Chengdu Intercontinental Hotel Review

Don't cross five-star hotels off your list when traveling to remote locations, sometimes the luxury is a welcome retreat when you're hitting the gritty streets of Chinese cities. With great internet rates, you might even find yourself a deal. The Intercontinental Chengdu is just one of those luxuries that I found very worth it after a day of pushing my kid around in a stroller and street-fighting for taxis!

Gorgeous marble lobby, old-Sichuan style houses integrated into the atrium, placid goldfish swimming about in pools and song birds in cages softly tweeting during breakfast - all of these things make the Intercontinental Chengdu a luxurious retreat from the streets of Chengdu. But if there was one thing that made my IC-Chengdu experience, it was most definitely the concierge staff.

I hadn't much on my itinerary aside from "See the Pandas" and a rotating staff over my three-day stay organized a car for us, booked a table for dinner, created a two-day itinerary and played with my son while I worked out what to do. All these things may seem ordinary, but believe me, I've dealt with some pretty clueless concierge staff and these charming Chengdu folks were one of the highlights of the trip.

But enough about the staff (did I mention how great they are?), the hotel was marvelous. Newly opened in January of 2008, it is located south of Chengdu-proper in a new development zone. This can be tricky as many taxi drivers don't know the area, but we negotiated our way with the hotel card and a cell phone to call the concierge to get us there.

The rooms are fabulous with deep tubs and separate showers to indulge in post-sight suds and you can pop in a DVD to entertain the kids while you peruse the delicious in-room dining options. With six restaurants including Chinese and Italian food to choose from, you may decide to just stay in (we did on one night and I wasn't the least bit disappointed!)

There's a nice gym and spa on the second floor and I took advantage of the treadmill for a half-hour to burn off the copious amounts of Sichuan spicy food I'd been inhaling since we landed.

The only reason this hotel is missing a half-star from me is that I hoped for and expected a swimming pool. Oh well, we made do with the giant bathtub!