IHG’s new Kimpton in Portugal is now open (and award pricing looks ok … ish)

IHG has announced that the Kimpton Quinta da Marinha, located in the Cascais region of Portugal, is now open and a little unusually for a new “luxury and lifestyle opening”, the award pricing looks promising (assuming you share our IHG points valuation).

The property does, however, have an issue.

Overview

The Kimpton Quinta da Marinha is a 194-room resort sitting between the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park and the Atlantic, and it’s the second Kimpton property to open in Portugal.

IHG describes the property as bringing “laid back luxury lifestyle to Portugal’s Atlantic Coast”, and the 194 rooms are split between 180 “Essential” rooms, 8 suites, and 6 signature suites.

Facilities-wise, there look to be some good things here. The property has a championship 18-hole golf course (designed by Robert Trent Jones), indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and tennis and padel courts.

There’s also the Natur Spa, which offers a jacuzzi, a sauna and seven treatment rooms.

Food and drink is split across three outlets. FICA! is a cocktail/wine bar (does it really need an exclamation mark?) and Ao Ponto is the grill restaurant serving what IHG calls “premium meats, local seafood and seasonal delicacies”.

There’s also an outdoor pool bar for daytime drinks.

The standard Kimpton brand items are all offered too:

• Kimpton Kickstart, the complimentary morning coffee and tea offering
• Kimpton Social Hour, the evening gathering with complimentary drinks and light bites
• Pet-friendly rooms at no additional charge
• Yoga mats in every guest room

IHG also says guests can take part in small-group sessions with local artisans, including cork makers, but doesn’t give us any more information than that.

Location

The Kimpton Quinta da Marinha sits about a third of the way up Portugal’s Atlantic coast with Lisbon International Airport approximately 22 miles/35 kilometers away and with the center of Cascais just 2.5 miles/4.0 kilometers away.

Praia do Guincho (a vast, dramatic Atlantic beach with sand dunes and hills) is just 5 minutes drive away, Dunas da Cresmina (a protected coastal dune system equipped with an extensive wooden boardwalk trail) is also just 5 minutes drive away, Sintra-Cascais Natural Park is approximately 10 minutes’ drive away as is the historic center of Cascais complete with a fully preserved (restored) 16th century fortress (Cidadela de Cascais) and quite a few bars and restaurants.

Overall, the new Kimpton seems to be well located.

The rooms

Based on what’s currently bookable on the IHG site, the hotel sells six room types:

• 1 King Essential: 258 sq ft (24 sqm), sleeps 2

• 1 King Essential Prime View: 258 sq ft (24 sqm), sleeps 2

• 1 King Essential Single Sofa Bed: 258 sq ft (24 sqm), sleeps 3
• 1 King Family Essential: 258 sq ft (24 sqm), sleeps 4

• 1 King Suite: 484 sq ft (45 sqm), sleeps 3
• 1 King Signature Suite: 646 sq ft (60 sqm), sleeps 3

A few things stand out from the room descriptions that we’ve seen.

Firstly, all four Essential room types are the same size. The differences between them come down to the view, the addition of a sofa bed, and how many people can sleep in the room, not to how much space you get.

That includes the Family Essential room, so a family of four shares 258 sq ft (24 sqm) with the two children in bunk beds (IHG notes that the bunk beds are only suitable for children up to 14 years old).

Secondly, none of the Essential rooms come with a bathtub. Every non-suite room has a walk-in shower only, and the Signature Suite is the only room type at the property that offers a separate bath.

Thirdly, the description IHG attaches to the Prime View room on the booking page refers to “an elegant one-bedroom suite with outdoor terrace” which based on its size (258 sq ft/24 sqm) seems a stretch.

Note: The view rooms get a view of the pool, so it’s also likely to be one of the noisier rooms on the property.

What it costs

I’ve checked cash and award pricing for every month from August 2026 through July 2027 to see how the two stack up against each other (at the time of writing).

All cash prices include taxes and fees, but because a very small number of nights appear to be priced well outside the property’s normal price range, I have excluded those from the averages as they were distorting the numbers.

Also, because this is a new property, it falls under IHG’s “save 15% on award bookings at new and refurbished properties” deal, so the award rates you see below (and the value you can get out of each point) are skewed for August through January (when the 15% off promotion ends for this property).

