Your favourite InterContinental hotel?

[Awentford]

Hi all,

I haven’t seen a similar topic on here but feel free to point me to it if so.

What’s everyone’s favourite Intercontinental hotel to visit? Either because it’s a great hotel/experience or maybe a great location or good value.

I’m looking at using my ambassador free night cert and need some inspiration.

[Andrew.]

The Clement at Monterey. Had a very good break there about 5 years ago.

We paid with Avios, which I know is heavily frowned upon on these boards, but I’d spotted an “anomaly” in the rates where the Avios + Cash rate was set at the same for 2,3,& 4 nights at 33,500 Avios + £195. At the time the lowest rate on the IHG website was $380 a night+tax.

https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/hotels/gb/en/monterey/mryha/hoteldetail

[kwho]

Intercontinental Estoril. only 50 rooms, feels like a boutique hotel. The spa is amazing too, outsourced to L’Occitane. Staff are excellent. Breakfast is by the sea, even in winter is sunny. 25 mins to Lisbon central with a train platform right by the pool of the hotel. Station is tiny, one you would find in the deepest rural areas.

[Anna]

It depends what kind of experience you’re looking for, e.g. city break, beach resort?
I’ve only stayed at a handful but the Willard in Washington DC was fabulous last month, the George in Edinburgh nice but nothing to shout about.

[Lady London]

AndrewJ. I cannot imagine how much that anomaly must have gutted you 🙂

[Pangolin]

kwho wrote:

Intercontinental Estoril. only 50 rooms, feels like a boutique hotel. The spa is amazing too, outsourced to L’Occitane. Staff are excellent. Breakfast is by the sea, even in winter is sunny. 25 mins to Lisbon central with a train platform right by the pool of the hotel. Station is tiny, one you would find in the deepest rural areas.

Does Estoril have a club lounge? Now that I’ve earned IHG lounge access for 2 years (thanks to selecting the 40-night milestone reward on Jan 1) I’d like to take advantage of it 🙂

[kwho]

No it doesn’t have a club lounge. But if your ambassador the amenity is pretty decent. Breakfast is very good. Anyway, with Lisbon nearby and estoril, you really want to go out and try the many eateries. Wine is cheap and good. The restaurant did not feel very expensive to me. But I always leave that place thinking I will be back soon. There’s something that just works there.

[strickers]

Da Nang without a shadow of a doubt, the seclusion and attention to detail was marvellous. The one’s we’ve tried so far are Singapore (Middle Rd), O2, Park Lane, Phuket, Bali & Madrid.

[Jon]

+1 for Da Nang. My personal favourite, loved it. Well worth paying the supplement for a Club room if you’re booking a basic room on points etc (as I did last time – but they were kind enough to show me round some of the other rooms, and I think if you’re using a free night certificate I’d highly recommend looking at the terrace suite – last time I looked it was available with the AMB cert; definitely will be my plan next time 🙂

[AndyUK101]

Another vote for Da Nang, absolutely stunning resort

Other contenders for different reasons

Singapore (Middle Road) I love the colonial feel, location and service levels in this hotel
Park Lane – Albeit only when i could book for 40k per night, I’ve done 10 nights there with lounge access for the 40n reward, fantastic value

Others i’ve stayed in that don’t make the top 3

IC Doha – Okay but nothing special
IC Madrid, Vienna and Istanbul, Bangkok, Saigon, Chengdu – All nice business focused hotels, non really memorable though
IC Cancun / Cozumel – Nice but didn’t really stand out, the Cancun resort was showing its age

On my list

Le Grand – Hopefully this year
Some of South American ones – TBC

[Supergers49]

kwho wrote:

Anyway, with Lisbon nearby and estoril, you really want to go out and try the many eateries.

Highly recommend Alegria Vadia for food if staying at Intercontinental Estoril.

[Rob]

Le Grand Paris is very good and just refurbished – see our reviews. Good but not as it good as it was before the lounge moved and was downgraded.

