Right now we’re spending the night at the new InterContinental Davos. It’s incredible.
Now I’ve bragged about the InterContinental Berchtesgaden, (which is InterContinental’s other mountain resort), also in the alps. But the hotel is lacking in a few ways which this hotel goes above and beyond.
This hotel deserves an entire post later, but I grabbed some photos off of my friend Daniel’s camera and wanted to give an idea of the hotel now, since it’s so new.
Honestly, I won’t say a lot here, as I’ve decided to wait until we get all the photos off our camera and do a full post after we leave the hotel. But I wanted to share three things for now…
1) It’s expensive but worth the points for a visit.
If you think 50,000 points is a lot, then think about the cash price. 650 Swiss Francs + tax as an opening rate! That’s $725 USD + tax, which is insane. But, it’s their peak season. So it goes down to 360 Francs or so after snow/ski season… but how in the world will they fill their rooms even then?
On the other hand, the hotel is a mountain resort in Davos, Switzerland. Which, if it’s not obvious, is an expensive place. Food at the restaurant is like 50+ Francs. I thought it was insane until we went to town.
2) Their Royal Ambassador benefits don’t suck!
Yes, a rare thing with IHG! Crazy, that a hotel in Europe gave lounge access and a suite. Even the extremely crappy hotels like the IC Athens and IC Bucharest (although I love the view there) don’t do that. Maybe especially the crappy ones don’t…
We are with friends so the hotel doubly impressed me by giving us one suite and one club room. But both had club lounge access and the club rooms are really large anyways. We insisted on letting Daniel and Chelsea have the suite… since we’ve seen more than our fair share, but we spent a sufficient amount of time hanging out in their room. And as you can see, it’s pretty awesome.
The club lounge is super nice and modern, but a little light on the “canapés”, (FYI).
3) Switzerland is beautiful.
I’ve never seen so much snow as I did in one of the mountains we crossed on our drive here. I mean, piled waaaaay above the car. Insane. But it’s also insane that the roads were in fantastic condition.
The one down side of the country is the price of pretty much everything. So, the Swiss alps may be the tallest, but I prefer Austria’s prices (it’s not often I say that!).
More coming soon. I really can’t wait to share more about this new hotel!
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Did you take a train to Davos? After that, did you drive to the hotel? How is the public transportation in Davos?
We split a car rental with friends startin gin Milan. But, much like the IC Berchtesgaden, they do give you a bus pass for public transport once you’re there. And also they have a shuttle that goes to the different ski slopes. I suppose it could stop in town as well.
Wow! That is an amazing looking hotel. One I would be very willing to spend some points on. We were in Switzerland last year to visit our son and we were shocked at the prices. Having a free hotel room helps to take away some of the pain.
And we had lounge access, so that helped. But no kidding! I could not believe the food prices. Unbelievable. Am I missing something? Is there like a 2000% sales tax they pass on?
But yea, also shocked.
Switzerland is pretty steep all the time, but right now the exchange rates are at about an all time worst for the US.
Probably should have put all four people in the suite then you could have saved 50,000 IHG points. Did the other couple get the IHG credit card too?
Well, I don’t think they allow more than two people per room. But totally could have.
… I don’t think they have the IHG card.
That’s a phenomenal looking suite and hotel.
I bet that would be the place to be during the Davos World Economic Forum to network with the rich folks that run our planet. 🙂
For real, the staff said that all kinds of celebs and politicians were there last week. And apparently a freak load of security. Although they noted that Bono had no security at all. 😀
What’s wrong with IC Bucharest and Athens?
Their DLX suites are awesome and the Club lounges were super.
Neither does much of anything for RAs.
And as splendid as I thought the chicken nuggets at the IC Athens lounge, the hotel was a terrible location (for a tourist) and the hotel was nothing special. But it was fine. The IC Bucharest was old and dated, but I did get a suite there, but no lounge access as an RA. Loved the location.
I mean, neither compare to Berchtesgaden or Davos, imo.
But YMMV. DLX suites indeed sound super. 😀
Drew,
it doesn’t look like you have done a lot of posts on switzerland. I plan on doing a trip to switzerland in Sept. I will buy a coach flight. I have the IHG card as well so I will stay in this hotel for a couple of nights. What other hotel points should I collect to get a quintessential swiss experience? There aren’t too many hotels showing on awardmapper. I collect points in hilton, spg, choice and club carlson. I’m not opposed to paying straight cash either using arrival or capital one venture card. Just need to make sure that I get a good trip experience.
I made a list of a few other hotels I found on awardmapper.
Clarion Collection Hotel Lavaux – Cully Cost: 20000 – 25000
Intercontinental Geneve Cost: 35000
Park Inn Lully Cost: 28000
Radisson Blu Hotel, Lucerne Cost: 50000
Radisson Blu Hotel, St. Gallen Cost: 44000
Radisson Blu Hotel, Basel Cost: 50000
Hilton Basel hotel Cost: 30000 – 60000
Radisson Blu Lucerne looked nice from frequent milers post.
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2014/07/28/radisson-blu-lucerne-on-points/
But my guess is that the most swiss experience would be not in a points hotel. Like the Gimmelwald area. But I’m not a swiss expert. Just was there once. But the alps aren’t great for points hotels.
thanks for the quick reply.. I’ll do teh radisson blu lucerne for 4 nights. given club carlson is devaluing, i better make the most of it. I’ll look into B&Bs for rest of the 10 day trip