So, here’s the monthly average cash rate, the monthly average award cost, and the value that gets you per IHG One Rewards point while the 15% offer is in place:

• August 2026 – €282/$324 / 44,450 points / ~0.73 cents per point
• September 2026 – €300/$345 / 47,814 points / ~0.72 cents per point
• October 2026 – €279/$321 / 48,533 points / ~0.66 cents per point
• November 2026 – €168/$193 / 30,942 points / ~0.62 cents per point
• December 2026 – €162/$186 / 29,542 points / ~0.63 cents per point
• January 2027 – €167/$192 / 31,655 points / ~0.61 cents per point

And here’s the monthly average cash rate, the monthly average award cost, and the value that gets you per IHG One Rewards point once the property settles into its more normal award pricing:

• February 2027 – €166/$190 / 37,357 points / ~0.51 cents per point
• March 2027 – €187/$215 / 44,433 points / ~0.48 cents per point
• April 2027 – €209/$241 / 50,333 points / ~0.48 cents per point
• May 2027 – €223/$256 / 52,452 points / ~0.49 cents per point
• June 2027 – €226/$260 / 52,800 points / ~0.49 cents per point
• July 2027 – €195/$224 / 44,952 points / ~0.50 cents per point

So, what can we take away from this? Well …

We value IHG One Rewards points at 0.4 cents each (based on the value we feel we can get out of them with relative ease), and on that basis every single date currently bookable at this property offers a value/point rate that beats our valuation. That’s good news.

Also, if you’re prepared to stay while the 15% discount is running, you can get some very good value out of an IHG point balance.

Take September 2026 as an example. The average award night costs 47,814 points, which we value at ~$191, while the average cash rate (including taxes and fees) is $345. That’s a clear win for anyone booking with points and it’s at a time of year where Portugal can be a great place to visit.

Outside of the 15% promotion, things don’t look so good, but as long as you’re not using points purchased in one of IHG’s sales (where the cheapest rate is 0.5 cents/point), there’s still reasonable value to be had here. Certainly not great value, but value nonetheless.

Obviously, whether spending whatever the points cost is on a 258 sq ft (24 sqm) entry-level room is a good idea is going to be an individual decision for people to take, but based on the numbers alone, and if you share our IHG points valuation, there could be some deals to be had here.

An issue for the Kimpton

The Kimpton isn’t the only IHG property in this part of Cascais. The Onyria Marinha Cascais, Vignette Collection sits 4 minutes away by car and 11 minutes away on foot, and in a few ways it looks like the better option.

The entry-level room at the Vignette Collection property is 431 sq ft (40 sqm) in size, which makes it approximately 67% larger than all of the non-suite rooms at the Kimpton.

The rooms at the Vignette Collection property also offer more with the entry-level rooms offering guests a separate bath and walk-in shower, a furnished balcony, an additional living area and a stocked minibar (unclear if this is complimentary or not). The Kimpton’s Essential rooms get a walk-in shower, a balcony and not much more.

Also, the Vignette Collection property boasts four pools to the Kimpton’s two and access to the same type of spa, so, based on all of this, you may expect the Vignette Collection property to be noticeably more expensive to book, but it isn’t.

Averaged across all twelve months, an entry-level room costs €214/$246 a night at the Kimpton and €215/$247 a night at the Vignette Collection property and the average cost of an entry-level room at the Vignette Collection property is cheaper in four of the twelve months (September, October, May and June).

The difference is most noticeable in September when the average nightly rate at the Vignette Collection property is €245/$282 vs the Kimpton average rate of €300/$345. That’s €55/$63 a night less for a room that’s nearly 70% bigger.

At first glance, award pricing looks like it favors the Kimpton, but that’s mostly down to the 15% new property discount mentioned earlier.

Across all twelve months the Vignette property averages 48,949 points a night against the Kimpton’s 42,939, so ~6,000 points a night more.

From February 2027 onwards however, where the Kimpton’s discount no longer applies, that difference all but disappears with the average cost of an award night at the Vignette Collection property coming in at 48,301 points vs 47,055 points at the Kimpton.

I’d happily pay, on average, ~1,250 more points per night for the larger room with more amenities, so on both measures (cash and points), the Vignette Collection property appears to be the better option unless the Kimpton is offering something extra/special that IHG hasn’t mentioned.

Bottom line

The Kimpton Quinta da Marinha is now open and based on the numbers alone it could be a good use of IHG One Rewards points, especially while the IHG 15% discount on award stays at new properties is in effect.

That being said, it’s hard to get away from the fact that all the non-suite rooms here are not particularly spacious (258 sqft/24 sqm), and it’s hard to get away from the fact that the Onyria Marinha Cascais, 11 minutes’ walk away, offers an entry-level room nearly 70% larger and with better spec at around the same nightly rate.

Kimpton fans will probably still like this property (they’re a loyal bunch), but the Onyria Marinha Cascais looks like a better option to me.

Link to the Kimpton Quinta da Marinha homepage