Eight cities, eight unforgettable ways to celebrate the season

A great holiday party used to mean a ballroom, a caterer and a DJ, interchangeable enough that the venue itself barely mattered. InterContinental by IHG is making the opposite case this season: across the country, its properties build holiday entertaining around what actually makes each city worth celebrating in, a skyline, a waterfront, a menu that couldn't exist anywhere else. The venue isn't just where the party happens. It's part of the reason to have one.

From rooftop cocktails against the Los Angeles skyline to waterfront gatherings on the Potomac, from a century of San Francisco tradition to Southern hospitality in Atlanta, each InterContinental property brings its own read on what makes a celebration feel like it belongs exactly where it's happening. The throughline isn't ballroom square footage, it's food worth talking about, settings worth remembering and a sense that the city itself showed up to the party.

Whether the occasion is an intimate dinner, a cocktail reception or a full holiday gathering, here are eight InterContinental hotels across the country worth knowing before booking this season. Part of IHG's Luxury & Lifestyle portfolio, each one is distinctly its own.

Sky-high celebrations: InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown

Most Angelenos know the skyline from the ground, glimpsed from a freeway or a sidewalk mid-errand. InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown offers a different vantage entirely: expansive ballrooms, open-air terraces and rooftop settings set high enough that a cocktail reception here means seeing the city the way most people only get to from a plane. For gatherings of any size, the hotel's downtown setting also puts L.A.'s own restaurant and nightlife scene within easy reach before or after the event, so the evening doesn't have to end when the toast does. It's a setting built for the kind of celebration where guests remember the vantage point as much as the occasion itself.

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A San Francisco tradition: InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco

Some holiday celebrations feel like they've always existed, and at Mark Hopkins, that's close to true. The hotel carries nearly a century of San Francisco history, and its holiday entertaining leans into the city's own culinary map rather than a generic banquet spread. Reception stations draw straight from San Francisco's neighborhoods: a Fisherman's Wharf station serving local oysters and Tomales Bay clams, a La Misión station built around carnitas, pollo asado and fresh salsas, and a Dim Sum station honoring the city's Chinese culinary heritage. Before or after, Top of the Mark offers handcrafted cocktails with the city spread out below, a fitting stop for an evening built on the idea that celebrating in San Francisco should actually taste like San Francisco.

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Where waterfront views meet holiday entertaining: InterContinental Washington D.C. – The Wharf

Washington doesn't really think of itself as a waterfront city, with monuments and marble getting most of the attention. The Potomac tends to be something you drive past rather than gather along. InterContinental Washington D.C. sits right in The Wharf, the stretch of the city that's spent the last several years turning that assumption around. Inside, floor-to-ceiling windows and waterfront terraces put guests directly at the water's edge, and a rooftop venue and panoramic indoor-outdoor spaces adds a view over it after dark, when the marina lights do more for the mood than any string of holiday lights could manage indoors. For a smaller dinner or a larger year-end gathering, the setting does what the rest of the city rarely does: it remembers the river is actually there.

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Holiday traditions in the heart of the city: InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile

Chicago's holiday season has its own rhythm, and InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile sits right in the middle of it. The hotel's Grand Ballroom alone makes the case for hosting here: an elliptical room with 37 hand-painted murals and a 12,000-pound Baccarat crystal chandelier, one of the largest in the world, casting enough light that the room looks ready for the holidays before a single ornament goes up. The building started life in 1929 as an exclusive private club, and that history still shows in details like the hotel's nearly Olympic-sized pool, restored to its original 1920s look with a hand-carved terracotta fountain and hand-painted Spanish tiles. Step outside afterward and the Magnificent Mile itself picks up where the room leaves off, holiday shopping, destination dining and the city's seasonal lights all a short walk from the door. It's a hotel built during Chicago's most extravagant era, still extravagant enough to host the holidays perfectly.

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Celebrate somewhere new: InterContinental Seattle Bellevue

Among the newest additions to the InterContinental portfolio in North America, InterContinental Seattle Bellevue brings a genuinely fresh perspective to holiday entertaining. Chef-led dining experiences and hands-on culinary activities turn a holiday gathering into something guests actually take part in, while interactive food stations keep the evening moving rather than seated and static. The Pacific Northwest sensibility shows up throughout, in the hospitality, in the ingredients, in the general sense that this is a distinctly regional take on the season rather than an import from somewhere else. For anyone who's hosted the same kind of holiday party in the same kind of ballroom for years, this is a genuine reason to try something different, a new setting with a new way of thinking about what holiday entertaining can feel like.

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Holiday entertaining on the harbor: InterContinental Boston

Boston Harbor isn't just scenery here, it's history. InterContinental Boston sits on the site of the Boston Tea Party, and the building's curved, sail-shaped facade was built to catch the harbor rather than just face it, which shows up inside as a light-filled event space with sweeping water views from nearly every angle. That's what makes it worth hosting a cocktail reception, a holiday dinner or a larger year-end gathering here, a room that turns the harbor—and its history—into part of the event itself, not just something visible through a window. As a bonus once the formal part of the evening winds down, Loyall Counting Room, a hidden speakeasy tucked inside the hotel, waits for guests who aren't ready to call it a night.

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Southern charm for holiday celebrations: InterContinental Atlanta Buckhead

InterContinental Atlanta Buckhead blends classic luxury with the kind of warmth Southern hospitality is known for, and the effect is a setting that feels grand without feeling stiff. Elegant ballrooms and more intimate gathering spaces both carry the same timeless design, suited equally to a full holiday gala or a smaller private reception. The seasonal menu makes its own case for the visit: mulled wine finished with cinnamon and orange, roasted beet and citrus salads, braised short ribs with root vegetables, and a traditional Bûche de Noël to close things out. It's the kind of holiday dining that treats the season's classics with real care rather than checking a box, exactly the sort of detail that turns a holiday party into something guests remember eating as much as attending, a rare combination for an event this size.

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Distinctly San Antonio: InterContinental San Antonio

Along San Antonio's River Walk, InterContinental San Antonio offers a full rotation of seasonal events rather than a single holiday party format: rooftop evenings at High Praise, chef-driven dinners at Cavalier, and live entertainment right along the water. The hotel's culinary team builds menus that blend local Texas flavor with global influence, and with multiple event venues and private dining options on-site, the setting scales easily from an intimate dinner to a larger celebration. Skyline views and the River Walk's own energy do the rest, immersing guests in the city rather than sealing them off from it for the evening. It's the kind of night, rooftop views, River Walk energy and chef-driven dining all under one roof, that you won't find anywhere else in Texas.

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Wherever the city, whatever the celebration

However you choose to celebrate this season, the invitation across all eight properties is the same: let the city and the setting do some of the work. Whether that means a skyline in Los Angeles, a century of tradition in San Francisco or a River Walk in San Antonio, each InterContinental hotel turns a holiday gathering into something that couldn't have happened anywhere else, a room, a menu and a city working together rather than one simply hosting the other. Consider InterContinental when planning your next holiday gathering, dining event or celebration, wherever that celebration happens to be this year.

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