Atacama40

Hi all.

Any reports on the new IC Chennai? Grateful for any advice or reports from those who have stayed.

Also would be great to know any RA experiences or advice.

Many thanks

Atacama40

...could it be true that there's really a ghost ship IC out there that never got a visit from a die hard FT'er? .... shudder

IAN-UK

.. and her sister ship, the IC Bandung.

Atacama40

.....have to say Ian I'd never heard of that one.....is this the 'hotel in black' principle.....could there really be a secondary set of Intercontinental hotels operating at a different frequency and occupied by another time dimension of FT folk?

Well I'm none the wiser about Chennai IC but have to confess to being very curious and interested in Bandung. Cheers Ian

Eskimoboy

I haven't stayed there but did check it out from the beach, it looked good and a good location. It's only a few mins from Mahabalipuram and it's Shore Temple and other sights. It's a long way out of Chennai though so it's not really suitable for a base to visit there. But a few days there on the beach with a trip to Mahabalipuram and maybe Pondicherry would definitely beat staying in Chennai itself.
I'm considering a future stay there so please do report back if you stay there!

Atacama40

Thanks Eskimoboy, appreciate the input.

Just looking for somewhere a little off the wall to take Mrs Atacama. Without sounding too crass we have been to most IC's outside of the states whether for work or odd hols but this one just seemed....well....different.

Have to say Intercontinental are opening in some interesting places these recent years and all the new ones have been impressive so far in my book. Sometimes a little lacking in fine tuning but all the same.

Think there's a good chance we will do this one later year. BA miles availability is wide open although there's no first service there. Also business seats have good off peak availability (less miles) and room prices seem attractive so we will have a crack at that and yes happy to report back. Cheers

Eskimoboy

Sorry to bump an old thread but was wondering if anyone has been to this IC? Am thinking of a trip there but it would be good to hear if any FT people have been and what their thoughts were!

Atacama40

Yeah me too Eskimo. No word from anyone. Surely someone knows ....

IAN-UK

I loved it. I stayed there as an RA and couldn't have received better treatment from the hotel. I was upgraded to a large suite ocean-side. The lounge is just a little odd, but the staff there were super-helpful, and happily made sure cocktail hour went well.

We were also invited to take breakfast in the restaurant. It was quite the most interesting and one of the best breakfast experiences in an IC.

The beach is not really a swimming beach: they gently discourage it's use for that purpose. BUT they do set up a delightful restaurant there in the evening. Expensive for a beach shack, but worth it. There's a pool, of course.

Watch out for weddings though: they can take over the hotel

There's nothing immediately around the hotel. But the site at Mahabaliprum, 40 minutes' away, is a joy and a revelation. We went to eat in Mahabalipuram town a couple of evenings.

Pondicherry is a day trip away from the hotel, or a convenient next stop-off point if you are moving through Tamil Nadu, which was our trajectory.

Eskimoboy

thanks Ian! Have stayed in mahabalipuram
before but only at a pretty basic hotel. Was it easy and reasonably priced enough to get a rickshaw/taxi from the hotel into town ?

IAN-UK

Yes we used Ola. You can use he app to rent a by the hour at a very reasonable rate.

Atacama40

Revisiting this old post.

Belated thanks to Ian for a good summary of the place. We never got there but out of the blue, an option arises to do so.

Any recent experiences or updates folks?

Strange that this one does not have much data on it or indeed, if I'm looking correctly, does not even have a master thread listing? Then again I'm not much on the search facility

strickers

I won't go into the full details, we had a week booked, was informed the day before arrival that everything was closed for the first 3 days for a wedding so would be room service only. Sufficed to say we came to an agreeable solution but I would book somewhere else as a backup and double check within the cancellation policy just before arrival.

IAN-UK

Mirrors my experience three years' back, except we had no warning from the hotel - so perhaps they learned something from our reaction. We weren't too upset, but the hotel comped us a dinner and an airport drop.

Oddly enough the same thing happened at the IC Goa, a hotel long since out of the IHG stable.