As an annual habit my boyfriend and I gift each other a weekend getaway as a birthday present. The first year I gifted a trip to Le Sanglier des Ardennes in Durbuy in the Belgian Ardennes as in 2021 COVID restrictions still kept us inside of Belgium. In 2022 I took him to London as he hadn’t been there yet, followed by Paris in 2023 another city he hadn’t visited. For 2024 I started to lack inspiration, but as he was always very positive about his visit to Porto and I had never been there, I thought it would be a good place to travel to.

In Porto we stayed in the Intercontinental Porto – Palacio das Cardosas, one of the city’s prime luxury hotels located at the foot of the famous Praça de Liberdade, right next to the Sao Bento railway station. It was built as a city palace for the wealthy Cardosa family and was now turned into a luxury hotel.

We had a warm welcome and where given a King Junior Suite on the second floor, overlooking the square in front.

The room itself contained a big king sized bed with a very comfortable mattress and fluffy pillows.

At one side next to the bed there was what we thought to be a speaker with 2 USB plugs. Normal plugs could be found adjacent to the bed behind the night stands. What we liked was that the hotel installed a night light by adding a LED strip underneath the bed, giving navigation lighting if you needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without having to turn on all lights.

In front of the bed there was a nice big couch with a coffee table in front. Perfect to view the wall mounted tv from.

The hotel provided complimentary bottled water as a perk of my Ambassador membership. Complimentary coffee and tea facilities where located above the minibar, with a Nespresso cup machine and even a special tea blend curated for the hotel.

The minibar was very well stocked and according to Sam not overly expensive. The hotel even provided a cocktail kit with 2 full-sized bottles, all of course for a fee.

As we visited for Sam’s 31^st birthday the hotel provided us with a birthday card, a small (and delicious) chocolate cake and a bottle of hotel branded sparkling wine. Sam really appreciated this gesture.

The bathroom was a good size with a nice big sink with plenty of counter space. The bath was big enough to have a proper soak.

In 2 separate alcoves there where the walk-in rain shower and a toilet with bidet behind frosted glass doors.

The products on offer where Bal d’Afrique from Byredo, a scent I really like after encountering it the first time last year in InterContinental Le Grand in Paris. Unlike in Paris the hotel provided full sets of products both in the shower and next to the bath, so you didn’t have to move the bottles around. The hotel also proactively provided further items such as complimentary toothbrushes and a shaving kit, as just like us a lot of travellers now arrive by air with hand luggage only.

In the basement the hotel provided a small “wellness” area, where you could book some treatments. The hotel’s gym was also located here as well as a sauna. Both small and basic but doing the job. There was no pool however.

In the morning we had breakfast in the Astoria hotel restaurant, which is located on the ground floor in a glass conservatory behind reception. There was both the option to dine a la carte or eat from the buffet for €25. On the first morning we chose a la carte and had eggs benedict each, a coffee, a tea, an orange juice and a basket of bread and viennoiserie to share for a grand total of €35. The second morning we tried out the buffet for a grand total of €50.

The buffet offered nice and fresh products with a good choice and some egg dishes made to order. Coffee and tea where brought to your table. In the end we had better value when eating a la carte, as especially Sam is not a big breakfast eater, bigger eaters are better off with the buffet so take this in consideration when you have your breakfast.

On the last evening we had a last glass of port wine in the hotel bar which was very cosy, decorated to feel like the library of the palace. The very knowledgeable bar tender suggested us some very delicious port wines to try.

Every night the staff came around for turndown service, yet this was rather early and as we were still in the room getting ready for dinner, we declined both evenings. As the city of Porto is currently building a new pink metro line the square in front of the hotel is one big construction site at this moment. The hotel warned about this beforehand on the website and as a solution they provided a nice goodnight kit, delivered by the turndown service attendant. It contained a sleeping mask, a chocolate, some sleep tea, a pillow spray and most importantly some earplugs. I thought this was a nice touch to minimise annoyance from the works. However on both nights we had a solid sleep and didn’t notice anything of the works.

 The last night we received a phone call from the reception, the phones in the room however where so fancy and modern that I couldn’t immediately figure out how to pick it up as just merely picking up the horn didn’t do the trick. After some struggling I finally managed to get in touch with reception, they merely inquired if we needed assistance with our departure the next day and if we wanted to use our late check-out. My advice for the hotel would be to maybe install some easier to use phones, as I’m sure we won’t be the only ones struggling with them.

All in all the Intercontinental Porto – Palacio das Cardosas provided us with an excellent stay. They really paid attention to all the small details like Sam’s birthday and the works around the hotel. it’s the small things that can make or  break a stay and they really managed to make themselves shine. Just like timothy’s and mine’s trip to Spain last year we can see that the Iberian Peninsula knows how to do hotels and hospitality.