Intercontinental The Red Sea - Relocated From Miraval Red Sea
Booking:
We had initially booked the Miraval Red Sea using points (65k per night) and the Prive Rate (1.4k USD) for a new nights. A week before our stay they reached out via email letting us know the opening was delayed a month. After some push back we were offered a full refund and were moved to the IHG with full board. I'm not sure if being a Prive and IHG One Destined TA helped. I do know someone booked at Miraval for end of May, we'll see.
Transportation to and from the airport was provided and we did earn IHG Points for our stay.
Getting there:
There are a few flights a week to RSI from JED and RUH. Red Sea was part of a larger trip, but we got flights to JED from IST on TK J (Not lie flat) and From JED to LHR on BA J (Very mediocre but lie flat). We spent a few days in JED as part of our Journey to break up our trip. On an aside the Ritz Jeddah, although aging is magnificent on the inside. And we got upgraded to a massive suite due to Marriot Stars. The breakfast looked better than it was though.
Once we were at RSI we accidentally boarded the bus for employees going to the area, but found someone who then arranged our transport in a Lucid to the hotel. We did not have to collect our bags, they collected and sent them to the hotel separately.
The RSI airport was cool to see, it's tiny but brand new. We walked from the terminal straight onto the plane.
It was cool to me seeing the construction and them building more of the hotels and the area around the resorts.
The hotel:
The hotel itself was super nice. The rooms are split into pods where it's 1-3 rooms per pod depending on their sizes. You can tell that it's brand new, and the groundskeeping was very impressive given it just got plopped into what was a dessert months ago. On arrival to the hotel we were actually first greeting by the GM and Night Manger of the Miraval. They were very apologetic about our delay, but told us the IHG team will take good care of us. They upgraded us to a Waterfront Junior Suite. It was a beautiful view and room, I almost can't go back to a hotel like that without a waterfront room.
The service was top tier as well. I would honestly say the service was better than some other ultra luxury hotels I've been to, but the IHG wasn't cheap for an Intercontinental. Staff would know us by name almost everywhere, they had our food preferences down by day 2, and everyone was just so over the top hospitable and welcoming, without it coming off as disingenuous.
The fire alarm went off in our room one night, possibly due to someone in an adjacent room smoking. I'm weird, so I enjoyed seeing them come out and handle it and all that. The alarm was off within minutes but it took 15 minutes to get the AC back on and lights turned off in our room. The hotel GM found us at breakfast the next morning and comped us a couples massage ($700) so overall, so I can't complain lol.
There are 2 restaurants that haven't opened yet, so the variety we had was limited. The lunch and dinner menus were the same as well. Luckily the food was delicious. My wife is vegan and the dining staff was very accommodating in that regard as well.
You could see some construction going on. They were building the rosewood far in the distance and some Four Seasons villas right across the lagoon from our room which I swam across to 😄 . The noise wasn't bad, and I was honestly excited watching that going on, but my wife wasn't as amused as you can hear/see it in the distance. She did say it didn't ruin the experience in any way though.
I'll try to add more pictures in the comments, but I've been pretty excited about making my way out to the area, so I'm more than happy to answer any questions.
Miraval:
I reached out to the GM of the Miraval and asked if I could tour the property. They took me over the next day and wow it's going to look great once it's done. I would probably want to leave some time between this trip and going to the Miraval again as there's probably an overlap in the atmosphere, but the activities, dining, and overall vibe at the Miraval still would be completely unique to me. The room design and overall hotel layout is probably a bit similar to the IHG though. I did see they moved their opening to May 15th now. Seeing as the SPA still wasn't built when I toured, I'm shocked they didn't reach out sooner regarding the opening delay.
I'll try to add pictures of both hotels in the comments, but I've been pretty excited about making my way out to the area, so I'm more than happy to answer any questions.