ANA InterContinental Ishigaki Resort by IHG — Hotel in Ishigaki

I have had a very good experience with the extended stay and smaller IHG hotels back in the states, so I was very excited to use my rewards points towards staying at a resort during a scuba trip to Ishigaki. 90% it was good experience but enough was wrong to not recommend for a resort experience on a dive trip.

First room I was put in had a stampede of children at 9PM and a screaming baby until 9:30. Not fun to be woken up after falling asleep after a long day of diving. Noise should not travel between floors at an establishment of this level. I was able to pay a reasonable price to move to the newly renovated wing which was protected completely from pool/other room noise pollution.

The pool lighting looks fantastic at night. Very food ambience, however the layout of the new wing is mediocre in design. Some doors are difficult to open. Navigation between parts of the resort is difficult and not that efficient and there are only a few places to relax outside of the room.

There is a balcony with patio furniture that has a decent sound system and music. The reception staff was very helpful in getting a currently unavailable room with a king size bed ready and the outdoor patio was a great place to wait with an ocean view and upbeat tunes. Also it was very nice to use the complimentary golf cart shuttle (most times available) between amenities. Most of the staff were very friendly and customer service oriented.

The newly renovated room was much better than the first (old) room that I was originally put in. The TV was difficult for a non-Kanji reader in the first room but in the new room it worked without any problem. There were two bluetooth speakers in the room that were of quality sound. All rooms face the ocean and the views of the reef are good.

Overall it was a good place to start the day with fantastic breakfast experience. Breakfast was worth the ticket although I did not remember seeing an option on the IHG booking website and it was kind of annoying to have to translate every morning and sign a room charge.

The room itself (only the newly renovated room) was perfect to come back and get quality sleep after spending the entire day scuba diving. Pillows were adequate but oddly sized. For anything other than sleep and breakfast, the resort was not a place where as a solo male traveller I felt entirely comfortable or engaged with leisure activities. The spa had a high quality massage experience which is a rarity at Japanese hotels and resorts. It woild have been nice to have a book with hotel and nearby amenities rather than just a piece of paper showing a map and some details.

One bad experience at the high end new restaurant for diner. I was seated facing a corner and ignored while a Japanese party was seated 15 minutes after me and served first. This really put a damper on any good feelings I had started to establish after recovering from being woken by stomping my first night. I was seated then stood up to leve after about 10 minutes of not even being given a menu. When I started to leave, then was brought a drink menu and told someone would be with me shortly. Then I continued to wait for at least 5 minutes when a party was immediately given menus served. It seemed like I was experiencing that because of my nationality or because of my lack of Japanese vocabulary. Very sad night and low point of my trip. That was such a disappointment and a bummer to be treated so poorly. I wish they would have just let me walk out to find some food at Family Mart or Lawsons. Instead I sat in a dark corner of fancy dinner timeout for two hours as tiny portions slowly came out.

For the price point I had much higher expectations. Many boxes were checked to make for a good resort but the dinner experience and needing to pay extra to escape the noise from other guests was offputting to where I would not recommend future scuba divers...

