. The Met Bar (Metropolitan Hotel) has forever been known for its celebrity scuffles and the paparazzi hang at the door like starved vultures. Schrager's sexy little numbers are all bursting with creative flavour. Be showered with colour under the smiling light-wells of the Light Bar (St Martin's Lane), be bathed in the heavenly glow of The Long Bar (The Sanderson) while big blue eyes watch you from the seat backs or be flooded with luxury at the jaw-droppingly beautiful Purple Room (The Sanderson), its cut crystal and granite bar probably the most visually stunning place to prop yourself at in the world (though you'll have to book a good room to get in!) The old dames of the hotel world offer some real old school glamour in their bars. The Hilton Park Lane's Windows Bar with its top-floor views across London and exotically themed Trader Vic's in the basement are two founder members of the hotel bar scene.

For something seriously slick and ultra contemporary, head to Blakes or The Hempel or recently refurbished Mandarin Bar to sip cocktails with London's most fashionable. Get intimate in the dark-wood sophistication of the GE Club (Great Eastern Hotel) or spread yourself about at the commodious Rockwell (The Trafalgar) and equally spacious Axis (1 Aldwych). Spend winter in the cosy warm environment of 190 Queensgate (The Gore) or summer soaking up the Noho vibe at open-fronted Charlotte Street.

Wherever you end up, grab a seat, pick up a Watermelon Martini and sip yourself slowly into the high life.