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InterContinental London Park Lane, pubs and Piccolo Bar breakfast

a table with a glass of beer and food on it

A search for a zoo photo from Amsterdam led me to a June 2017 photo folder with images of InterContinental Park Lane London. My photos were never renamed indicating I never published them for articles from my June 2017 trip report to Gdansk and Krakow, Poland with a flight from Stockholm, Sweden back to San Jose via an overnight transit stop in London.

British Airways Stockholm ARN – London LHR

Our British Airways flight from Stockholm to London on a Friday afternoon included a 21hr 30min layover from 17:25 to 14:55 Saturday. We rode the Underground from London Heathrow LHR to Hyde Park Corner station on the Piccadilly Line and walked through the tunnels under the street covered in Duke of Wellington-Battle of Waterloo murals to InterContinental Park Lane London.

Park Lane sign

InterContinental Park Lane London Room 571

I redeemed my IHG Mastercard annual free night at IC London Park Lane.

All my stays at InterContinental Park Lane have been free night redemptions from promotions and IHG credit card free nights. Except for my first stay, all my stays have been interior view rooms which is basically no view. Room windows look out to other windows around the open air rectangular courtyard. I actually prefer the interior rooms for quieter nights and mornings compared to the busy streets surrounding the hotel.

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A fruit tray welcome amenity waited in the room.

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On a prior stay at IC Park Lane, I wrote an article about how I slept 13.5 hours in the comfortable hotel bed, the most consecutive hours of sleep I recalled since I was 14 years old.

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Loyalty Traveler – Bed time at InterContinental London Park Lane (Dec 2, 2015).

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The dreaded electronic hotel room minibar. Fortunately we had no need to store beer for our one night stay.

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The Arch Bar, InterContinental Park Lane

After the previous night in Stockholm, London Park Lane hotel bar prices seemed reasonable.

IC Park Lane beer

London IC Park Lane

Arch Bar derives its name for the window views of Wellington Arch.

Wellington Arch

We followed up Arch Bar with Friday pub night at crowded May Fair locals, like Shepherds Pub, a Taylor Walker pub near Hilton Park Lane.

May Fair Shepherds pub

Our go to food place for breakfast when in May Fair is Piccolo Bar, also on Shepherd Street. Piccolo is an all day cafe with cheap eats for take-away and not actually a pub or bar. Most breakfast dishes like eggs, bacon, beans and toast are around 5 GBP. The place is a popular cab driver stop.

I created a page for articles on our June 2017 trip. I plan to write a couple more articles on Krakow and Stockholm for this page to wrap up the trip report I never finished.

June 2017 Level Air OAK-BCN to Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow Poland

Oakland, California – Barcelona, Spain – Warsaw, Poland – Gdansk, Poland – Krakow, Poland – Stockholm, Sweden – London, England – San Jose, California

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6 Comments

  • Rupee March 8, 2018

    Thanks for the timely post. I redeemed my free night stay for this hotel in about 3 weeks in London. A paid stay would have cost me almost 300 GBP for that night so I am very happy with my return on the $49 annual fee. I am using points to stay at a hilton right down the street for the rest of my trip.

  • bluecat March 8, 2018

    “Shepherds Pub, a Taylor and Walker’s pub”

    It’s a mission of mine to not frequent any of the chain/corporate-owned pubs in London. Try it next time you go: it’s not very easy to do because almost all of the pubs have been swallowed up and now have been homogenized (down to the same menus!), but you will be happy to be supporting *variety*

  • Ric Garrido March 8, 2018

    @Bluecat – Seemed to us like every pub in Westminster and most of central London is run by Taylor Walker. Their prices are high.

    Our Christmas 2017 trip to London was the first time we found more independent pubs than chain pubs when we spent most of our time in East London. The prices were significantly less than TW pubs – 3.30-3.80 GBP per pint compared to more than 5 GBP pint at TW.

    Boxing Day tourists in East End London – http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2017/12/31/boxing-day-tourists-east-end-london/

    http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2018/01/10/cheapest-pint-london-days-hotel-london-waterloo-review/

  • bluecat March 8, 2018

    I agree that it’s darn difficult to find those but why not make it a point to go after those few holdouts?! I’d do it even if it were more expensive…central London has almost no mom-and-pop ANYTHINGS left (unless we are talking ethnic foods), so it’s good to keep the little guys alive.

    Queen’s Head near Piccadilly is one I go to on every visit.

    I’ll have to put East London on my to-do list!

  • Pedro March 8, 2018

    The IC PL is definitely where you will see the strictest enforcement of the no perks for non paid stays. The treatment between when redeeming points and when paying is night and day. Even as a Spire Ambassador I’d rather stay at one of the other IHG properties in London and save my free nights for an IC that doesn’t blow off award stays.

  • bluecat March 8, 2018

    Not sure, Pedro. I got 2 free drinks at the bar and a nice room. This was last September—a busy time of year for them.

    Maybe you need to flash them a smile…

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