Islamabad is one of those neatly planned late 20C capitals that puts a modern gloss on an ancient land, and the Islamabad Marriott is a Potemkin Village within that Potemkin Village. The facilities are first-class by any international standard, the staff is impressively attentive, friendly, and solicitous (and for those of us whose Urdu is limited to four words, the entire staff is totally capable of at least one foreign language, which happily for Anglophones is always English). My room was spacious and the Internet connection easy, though for snail-mail needs like postcards the concierge seemed to have to ration the few postage stamps he had for sale. I liked the range of breakfast offerings in the 24-hour Nadia restaurant--from a rotating series of Indo-Pak foods to Euro-American eggs and French toast to Japanese miso soup; I didn't sample any of the other restaurants, which seemed to have irregular hours (perhaps because of a paucity of guests?).
- Marriott Islamabad
- Islamabad Marriott
