Intercontinental Aqaba - Aqaba, Jordan 

Im repeating the first couple of general paragraphs from my other Jordan hotel reviews for anyone who didnt read them. My boyfriend & I (both 35yrs old) stayed here for 7 nights this July. We've both travelled extensively and I did a lot of research when choosing our hotels for this trip (see also my review for the Movenpick Dead Sea and Petra). So before I start Id like to say a few 'general' comments about hospitality in Jordan! As Id read in numerous reviews beforehand, service isnt a strong point out there. The hotels are of a good quality but the a lack of attention to detail lets them down. For example, waiters dont seem very interested, plastic cups & wrappers floating in the pool (at this hotel). We didnt see many westerners throughout the entire trip - which usually would be a positive thing but as the weeks went on we began to wonder whether there was a reason for that. Anyway back to the IC. This is said to be the best hotel in Aqaba and it was much better than the 2 Movenpicks we stayed in in Petra and the Dead Dea. The IC has a great pool with winding channels and bridges to swim under, but it was full of children when we were there! Anyway there are so many area's its fairly easy to find a quiet spot so thats OK. There is a pool bar in the busy area but of course prices arent cheap! We found that the hotels charge a fortune for average food so we tried to eat out most nights. But if you're into nice food, then Jordan will be a bit of a let down in that respect. We found we were paying very high prices (London prices) even in fast food places (?10 for a bad pizza, come on!) but without the quality. Aqaba was better than Petra in that there's much more choice in the town area... Floka was OK, as was the Chicken Tikka place next door. Everyone rates Ali Baba but we thought it was pretty dire. There is a McDonalds if all else fails (my BF was very happy about that). Back to the IC! The rooms were lovely.. spacious and quiet. Our service guy Tareq was utterly charming and on our last day created a masterpiece from bed sheets, towels and anything else he could lay his hands on - needless to say he got a good tip! There's a reasonable coffee shop/cafe in the foyer which does nice lunches and the room service menu seem good. They also give you complimentary bottled water in your room everyday. Breakfast was also good, a wide range, nice fresh pancakes or eggs, omlettes made to order. Taxi's are always hanging around outside to take you into the town - its 1JD which is fine in the heat. FYI a taxi to Aqaba airport is about 7JD but its only 15 minutes away. In general the IC was good in relation to where we were and the hotels we'd stayed in (in Jordan) up to that point. But if you've stayed in good hotels in places like Dubai or New York for example then you wont be overly impressed with this.

We spent only one night in the Intercontinental in Aqaba, but were very impressed with the room! This is a new hotel with every facility you could wish for: fabulous room, beautifully decorated and very modern, large balcony, superb bathroom, tea/coffee, iron and ironing board in wardrobe, welcome message - personalised- when you swithched on the tv, even a speaker in the bathroom so you didn't miss the tv programme!! Although we did not use them, there were some impressive pools and terrace areas, and the entrance foyer was very luxurious. Although we liked this hotel, we were less than impressed with the buffet breakfast, which was not up to the standard of the rest of the hotel. There were many families with large numbers of children here so the noise level was high!