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- Introduction: Oceania Cruises’ Vista Inaugural Sailings
- Tips For Maximizing Your Oceania Cruises Booking
- Flying to Ljubljana, the New Gateway for “Venice” Cruises!?!
- Flight/Lounge Review – United Polaris Experience
- Flight Connection at Brussels International Airport (BRU)
- Intercontinental Ljubljana Review – Booked Using CC Free Night Certificate
- Getting From Ljubljana to Trieste, Our Experience Using Daytrip
- Our Experience on a (Nearly) Inaugural Sailing
- Ship Review – Oceania Cruises New Vista
- Oceania Cruises New Vista Dining Review
- Oceania Cruises Bars, Lounges, and the New Mixology Program
- Oceania Cruises Vista Cabin and Suite Overview Including Penthouse (PH-2 with extended balcony) Review
- Athens to Atlanta via Doha, Our First Experience in QSuites
- Katara Hills Doha, LXR Hotels & Resorts Review – Booked Using CC Free Night Certificate
After arriving at the small, stylish, and incredibly efficient Ljubljana International Airport, we picked up our bags while checking out the amazing views, and ordered a car to take us to our hotel.
We always start our cruises by arriving at least one day before embarkation. For trips with more complicated itineraries like those with international connections or only one flight per day, we consider arriving at least two days ahead. These pre-cruise nights can add considerable cost of your cruise vacation. How do we manage to keep these costs down? It’s simple – we leverage hotel credit cards that provide annual free nights to cover these stays.
This trip was no different. We planned to arrive in Ljubljana, Slovenia approximately 24-hours prior to our embarkation aboard Oceania Vista just across the border in Trieste, Italy. This meant that we needed to stay overnight somewhere between Ljubljana, Slovenia and Trieste, Italy. A quick search showed that there was a nearly new Intercontinental Hotel in the heart of Ljubljana. We happened to have an IHG free night certificate expiring later this year that could cover the cost. It didn’t hurt that the Intercontinental Ljubljana is the nicest points hotel in the city.
The Intercontinental Ljubljana is a sleek five-star hotel located in the heart of Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana. It’s also the tallest hotel in the city. Its prime location allows for easy exploration of the city’s historic sites and offers stylish dining and entertainment options. The hotel boasts an excellent rooftop bar (trust us) as well as a Michelin-listed restaurant – B-Restaurant.
Going rates for the hotel over the summer average €225 per night or approximately $260 USD as of the publication of this post. For a hotel of this quality, the price is fair and a relative bargain compared to a comparable hotel across the border in Italy. What did this room cost us? The only cost to us was the annual fee on our IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card which is $99/year. While not the best redemption value for a free night certificate that we’ve ever had (you’ll have to wait until the end of the series for that one), this still presented solid value. The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card also comes with Platinum Elite status, which provides a host of benefits including free high-speed internet and a Platinum Elite Members’ Welcome Amenity choice which can include breakfast or drinks in the bar.
The Intercontinental Ljubljana provided us with a box of welcome truffles as well as two vouchers for beverages at the rooftop bar. We enjoyed the drinks and views of the capital city before heading out for a visit to the city’s hilltop castle and dinner.
Our room was upgraded to a higher floor 1 King Classic room with excellent views of the city. The room and bathroom were well-designed and spacious. The bathroom had both a bath and a large walk-in shower as well as a dual vanity.
What really stood out was the friendliness of the staff. The gentleman that checked us in was incredibly friendly and helpful, providing lots of information on how best to enjoy his city. The bar staff were equally friendly sharing tips on their favorite bars and restaurants in the area.
After dinner we settled in for a deep and restful sleep and set our alarms for an early morning departure to Trieste, but first a trip to explore Prejama Castle en route. – Michael
Advertiser Disclosure: Frequent Floaters is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
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Just returned from Slovenia, Ljubljana Airport Lounge is a real gem. The IHC is wonderful!
Slovenia is a must!!
@C. Weston – This was actually our second visit to Slovenia, the first time was on a cruise stop in Koper, which we really enjoyed. We would like to explore even more in Slovenia with both mountains and Adriatic coastline is great. Maybe next time we’ll fly out of the Ljubljana airport and get to explore the lounge.
You did very well, I got no upgrade and no truffles as a Plat member and a toilet that autoflushed at 3am every night I was there.
The staff were nice though.
@Dave – Fortunately we had no issues with our toilet at this hotel. I feel your pain having had issues with auto-flush toilets at other properties in the past.