Stay: February 2023

Paid: 17,000 points per room per night (total 68,000 points for two rooms, two nights)

Status: Discoverist

Room: King bed, king bed

Would I stay again? Yes, in a heartbeat, please. I want to go back.

Would I recommend to friends? Absolutely

Our stay at the Hotel Infante Sagres was my very first time staying in a Small Luxury Hotel of the World property, and I loved it. Cannot wait to go back to another one and collect them like beautiful bougie little Pokémon.

Small Luxury Hotels of the World is a brand of independent boutique luxury hotels that all operate under the same umbrella and are bookable with Hyatt points. The really amazing thing about booking stays at the Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) properties is that when you book as a World of Hyatt member—either paying or with points—you get free breakfast and free room upgrades if any are available. With regular Hyatt properties, you only get free breakfast if you’re an elite Hyatt Globalist, but staying at an SLH property makes you feel like you’re almost a Globalist. (I have Globalist envy!)

Check-in/service: When I checked us in, the hotel staff were enthusiastic and welcoming and poured both adults each a glass of local port—we started living the Porto life immediately. (They also offered the kids a kid-friendly drink.) There was a welcome snack in our rooms, as well. The service throughout our whole stay was perfect and we felt well taken care of.

Rooms: Our rooms were clean, classically decorated, and pretty large (especially for Europe). Comfortable beds, marble in the bathrooms, and everything we could want. The windows actually opened, which I really appreciate in a hotel room (there was also A/C), and our rooms looked on to a central courtyard. And the architecture was lovely.

Hotel amenities: There’s a beautiful breakfast room that connects to a café/bar that provides overflow breakfast seating in the mornings and meals and drinks later on in the day. The hotel also has a very small plunge pool tucked into the outside courtyard/terrace, which is kind of amazing given that it’s in the center of historic Porto and you’d never think anyone would have any kind of pool there, period. (The pool is behind the glass wall. And it’s tiny. But it exists!) There are also lounge chairs set out by the pool in the summer.

We also had free wifi and a completely decadent pillow menu. (PILLOW MENU!!)

Parking/transportation: The hotel is in a great location in central Porto, close to pretty much everything you’d want to see or do in the city. It’s also close to the São Bento train station and the metro. We found it easy to walk everywhere, though I will warn: Porto (or Lisbon, for that matter) is not going to be easy for people who can’t handle hills. Because there are hills. (I also cannot emphasize enough how much you should not attempt driving in Porto. The hills are insane, the narrow streets will stress you out, there is no parking, and there is no need because public transit is excellent. Don’t do it.)

Food/drink: The breakfast that was included in our award stay was exceptionally good. Luxury hotel breakfast buffets are one of my favorite things in the world to indulge in, and this breakfast stood up to my expectations. We were seated in the main breakfast room on the first day, and we thought the generous spread of food in that room was all there was, and we were completely happy with it, but near the end of the first day’s breakfast, one of the kids wandered into the neighboring room (the café/bar) and discovered that the breakfast offerings continued in there, too. There was even more to choose from! It was outstanding, plentiful, and delicious. The pastries! This picture doesn’t do it justice at all.

My take: I cannot imagine that there’s a better place to stay in Porto, period. The Hotel Infante Sagres ticks all the boxes: beautiful, comfortable, welcoming, excellent location, offering great food and service. And for just 17,000 Hyatt points per night (Category 5), which feels like an absolute steal. I hope you think of this as a rave review, because that’s exactly how I intend it.

How you can stay here: Four nights here at the lowest award rate (like what we booked) would cost 68,000 Hyatt points. You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points from Chase to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio, so if you sign up for just one Ultimate-Rewards-earning Chase card with a 70,000+ bonus (like maybe this one, for example) and then transfer those points to a Chase Sapphire card (either one will do), and then to Hyatt, you’ll have a four-night stay at this amazing hotel (and the breakfast!) to look forward to. Porto is a lovely city we really enjoyed and I’d go back for sure. People gush about Portugal for a reason, y’all.