The resort and rooms themselves are nice, but more on the dated side. The food onsite is pretty good, considering there aren't many options walkable nearby.||Before checkin, I was informed that I would need to pay an extra 8000Yen per night for the child I reserved for that is over 6 so is an adult. Upon checkin, I was informed that because I reserved for 1 adult and 2 kids, that I would be charged 8000Yen x 2 per night for the two children even though the room itself fit 2 adults. I chose not to waste time arguing at checkin or checkout.||After settling in, we headed to one of two of three pools. There are two outdoor and one indoor. Surprised there was no onsen at this resort. We also headed to Maesato beach. We spent the next day at this beach as well. The beach has actually been divided into several areas with one for Ocean Park, which is an inflatable park. This is a per day cost and each session starts at the top of the hour and ends after 60 minutes. You have to put your name down for the session. It was fun, but one of my kids got scratched up climbing up and over one of the edges, maybe the velcro. Another section is just for swimming and it is crowded. There are couple clusters of coral that have fishes swimming around. On either side of these two areas are non swimming, one for boats and one for SUP etc. We got told not to swim in the SUP area.||The room itself in the main Ocean Wing was nice. It has an entry hallway leading to a closet on one side and the bathroom and small refrigerator/mini bar on the other. The toilet is separate from shower and bathtub and extra sink. We saw Maesato beach from our balcony but it does not face sunrise or sunset head on. As with most hotels in Japan, they have PJs, toiletries etc. Coin laundry on 3rd and 7th floor. I spent some time looking for it since the map was not clear. Ocean Wing is convenient but we saw some rooms in Coral wing had bunk beds and looked a bit newer as did the wing in front of Sunrise pool.||For our first dinner, we tried the buffet and it was really good. For breakfast, we used the online waitlist but at the expense of seeming like I was nagging, I did not ask the hostess when it was our turn since the website showed that it was not yet our turn. When it got close to closing time of 10:30am, I ventured to ask and they made it seem like I should've told them I was waiting . I guess you should check in with the hostess rather than rely on the online waitlist. Since our breakfast was short, I packed up some snacks for lunch on the beach. For dinner that night, there is a restaurant across the street I tried to reserve, but you need a Japan phone number so they can call to confirm. Should've had the concierge do that. Oh on the topic of concierge, I wanted to do a half day manta ray snorkel and had been corresponding with them via email. However, when we arrive the person was off that day and it tours were full. I had also tried to book on the web, but none of them replied and the vendor the concierge recommended did not actually turn up in my web search. So we did not do a manta ray snorkel.||I don't think we will be coming back to this resort or Ishigaki. It might not be worth the trek if you don't scuba...

The resort and rooms themselves are nice, but more on the dated side. The food onsite is pretty good, considering there aren't many options walkable nearby.||Before checkin, I was informed that I would need to pay an extra 8000Yen per night for the child I reserved for that is over 6 so is an adult. Upon checkin, I was informed that because I reserved for 1 adult and 2 kids, that I would be charged 8000Yen x 2 per night for the two children even though the room itself fit 2 adults. I chose not to waste time arguing at checkin or checkout.||After settling in, we headed to one of two of three pools. There are two outdoor and one indoor. Surprised there was no onsen at this resort. We also headed to Maesato beach. We spent the next day at this beach as well. The beach has actually been divided into several areas with one for Ocean Park, which is an inflatable park. This is a per day cost and each session starts at the top of the hour and ends after 60 minutes. You have to put your name down for the session. It was fun, but one of my kids got scratched up climbing up and over one of the edges, maybe the velcro. Another section is just for swimming and it is crowded. There are couple clusters of coral that have fishes swimming around. On either side of these two areas are non swimming, one for boats and one for SUP etc. We got told not to swim in the SUP area.||The room itself in the main Ocean Wing was nice. It has an entry hallway leading to a closet on one side and the bathroom and small refrigerator/mini bar on the other. The toilet is separate from shower and bathtub and extra sink. We saw Maesato beach from our balcony but it does not face sunrise or sunset head on. As with most hotels in Japan, they have PJs, toiletries etc. Coin laundry on 3rd and 7th floor. I spent some time looking for it since the map was not clear. Ocean Wing is convenient but we saw some rooms in Coral wing had bunk beds and looked a bit newer as did the wing in front of Sunrise pool.||For our first dinner, we tried the buffet and it was really good. For breakfast, we used the online waitlist but at the expense of seeming like I was nagging, I did not ask the hostess when it was our turn since the website showed that it was not yet our turn. When it got close to closing time of 10:30am, I ventured to ask and they made it seem like I should've told them I was waiting . I guess you should check in with the hostess rather than rely on the online waitlist. Since our breakfast was short, I packed up some snacks for lunch on the beach. For dinner that night, there is a restaurant across the street I tried to reserve, but you need a Japan phone number so they can call to confirm. Should've had the concierge do that. Oh on the topic of concierge, I wanted to do a half day manta ray snorkel and had been corresponding with them via email. However, when we arrive the person was off that day and it tours were full. I had also tried to book on the web, but none of them replied and the vendor the concierge recommended did not actually turn up in my web search. So we did not do a manta ray snorkel.||I don't think we will be coming back to this resort or Ishigaki. It might not be worth the trek if you don't scuba...