The new Bucharest one is apparently impressive.

I have a soft spot for Festival City Dubai but its not to everyones tastes and the marina one (never stayed) is nearer the beaches.

The Amstel is Amsterdam is unique – may not be for you but you can’t knock the location, view, pool or restaurant.

Marseille, Bordeaux have good feedback.

I reviewed Porto – decent, no lounge, lovely building.

New Rome one should be impressive later this year.

[AndyUK101]

Forgot about the Rome one, have 4 nights booked in May from back when it was 40k per night, looks very nice!

[Supergers49]

My favourite Intercontinental hotels over the last 6 years…

1. Estoril (views, sun, location)
2. Cannes (views, sun, breakfast)
3. Singapore (location, nice lounge
4. Paris (location, decoration, great lounge)
5. Amsterdam (location, decoration)
6. Willard (location, decoration)
7. Hong Kong (location, views)
8. Hong Kong Grand Stanford (views, great lounge)
9. Warsaw (great restaurant)
10. Madrid (nice lounge)
11. Prague (lounge)
12. Lisbon
13. O2 London (nice lounge)
14. Frankfurt (okay lounge)

[SGJNI]

DA Nang
Paris
Amsterdam
Singapore (both)
Dubai Festival City
San Francisco Howard St.
Hong Kong Stanford
O2 London
Wellington

[strickers]

I’ll let you all know about Chennai in a few weeks, looks interesting as there’s only 105 rooms. I imagine I’ll be observing several very large weddings.

[NigelHamilton]

Has anyone been to the IC Ljubljana? Have an overnighter booked though Amex FHR in early April.

[u07ch]

The now Regent Hong Kong was the best Intercontinental. I haven’t stayed since the refurb so unless they shrank the rooms significantly I can’t see it being not being a great choice to use the voucher. Before it had the usual IC shabbiness; the refurb and switch to regent should mean that is gone. Sadly covid rules has taken it out of my schedule the last 2 years anyway … Before refurb it had massive rooms, lively public spaces with good views, Michelin starred restaurants, easy access to subway, excellent suites (I mean my usual suite had a steam room and spa bath and a huge balcony), then to top it off it had first rate service. Clients did prefer eating at the Ritz Carlton when I stayed during the refurb though; the view from that is something else.

For a vacation stay Thalasso Bora Bora is the best IC for me. One of the best hotel locations on the planet for views and access to first rate snorkelling, diving with friendly staff and decent rooms. It’s small enough to not seem busy.

Will go against the trend and say in Asia for me Koh Samui is better than Danang. For me USM has better view and Sunsets. Both are out on their own on the sides of hills/ cliffs. KS has a better bar, club, lots of pools. Sea is also much cleaner. ( my money is with my mouth here as im going back in May.) I just prefer the more modern rooms.

Fiji has a first rate beach, large rooms and sunset views but the Six Senses Fiji is leagues better than any hotel on Viti Levu.
Bali has amazing grounds and interesting rooms, but buildings they are away from the beach so no ocean or sunset views.
Phuket also has amazing grounds but no ocean views from the rooms; though it’s a newer resort than the others and the villas are excellent. Better beach than Bali.
Hua Hin is basic. You do get more of the city than KS/ Danang but only stay to visit family.
Hayman Island; bit of a weird one; feels like it should be on Hawaii – It’s a hideous concrete building. location is outstanding for snorkeling/ diving. Also the island is fun to explore.

One odd one Tahiti; its an airport hotel. The grounds and pool are good, Tahiti has more to do than Bora Bora; except maybe snorkelling but there are hills and waterfalls and mountains to explore. The hotel has an ocean water sea life pool which is fun, over water bungalows have a great view of Moorea or watching the planes as they go into land. Food is a weak spot; the dining room is kind of a theatre. Refurb has resulted in some nice rooms though. Internet was phenomenal – 300 MB/s !

