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Review – Holiday Inn Gdansk, Poland

a white building with many windows and boats in the water

Holiday Inn Gdansk – City Centre is a new build hotel, opened June 2019, on Granary Island, or Spichlerze in Polish. The hotel is part of a massive development on the Motlawa River, a pedestrian bridge away from Old Town Gdansk. I had stayed at Radisson Suites in June 2019, another new build hotel on Granary Island opened May 2019, about two weeks before the Holiday Inn Gdansk grand opening gala (link is YouTube video showing more of the hotel design and in German language with parts in English).

I looked forward to trying out the IHG hotel, especially when I saw a 4-night stay in late November for 30,000 IHG points ($150). I booked two reward stays of four nights to start and end our trip to Gdansk, Poland with a night in Sopot and 10 nights in Krakow sandwiched in the middle.

I booked the Holiday Inn Gdansk stays using the Chase IHG card 4th night free rate. Our second stay cost 32,000 points ($160). The standard room I booked was Two Singles Courtyard view and we were upgraded to river view rooms.

a building next to a body of water
Holiday Inn Gdansk is two connected white buildings at end of Granary Island. Radisson Red Gdansk is in the Whiskey in the Jar brick building.

 

a white building with many windows
Holiday Inn Gdansk, Poland back side of hotel. Breakfast room is glass area in center of left building and our rooms were on this side of hotel. Floor 7 SkyBar patio deck is situated above Holiday Inn sign in right side building.

 

Floors 1-6 are guest floors. Our first stay was a room on Floor 1 and second stay we were on Floor 6. Both rooms were in nearly same location of hotel, only separated by height. The Floor 1 room was slightly larger with a tub in the bathroom and a little more floor space. Both of our stays were Friday to Tuesday and we learned that even in the cold of late November and mid-December there are people who like to walk along the Granary Island riverside talking, singing and yelling late into the night. Staying higher up kept the noise level slightly lower. Closing the windows would have alleviated much of the outdoor noise, but Kelley kept all three windows open in the room, even though the temperature was generally in the low 20s to low 30s. 

boats in a harbor with buildings and boats
Holiday Inn Gdansk, Poland Floor 1 room view of Gdansk. Marina. Hotel Gdansk across the waterway is also a microbrewery. I had a couple pints of their beer at the Gdansk GDN Executive lounge.

 

a group of boats in a harbor
Holiday Inn Gdansk Floor 6 room view of Gdansk.

 

a bed with pillows and a pair of oars
Holiday Inn Gdansk bed

 

The rooms at Holiday Inn Gdansk have a nautical theme, a fitting tribute to the centuries old shipping trade that made Gdansk one of the wealthiest cities on the Baltic Sea around 500 years ago. 

a couch in a room
Holiday Inn Gdansk room sofa.

 

 

a tv on the wall
Holiday Inn Gdansk desk and tv.

 

a room with a couch and a bed
Holiday Inn Gdansk room layout

 

The refrigerator in the room is located in cabinet behind ropes. There were items in the frig that I set on the counter for our stay so I could stock water, beer and some food inside. A Zabka mini market is about 50 meters from the entrance to the hotel. Zabka mini-markets are found everywhere in Gdansk and Krakow, Poland, often only a couple hundred meters apart. 

a mini fridge with drinks and beverages inside
Holiday Inn Gdansk stocked room refrigerator.

 

a bathroom with a toilet and sink
Holiday Inn Gdansk bathroom with shower tub on Floor 1.

 

a shower with a shower head
Holiday Inn Gdansk shower stall Floor 6 room.

 

The guest rooms had sheer curtains and heavy floor-to-ceiling drapes.

Floor 7 SkyBar

The SkyBar has wonderful views, although I wanted to turn off the lights to really capture the beauty of the Old Town Gdansk skyline at night. When we were there on a night without a World Cup 2022 game playing there were only a few people in the bar, so I did not feel too embarrassed to stand between the curtain and window and snap photos to alleviate light reflection off the glass.

a city at night with buildings and a river
Holiday Inn Gdansk SkyBar view of Old Town

 

Architecture in Old Town Gdansk has the look of Amsterdam due to post-WW2 reconstruction of the decimated city in the style of the 17th century design when Dutch architects constructed the city center business district. The Netherlands and Gdansk (Danzig) were major trade partners.

a room with a christmas tree and chairs
Holiday Inn Gdansk SkyBar room

 

A 17 PLN pint of Tyskie beer at Holiday Inn Gdansk SkyBar was more than most restaurants and pubs in the city at 10-15PLN, but at $3.75 for a draught pint it was certainly worth the price to hang out in the SkyBar for the views. Cocktails are the notable specialty drinks from reviews I read about SkyBar.

boats in a harbor at night
View of marina and Ferris wheel from Holiday Inn Gdansk SkyBar.

 

Holiday Inn Gdansk Fitness Center

The fitness center is located on Floor 7 of the main building with reception and Horizon Restaurant. Besides the SkyBar, this was the only room at the hotel I was in with views to Old Town Gdansk.

a city with a river and buildings
Holiday Inn Gdansk floor 7 fitness room view.

