InterContinental Bucharest view $50, View of IC Bucharest $40

IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks has InterContinental Bucharest for 10,000 points for stays to Nov 30, 2018. This hotel is normally 25,000 points for a standard reward night.

InterContinental Bucharest

I looked up IC Bucharest on Google Maps out of curiosity to check its location with reference to popular places in the city Bucharest. I recall years ago considering InterContinental Bucharest when it was 5,000 points on PointsBreak, but a guidebook description of the city turned me off to the city as a destination.

So, I referred to my July 2017 Lonely Planet Romania & Bulgaria guide book. As someone who spends most of my time working on travel, until I know exactly where I want to go or have been there before, then a travel book is tends to be a more accurate and quicker reference overview to places around a country than searching websites.

I have never been to Bucharest.

Lonely Planet showed a map of Central Bucharest highlighting the area around IC Bucharest.

These days, the saddle makers are long gone to make way for dozens and dozens of restaurants, bars and clubs. It’s still very scruffy in parts, with gleaming clubs standing next to derelict buildings, but if you’re in the mood for a big night out, there’s no better place in town to party.

Lonely Planet Romania & Bulgaria – 2017

Google Maps shows InterContinental Bucharest at $35

$35 for the InterContinental Bucharest certainly grabbed my attention!

In 2017 I stayed at InterContinental Warsaw, a skyscraper with residential apartments in the upper half of the hotels.

Is this similar at InterContinental Bucharest with private apartments in part of the hotel building?

Upon closer inspection, this Central Apartment – InterContinental Hotel for rent through VRBO is described with the words “view of Bucharest and of the InterContinental Hotel.”

Good case for reading the fine print.

$40.10 per night through VRBO for an apartment with a view of InterContinental Hotel Bucharest,

or

$50.00 per night to buy 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points and book a PointBreaks reward night for a view of Bucharest from the InterContinental Hotel.

Bucharest as a trip destination?

I am visiting Romania for 7 nights during this period of IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks, but I did not plan a visit to Bucharest during my week. My flight plan takes me to the northern part of Romania and Bucharest is southern Romania, near the border with Bulgaria.

If Romania were a U.S. state, Romania would rank 12th in size at 238,000 square kilometers, bigger than Minnesota, but smaller than Michigan. Of course, that comparison assumes you have any idea how big Minnesota or Michigan is in size.

For me, I think of Romania as more than half the size of California. Romania is sort of circular in country shape and would cover about the same geographic area as a line across California from the Mexico border and border of Arizona in Southern California to a northern line from Santa Clara County about 30 miles south of San Francisco and across the state to the Nevada border. That is a big area of California and even with decades on the ground here in California, there are so many places I have yet to see.

Travel is about choices of where to go and for how long. Romania is big, yet I can fly across the coutnry for about $70 round trip.

Bucharest was not on my mind, but 10,000 points per night and a cheap trans-Romania airline ticket could take me there for a couple of days.

Bucharest for two days of my seven?

Decisions, decisions.