My Wife and I stayed at the David Intercontinental in May. As a Diamond Elite Ambassador we had a efficient check in, because we were early, our room overlooking the Mediterranean was not ready. That's where we got lucky. We immediately went up to the 24th. Floor to the Ambassador Club Lounge and met Martina. Knowing we had just landed from a very long flight that included a 2 hour delay prior to take off, Martina welcomed us and assisted in any way she and her Team could do so. That Club Lounge was a welcomed oasis for 2 extremely tired travelers. We could not have been treated any better. Club access also gave us daily breakfast in the Jaffa Court Room, it differed slightly every day and we enjoyed it tremendously. Our Room on the 25th. Floor overlooked the Med and parts of Tel Aviv, it was comfortable, spotless and attended to several times a day. The linens and towels were of a high quality and towels were resupplied daily. The hotel is located within walking distance to key parts of Tel Aviv including the Carmel Market, bus terminal and beach. On what was supposed to be our last day we learned that our flight was cancelled and we were delayed a full day. Once again, Martina, Oleg, Abagail & Lena turned our unplanned situation into a extended vacation. The service offered by this Team was far beyond anything we have experienced. Well done!…
We stayed for two nights, with four children, and had a great experience. The rooms and hotel were very nice and well maintained. The team was super friendly and helpful. I would specifically like to commend Timur, I believe he is the Guest Experience Manager. We stumbled upon him at the lobby, he greeted us and was super friendly, he answered some questions and resolved a request we had. Parking was reasonably priced, so we didn’t have to look for cheaper parking in the hotel’s vicinity. All in all, the experience was exemplary! We are definitely coming back.
This is by far the largest Intercontinental I've ever stayed. It is huge. And, it's busy! So great to see life getting back to normal. Slept like a baby during our four night stay. Great room, very spacious and comfortable. Their breakfast is great and so is the all around service. The executive lounge is also very nice with great snack options. The one thing that could be better is there Wi-Fi. Very weak signal everywhere.
Good location steps away from the wonderful Karmel market. If you are looking for a property on the beach look elsewhere because you have to cross a somewhat busy street to go to the beach, there are other hotels that are on the beach. We stayed after Passover so the hotel was pretty empty and we had a much better experience than had the hotel been crowded. Because of our IHG status we were upgraded to a very nice room on the top floor with a view of the sea. We had dried and fresh fruit and wine waiting for us in the room, which was a nice touch. The room had been renovated and offered a king size bed and a sleeper sofa that can accommodate an additional person. Room is on the small side but adequate. Bed was super comfortable. I did not care for the bath products. It was nice to have slippers. There was an empty mini refrigerator in the room and a kettle to prepare tea. Breakfast is $40 per person. It is very nice but if you do not want to spend that, there is an Aroma cafe within a five minute walk of the hotel or other places that offer breakfast one street over from the shuk. I have stayed at this hotel several times since it opened in 1999. I recall that Madona stayed there when she was in Israel. It used to be the nicest hotel in Tel Aviv until it needed renovation. I do not know if they renovated all rooms. In the past I have experienced needing to ask them to switch rooms. Perhaps we got lucky this time because of the low occupancy rate, but we were quite pleased with the room. I would be going back.…
If you’d like to know what this hotel looked like when it opened in 1999, go now. The only discernible difference is that everything’s aged by nearly a quarter of a century and the staff have been replaced - although in hotel’s like this, that’s often a weekly occurrence. Despite the same old decor and furniture, a change in lift technology means they now have the state-of-the-art type which you have to ‘pre-book’ using a central panel, so once you’re in and en route, you can’t change it. Not a deal-breaker, and with a war in Ukraine there are possibly more pressing issues to worry about, but worthy of a mention so you don’t do what someone I met did when they first arrived, which was to rush into the first lift that opened, only to spend the rest of the day hoping someone would call it on the floor he wanted to alight on. I’m not complaining, this hotel's still head and shoulders above the neighbouring Dan Panorama where I also stayed multiple times which incidentally has now sunk so low, it’s a Covid Isolation Centre meaning guests only stay there because they’re legally obliged to (although it still retains one benefit over the Intercontinental, being they don’t have to look at the eyesore of the neighbouring hotel - as they’re staying in it). The Intercontinental rooms are pretty much what you’d expect, unless that happens to be a decent mattress that doesn’t catapult your partner to the ceiling every time you jump in it. If you’re fortunate enough to be charged more for having a balcony, it’s one to which the door-handle is either down (for locked), mid-way (open), or up (for the glass to come hurtling towards you from the top, making you think the whole thing's collapsed). As I like a window open, that’s where it sat most nights. Unfortunately the David Intercontinental sits directly below the night flight-path into Ben Gurion which, unlike most airports, doesn’t restrict night-time landings. On the contrary, the hours between midnight and 5am are Happy Hour at Ben Gurion, meaning there’s a constant stream of screaming jets just 2000 feet above the hotel, so the higher your floor, the more likely you are to add hearing loss to the sleep deprivation you’ve suffered. Not long after dawn, the aircraft change approach routes, coinciding with the exact time the building site opposite starts receiving its cement deliveries. None of this really matters anyway as the open-atrium in the centre of the hotel acts like an echo chamber so children’s screams (there’s a worryingly high number of them) can be heard in every room on every floor, bouncing off-the-walls (the sound, not the children). Once you’ve finally got to sleep, you’ll need to get up for breakfast, which frankly, even during Passover was fantastic and difficult to fault. The service is amongst the best I’ve ever found in Israel meaning when you order a coffee it arrives. Sometimes twice. You can elect to eat inside, or there’s a small eating area just outside, separated to the adjacent pool area by a gate. As many guests go directly from breakfast to lounge around the pool it would be fair to assume this is the best way to access it. Unfortunately, this gate - and all others that access the pool from this level - are permanently locked, meaning despite being only a few steps from the pool the only way to get to it is to walk the entire length of the lobby, go down one level, walk a corridor and then resurface up a staircase, arriving outside just a metre from the very table you were sat at and can now see you've left your sunglasses for which you now have to go back. Once settled around the pool you can relax. Except you can’t because there’s no lounger service so you have to go to the hut for drinks and snacks (although fair play, the drinking water’s at no charge). I can’t comment on other meals in the hotel as we chose to eat out, although the one-night (a chag) when we decided to eat at the hotel, the buffet was $110 per head - which I would have paid had the reports from those that had eaten there been even a remotely positive - so we did go out. Incidentally, if you get taxis in Israel, use the Gett app (it eliminates the stress of drivers claiming to have to go via Jerusalem to get to the other side of Tel Aviv), which means you also get to play the “which entrance?” game. It’s a fair assumption that the taxi will pick you up from the main doors by the lobby, but as the ramp to it’s sometimes open, sometimes closed, the taxi might be directed to pick you up from the car park on the lower level. Hours of fun can be had running between the two options to find out where it actually is. There’s also a 3rd option that it won’t turn up at all. So, would I stay here again? Of course I would. I love the position, I love the Israeli-ness and I love everything I’m used to.…
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