My two new IC’s this year will be Sorrento near Melbourne; stayed in the area before and loved it so looking forward to something a bit better than the Mercure golf resort I stayed at, and Lifou, New Caledonia. Haven’t stayed in either yet but love the locations of both.

Lifou looks like it will be something special (and im pairing it with a trip back to Isle of Pines Le meridian which is only hotel I rate (today) for location over Thalasso.)

[pbcold]

A great thread, thank you. I am very interested in the enthusiasm for Da Nang. Are there any decent ex-eu routes that people have used? Thanks.

[memesweeper]

I absolutely loved the IC Marseille.

I’m booked to Estoril and Dubai Marina; Bucharest might be next.

HTH

[qc]

These are the IC’s we’ve stayed at over the last 10 or so years – the early years as an RA when you could initially be referred and then keep it with not too enormous a spend.

Paris Le Grand
Da Nang
Bordeaux
Marseille
Lyon
Bali
Bangkok
Phuket
Beijing
Chengdu
Chongqing
Shanghai Ruijin
Saigon
Istanbul
Vienna
San Francisco Howard St &
Mark Hopkins
New York Times Sq &
The Barclay
Estoril
Porto
Düsseldorf
Cannes
Singapore Middle Rd &
Robertson Quay
Amsterdam
Willard
Hong Kong Salisbury rd
Madrid
Lisbon
London O2 &
Park Lane
Dublin
Phnom Penh
Kuala Lumpur
Doha
Sydney Circular Quay &
Double Bay
Melbourne
Sanctuary Cove
Santiago
Buenos Aires

Of those I would say my favourites are (or were in the case of HK) HK, Bali, Singapore, Da Nang, Sydney CQ, Porto, Estoril, Paris leG, Marseille, Lyon and Amsterdam. Some because of the setting, some the great suite upgrades and some the lounges.

[Go197]

Another vote for Thalasso Bora Bora. Stunning rooms, stunning views.

Bora Bora Le Moana is only OK, and IC Tahiti is a dump.

Samui is very nice with views, pools, sunsets, peace, good club lounge food and service (though the Conrad is miles better).

I really liked the one in Kyiv and I hope it won’t be too long before people can return and spend some money there.

I enjoyed Malta. Nice spa, nice club lounge.

Phoenicia Beirut had a great club lounge.

Doha, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Bahrain, Tel Aviv, Ljubljana, Kuala Lumpur were all adequate, but nothing to get excited about.

[qc]

I’ve remembered a few more we’ve stayed in – Koh Samui, Hà Nội, Boston, Budapest, Geneva, Malta and a very nice one which is no longer part of IHG – the Grand Hotel Stockholm where we were upgraded to one of their better suites as we had RA status at the time.

I’d add Koh Samui to my favourites list because of the setting – the afternoon tea served in a birdcage if you have club lounge access is memorable.

[can]

While I have you all here, can someone explain the appeal of the IC Amb?
I understand the free weekend night, but you need to book a certain rate for it? So the real savings could be less than expected? And you have to pay for breakfast. To me it sounds like, you pay to get Amb and use it to pay for breakfast for a couple for two nights.
What am I a missing?

[Go197]

can wrote:

While I have you all here, can someone explain the appeal of the IC Amb?
I understand the free weekend night, but you need to book a certain rate for it? So the real savings could be less than expected? And you have to pay for breakfast. To me it sounds like, you pay to get Amb and use it to pay for breakfast for a couple for two nights.
What am I a missing?

Yes the free weekend night is not a 100% discount compared to the cheapest non-flexible rate, but it is still a significant saving if used at the more expensive properties. It’s very much worth it just for the value of that one night. I’ve saved hundreds of pounds.

Guaranteed room upgrade
Guaranteed 4pm check-out
$20 F&B credit (meant to be per stay but I’ve often had it credited per night)
Platinum status (and if you have Diamond status, renewing Ambassador has resulted in extending that status, though it’s surely only a matter of time before that loophole is closed)