 

a room with exercise equipment
Holiday Inn Gdansk fitness room

 

a room with a large white wall and a white column
Holiday Inn Gdansk fitness room

 

a group of treadmills in a room
Holiday Inn Gdansk fitness room

 

a treadmill with a screen and buttons
Holiday Inn Gdansk fitness room

 

Holiday Inn Gdansk Lobby

a christmas tree in a room
Holiday Inn Gdansk Christmas tree

 

a circular object in a room
Holiday Inn Gdansk lobby seating near elevators with a large TV also in this space.

 

a computer on a desk
Holiday Inn Gdansk guest computers by reception desk

 

When you walk in the front doors of Holiday Inn the reception desk is in front to the right and a computer table for guests in the space in front of reception. Elevators are to the left with a lobby seating space and big TV. The seating space usually had several people watching World Cup 2022 games playing all day during our time in Gdansk.

a poster of a football match
Holiday Inn Gdansk World Cup 2022 board

 

Holiday Inn Gdansk Horizon Restaurant Breakfast Dining

a room with a bar and a table
Holiday Inn Gdansk Horizon Restaurant bar.

 

Horizon Restaurant and bar are in an open space straight through from the entrance to the rear of the hotel

My current status as IHG Diamond meant I was able to select breakfast for the two of us as a welcome amenity. Buffet breakfast was served daily 7:30-10:30.

a room with tables and chairs
Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast room seating

 

Saturday and Sunday mornings were seriously packed in the breakfast room. There was a dropoff with only about 30% diners on weekdays compared to weekends during our stays. On weekdays there was a chef who made cook-to-order omelettes.

a restaurant with a large counter
Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast food area.

 

a view of a city from a window
Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast view.

 

a table with bowls of food
Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast buffet salad

 

I generally loaded up on vegetables in the breakfast buffet since many of our meals at Polish restaurants were meat and potatoes with a limited selection of vegetables as side order dishes on the menu.

a buffet table full of food
Poland Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast meats, chesses and other stuff.

 

a kitchen with a counter top
Holiday Inn Gdansk buffet breakfast cereals and fruit.

 

a table with bread and rolls
Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast buffet bread. This picture taken on a weekday does not show baguettes, which typically filled the tall basket during our stay.

 

food on a counter with plates and bowls
Holiday Inn Gdansk buffet hot foods, scrambled eggs, baked beans, bacon and sausages.

 

a kitchen with many pots of food
Holiday Inn brakfast buffet – vegetable hot dish, porridge and pancakes

 

a tray of pastries and plates
Holiday Inn Gdansk breakfast buffet sweets.

 

There were usually slices of cake too on the buffet counter. 

Three automated coffee dispensers were in constant use on crowded mornings. The set-up of the buffet with guests passing through two aisles was congested on weekend mornings when the restaurant was packed. All in all, breakfast was filling. Generally eating a large breakfast from 10-10:30 meant we often got by with only one more restaurant meal in late afternoon somewhere in Old Town Gdansk.

Granary Island

A few quick notes on Granary Island. There are currently three major chain hotels with Radisson Suites, Holiday Inn Gdansk and Radisson Red, newly opened in Summer 2022 . There are more than a dozen restaurants along the 300 meter or so stretch to the main crossroad. There is still construction happening on the island, although we did not hear much loud noise outside from construction. There was remodeling noise from inside the Holiday Inn during our stay.

Everything on Granary Island is newly built since I first visited Gdansk in January 2017. It is exciting to see urban renewal progress in this beautiful part of Gdansk. I will cover Gdansk city in other articles to describe what makes it an interesting tourist destination from its history as a medieval Hanseatic trade center on the Baltic Sea, its complicated history with Germany, Prussia and Russia, its role in starting WW2 and devastation at the end of WW2 and the rebuilding of a few core streets that now comprise the Disneyesque Old Town section of Gdansk. There are a couple of major museums with the Museum of the Second World War and the European Solidarity Centre, where there are exhibits describing the labor movement of Poland and how the shipyards of Gdansk helped lead to the dismantling of the Soviet-linked socialist government of Poland in the 1980s.

a row of buildings next to a river
Granary Island, Gdansk, Poland mixed use development with hotels, apartments and restaurants lining the ground level.

 

Last Week in Poland, a brief – Dec 1, 2022.

Poland Trip Report Overview – IHG Milestones and Star Alliance Gold Progress – Dec 17, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Comments

  • fanneat December 19, 2022

    Nowadays, more and more tourists search for travel-related information online. Reading travel blogs is an important source of inspiration and brings several advantages from the reader’s point of view: the Web is readily accessible; content is selected and often up-to-date, and blog entries promise the personal experiences of other travelers.

  • Christian December 19, 2022

    Thanks for the detailed and relevant review. On the singing in the middle of the night, is it like Brits in Prague, maybe a World Cup thing, or just a late night area?

  • Ric Garrido December 22, 2022

    @Christian – I’d say it is a late night area due to the number of relatively new restaurant bars on Granary Island and the fact that the only vehicle traffic goes along one center road. There are no vehicles when walking around the outer roads and paths encircling the island.

    There were some Brits, but far more Germans and Scandinavian tourists based on languages I heard. The singing and yelling sounded mostly like Poles to me.

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