{"id":10835,"date":"2021-10-30T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/?p=10835"},"modified":"2022-02-19T22:10:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T22:10:57","slug":"my-review-of-intercontinental-porto-palacio-das-cardosas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/2021\/10\/30\/my-review-of-intercontinental-porto-palacio-das-cardosas\/","title":{"rendered":"My review of InterContinental Porto, Palacio Das Cardosas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Six Senses Douro Valley<\/a> had an intern rate<\/em>, I splashed 180,000 points on their Vineyard Garden Suite for two nights. It ended up fitting nicely into my two-week break before starting the new job, so I planned a one-week trip to Porto and Douro Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There isn\u2019t a great deal of hotels to choose from in Porto\u2019s city centre from the major hotel chains.\u00a0The InterContinental<\/a>\u00a0happened to be running a 3-for-2 sale via their Luxury & Lifestyle program which I happily went on board. The rate comes with free breakfast, room upgrade and $100 dining credit etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The location can\u2019t be any better, banging in the centre with the Sao Bento station just next door. Basically all the tourist attractions are within easy reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hotel was once a palace, as you can probably tell from its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spire Ambassadors are usually upgrade two-level to their Junior Suite. The hotel is very busy at the moment though, and the entire 4-th floor is under renovation. I\u2019m upgraded just one level to an Executive Room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s pretty much what you can usually expect from an old-fashioned luxury hotel in Europe. It\u2019s a corner room with two aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room also features a mini-balcony on which you an go out and enjoy some view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I said, it\u2019s location is super central, meanwhile the soundproofing isn\u2019t great given the hotel\u2019s age. This is very problematic during the night, especially an ambulance or police car passes through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a consequence I voluntarily asked for a downgrade to a Deluxe room with courtyard view instead. It\u2019s more or less of the same size, with the same furnishings but much quieter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some desserts, including a couple of pasteis de natas are offered as the welcome gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Breakfast buffet\u2019s quality is pretty good. Many hotels just totally mess up with scrambled eggs by presenting them overly dry or soggy, but they do a good job here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are also some items for you to order, including pancakes, waffles, eggs benedict and omelettes etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a pretty good spread of desserts and pastries too. Even champagne is available!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand I wasn\u2019t very impressed by the dinner menu. The octopus I got for \u20ac38 was a tiny portion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The $100 credit cannot be applied on drinks, but can be used in conjunction with the \u20ac15 Ambassador credit. I don\u2019t recommend eating at the restaurant unless you have the credit, as Porto has a lot of good and cheap food to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hotel features a gym and sauna room, but no spa facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The hotel\u2019s location is unbeatable, but other than that it was slightly below my expectations. If the price is right however, it\u2019s not a bad idea to stay here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Six Senses Douro Valley had an intern rate, I splashed 180,000 points on their Vineyard Garden Suite for two nights. It ended up fitting nicely into my two-week...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,5],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-10835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-ihg","tag-hotel-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t