

To park near Olympia you do have to pay around £30 which for us with a 9 month old baby is easier as we have the pram and everything needed for her. We visited Olympia today (25/11/22) for the Christmas Ideal Home Show and it’s the first time for me, my husband and we had our baby with us. Seeing the more modern facilities at Excel, it is good to see some building work going on at Olympia, so hopefully things will be even better next year. This is definitely an advantage over Excel, which might as well be in the middle of nowhere in terms of restaurants. There are loads of places around for all budgets. Last year, Destinations had very few places to eat - this year, there were loads! Either way, unless you really want to spend all day at the show (and given the prices, you would want to get your money's worth!), we would recommend eating outside either before or preferably after your visit. The catering in Olympia is mainly a reflection of the show on at the time. The latter is newer and seems larger and offers more flexibility to exhibitions. With the Earls Court Exhibition Centre closing in 2014, Olympia is now the west London competition to Excel in the Docklands.

Last year was much quieter - people are obviously keen to travel again and there was no shortage of specialist tour companies to help you achieve your ambitions. (We have been to various exhibitions for other groups over the years but we have been to Destinations about three out of the last five years.) This year it was heaving on the first day of opening (the second was a national rail strike, so that may have affected the week day audience). We visited the Destinations show, and we have done so a few times. Olympia is a reasonably large exhibition centre in Kensington and I suspect that all the reviews here will reflect the shows that the reviewers visited.
