The Most Luxurious Hotel In Porto: Hotel Infante Sagres ♦ Porto’s most prestigious city centre luxury hotel, Infante Sagres has been a meeting place for the city’s élite and the residence of choice for discerning travellers and international celebrities for more than six decades, renowned for its stylish ambience, personalised service and unique blend of timeless elegance and contemporary sophistication. This legendary grande dame of Portuguese hotels has reopened its doors in April 2018 after extensive restoration and renovation. Secrets From Portugal brings you today this amazing hotel, Infante Sagres, that won the Condé Nast Johansens Luxury Hotels, spas and Venues Award of 2019.
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A local entrepreneur, Delfim Ferreira, opened Hotel Infante Sagres in 1951 and claimed that it was Porto’s first five-star hotel. It attracted an elite crowd from the outset and was where many international celebrities stayed whenever they were in town. The property eventually slipped into disrepair and fell out of favour with the see-and-be-seen-crowd, but the Fladgate Partnership, a wine company, bought the property from Mr Ferreira in 2016 with the vision of bringing it back to its original glory.
Infante Sagres closed in the fall of 2017 for a $10 million restoration and reopened its doors on April 2018 with 85 rooms. Much of the work on the hotel preserved the building’s original details, such as the multicoloured stained-glass windows that flank the staircase and can be seen from the lobby. The ornate 19th-century chandeliers and lamps and carved wood ceilings throughout were also restored, but the new owners have added 17th- and 18th-century wood furniture bought in recent auctions, Wi-Fi, 15 additional guest rooms, a restaurant and a sun deck with a plunge pool; they’ve also put custom-built replicas of 17th- and 18th-century furniture in the guest rooms.
The property is in the heart of Porto’s medieval old town, which is compact and easy to explore by foot. Popular attractions such as Bolhao market and the more than century-old Lello bookshop are within a five-minute walk as are plenty of locally-owned restaurants and stores; the lively bars and restaurants that line the Douro River are about a 10-minute stroll. Taxis are readily available at the hotel and are an inexpensive way to venture further afield.
There are seven room categories, ranging from 11 classic rooms to the royal suite. They face either the interior courtyard or the street and are all similarly decorated. Our spacious light-filled junior suite (€300, or about $337), the third room category, overlooked a side street that was full of bars.
If you’re looking to have an amazing dinner or just a great time during this fall stop by the Vogue Cafe, a luxuriafé that offers a modern, elegant and stylish ambience together with food and drinks that are simple and beautifully crafted and presented, Vogue Café enables its patrons to step inside the Vogue world, a world of excitement, luxury and timeless elegance.
With an all-day menu representing the best of modern European cuisine and décor that feels like it has been lifted directly from the pages of the magazine, Vogue Café is the place for the fashionable to meet, connect and be seen.
