The Hotel InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta: Atlanta's Four-Star Taste of European Luxury

The Hotel InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta is located on Atlanta's famous Peachtree Street in the heart of Buckhead, the city's glamorous business, shopping and residential district. The hotel is Mobil Four-Star rated and AAA Five-Diamond rated. It is within walking distance of Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza, the two most exclusive malls in the city, and world-class dining is nearby. MARTA, Atlanta's public transit system, has a train station across the street from the hotel, and it is immediately accessible from Georgia Highway 400.

The 422-room, 22-floor InterContinental, which opened in Buckhead in 2004, brings a French decadence to the Atlanta hotel scene. Its luxurious rooms, multi-lingual staff, gourmet brasserie and over-the-top Cognac bar aim to overwhelm guests with service and style. Guest rooms are available in three price levels - standard, executive club and suite. All rooms come with a computer, printer, wireless Internet access and a valet, as well as standard amenities. Executive club rooms and suites come with premium amenities including complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner snacks, cocktails, CD and DVD players and a complimentary meeting room. All rooms have been renovated, even though the hotel just opened in 2004. A spa, fitness center with personal trainers and 25-meter lap pool cater to guests' health, wellness and relaxation.

Food and drink are priorities at the Hotel InterContinental. The hotel's restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon, is open 24 hours a day and is the third location in the world of the famed French brasserie in Paris that opened in 1946. It serves such classic French dishes as foie gras, escargots and roasted pig's feet. The restaurant's signature is its towers of cold seafood, flown in daily, that look, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, like "something Carmen Miranda would have worn as a hat, minus the bananas.'' The InterContinental also features a bar with 69 varieties of Cognac , which they claim is the largest collection in the country. The bar is a hot spot for celebrity watching in Atlanta. It features a Cognac cocktail that is $550 per drink.

The hotel offers nearly 24,000 square feet of meeting space. The largest single room is over 11,000 square feet, and there is 4,500 square feet of exhibit space that can hold 15 8'x10' booths. The larger of two ballrooms can accommodate up to 1,100 people. There are four other meeting rooms of varying sizes. Meeting planners are onsite at the hotel, and full catering and state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment can be provided for all functions.

Reviews of the Hotel InterContinental on a well-known travel website were overwhelmingly favorable - 83 percent gave the hotel either an "Excellent'' or a "Very Good'' rating. Guests enjoyed the luxury and comfort of the space, as well as the convenient Buckhead location. The spa and fitness amenities got high ratings, but the restaurant seemed less popular. Among the positive comments, the hotel was called "lovely and beyond comfortable'' and "one of the finest in the US.'' Service also got good marks, with one person noting, "The crowning glory as far as I was concerned was the staff. The entire place is filled with kind and helpful people. I saw only genuine smiles everywhere I went.'' Most reviewers who were dissatisfied felt that the hotel did not offer good value for its price. This person summed up the feeling, saying, "For some reason the attention to detail, which is what differentiates a four-star hotel from others, is lacking.'' Travelers have liked the InterContinental well enough, however, to rate it number five among all hotels in Atlanta on the popular travel website tripadvisor.com, so they must be doing most of it right.