Holiday Inn Pattaya
On the famous Pattaya beach road north a new hotel magically appeared. It took only about a year from start to finish for this beach side 27 stories building to complete. I was surprised to see this new hotel in such a centralized location. I couldn’t believe there was empty land available in this area, but there was. The new tall and narrow hotel from outside has interesting design features which we had the opportunity to be one of the first guest to stay there.
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View from beach road
We were invited to stay at the Holiday Inn Pattaya, two weeks before it soft launches in October 2009. At the drop off our bags were handled by two enthusiastic bell boys. One of them offered to park the car.
Approaching the lobby the tall Australian GM Craige J Ryan welcomed us. After meeting with all the top executives of the hotel, we noticed, all the staff wore jeans. It’s probably a policy to be more casual since this is a beach front hotel. While waiting in the lobby the car keys was returned. The bell boy specifically told me where he parked it, to ensure that if I need to go somewhere I don’t need to rely on the valet. Since we took our two kids along with me, we were offered to be the first guest at the Family suite.
View from the family suite
Large window by the bathtub
The suite is 2 connecting rooms, one a corner room that looks straight out to the sea, the other is the kids room that has a sea view. The kid’s room is furnished with child’s sized beds and furniture decorated with colorful sea theme and whale bed post. This room is obviously different from any room type we’ve seen so far. It is just charming for the kids, they really like that there is a room created just for them, adding to the charm there is a play station system in the room. The corner suite is nicely furnish with beige, white, and blue tones. What makes it special is the location of the room which is at the very end of the building facing the sea offering an unobstructed view to the ocean. It’s just amazing standing on the balcony, looking out to the horizon.
After spending sometime at the suite, we headed to the pool. The pool is on the forth floor. There are two pools, the kids’ pool and the infinity edge looking out to the sea. The kids’ pool is quite large you can have 20-30 kids in there with slider and water fountains. The infinity edge has a nice high pressured jacuzzi where you can lay down on the sallow waters and enjoy it. From the pool you can see the busy streets of south Pattaya down below and beyond is the beach and sea. We stayed there to watch the sun go down, if there wasn’t much clouds that day it would have been a perfect sunset.
Kids pool looking from our suite
For the evening we had a chance to check out the two main outlets, the Havana Bar and the Terrazza. Havana Bar is a Cuban cigar bar that serves tapas cocktails, fine wine, and a variety of single malts. The ambiance is dark and cosy. After we finished our drink we moved to the Tarrazza ristoranta next door. An upscale street side restaurant that serves many variety’s of Italian dishes. The pizza was great and the service was even better.
If you’re from the US you’d be surprised how Holiday Inn in Thailand is, definitely more classy. Even though we are here when it is not officially open, it should be a very promising place to stay, when in Pattaya. For rooms with amazing view of the ocean it doesn’t get any better.
From now to 20 December 2009 the ocean view rooms are available at 1,999 baht to celebrate the opening.
463/68 Pattaya sai 1 Rd., Nongprue Banglamung, Chonburi 20150 Tel. (038) 725555
Text/Photo by Vasin Srivarathanabul
For more information contact
IHG – InterContinental Hotels Group
Telephone: +66 2 656 0444 ext. 6926, 6902
Fax: +66 2 656 0366
