Portland, United States

Sentinel

Price per night from$141.45

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD141.45), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Modern history

Setting

Downtown Stumptown

Sentinel has all the dignity and grandeur of a century-old hotel, with an injection of Portland’s independent spirit. It’s the definition of downtown, steps away from the city’s famous Alder Street food market and a few blocks from the riverfront. Jake’s Grill supplies the classic American dining experience (expect no-nonsense steaks and buttermilk pancakes). The rooms are elegant and uncomplicated, retaining their original charm but fixed up with features from design store Boys Fort.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A $10 credit for drinks from your in-room minibar

Facilities

Photos Sentinel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

One hundred, including 20 suites.

Check–Out

Noon, with check-in from 4pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.

Prices

Double rooms from £129.96 ($164), including tax at 16 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional resort fee of $29.00 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates do not include the resort fee ($23.06, including tax) or breakfast. A full American breakfast is $15 for adults ($10 for children), or you can order from the Jake’s Grill menu (buttermilk pancakes are $9.99, eggs Benedict is $12.80).

Also

Guests can stop by the Domaine Serene Wine Lounge for one free pour of their choosing from Thursday to Saturday between 4pm and 11pm, and from noon to 8pm on Sundays (when live music plays too). Full wine tastings can be arranged for an extra cost.

At the hotel

Gym, free WiFi, wine tasting room. In rooms: TV, minibar stocked with local snacks and liquors, tea- and coffee-making facilities, Lather bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The Executive Terrace Queen rooms boast a spacious outdoor patio overlooking the Portland cityscape; it’s got a firepit too, to huddle round on chilly evenings. There's a day lounges on the Executive floor, dubbed ‘The Room at the End of the Hall’ – book a suite for exclusive access.

Packing tips

Bring your quirkiest threads and don’t forget an open mind – you’ve got to do your bit to Keep Portland Weird.

Also

All areas are accessible for wheelchair users, and some rooms have adapted bathrooms.

Pet‐friendly

Very. Pets are treated to snacks, a toy, their own bed, and a list of local activities they can read through when you’re not looking – all included with your stay. See more pet-friendly hotels in Portland.

Children

All ages welcome. Extra beds ($20 a night) and cots (free) can be added to rooms; some rooms are interconnecting.

Food and Drink

Photos Sentinel food and drink

Top Table

Snag a spot by the window for a front-row view of Portland city life.

Dress Code

Hipsterism was practically invented here, so keep it low-key with plaid shirts and denims.

Hotel restaurant

Jake’s Grill is an American classic – it’s old-school and proud of it. Heaped plates of hearty fare are served on the starched white tablecloths for breakfast, lunch and dinner, while the weekend brunch and happy hour are favourites with locals and hotel guests alike. Steaks and seafood are the no-nonsense options, along with the chef’s special buttermilk fried chicken, with cabbage, apple, bacon, and a blackberry sauce on the side.

Hotel bar

Head to the Domaine Serene Wine Lounge for a world-class pinot noir accompanied by gentle live music and a chic setting. Each week, the bar holds a rotating wine flight for the sommeliers among us.

Last orders

Jake’s Grill is open from 7am on weekdays (7.30am at weekends) until 11pm (extending to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays). The Domaine Serene Wine Lounge serves drinks from 1pm until 7pm, Friday to Sunday.

Room service

You can order to your room around the clock, although the overnight menu (from 11pm) is limited to panini and salads. You’re strongly encouraged to try the local pizza place (The Crown), which delivers to your room.

Location

Photos Sentinel location
Address
Sentinel
614 Southwest 11th Avenue
Portland
97205
United States

The Sentinel is on guard smack-bang in the centre of the left-leaning city of Portland, Oregon. Out of town, you can be in Mount Hood National Forest in an hour, or on a Pacific Ocean beach in just under two.

Planes

Fly into Portland International Airport – Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and American Airlines all fly direct from London in around ten hours. It takes 20 minutes to get to the hotel from there by car – hotel transfers cost $15, or you can take a taxi for around $25. Call the Smith24 team for help booking all your holiday travel.

Trains

Amtrak trains chug into Union station from Seattle, Eugene and Vancouver. From there, it’s less than a mile to the hotel (ten minutes by taxi). Transfers can be arranged for $10.

Automobiles

If you’re in the midst of a Pacific Coast road trip, you can use the hotel’s valet parking service for $45 a night. Surfing, rock climbing, mountain biking and forest trails are all within a couple of hours of the city, so for an extended trip to Oregon, you’ll need your own four-wheeler.

Worth getting out of bed for

Portland is an alternative, lefty kind of place, so simply wander the streets and meet the laidback locals, or grab a Shinola bike from the hotel and explore on two wheels. The Portland Saturday Market (2 SW Naito Parkway) covers a whole lot of bases – arts, crafts, music, food, and a healthy dose of fun. If you’re seeking solace, head up to the Japanese Garden, a nine-acre oasis of calm in the West Hills (611 SW Kingston Avenue). Or stick your nose in a good book – the block-wide Powell’s City of Books (1005 W Burnside St) is the largest new and used bookshop in the world, with an impressive stock of rare and out-of-print editions.

Local restaurants

Upscale Portland City Grill does sharing plates, shallot soy-glazed ribs and chargrilled wagyu steak, with a soundtrack from the live pianist. You get city panoramas on the side, because it’s on the 30th floor of the US Bancorp skyscraper – if you’re not sure which one that is, remember its nickname, 'Big Pink' (111 SW 5th Ave). Salt cod fritters and Moorish lamb chops are two of dozens of options at tapas hangout Toro Bravo (120 NE Russell St) – sister restaurant Tasty & Alder does modern American small plates on the other side of the river (580 SW 12th Ave).

Local cafés

To get a taste for Portland’s street food scene, head to one of its food cart pods. The Alder Pod is the pick of a city-wide bunch, with a whole block of on-street options where SW Alder meets SW 9th; The Frying Scotsman does authentic British fish ‘n’ chips, while Bing Mi whips up loaded Chinese crepes.

Local bars

Quench your thirst for knowledge and cocktails at Multnomah Whiskey Library (1124 SW Alder St), where the bartenders-cum-historians mix Old Fashioneds and house specialties for their loyal local members (as an outsider, you’ll have to try your luck with a walk-in). The downstairs Green Room looks like the kind of place the Wizard of Oz would hang out – especially if he knew how good the drinks are. 

Reviews

Photos Sentinel reviews
Suzannah Butcher

Anonymous review

By Suzannah Butcher, Fabulous foodie

Portland, Oregon: the travel-related itch Mr Smith and I hadn’t yet scratched. Everyone had told us we would love it due to the easy-walking neighbourhoods, amazing parks, and microbreweries…lots of microbreweries. And we were tempted to seek some fresh NorCal air after spending time in the dry sunny dustiness of LA.

After a short Uber ride from Portland International airport to downtown, we found ourselves at the Sentinel, a hip hotel comprised of two early-20th-century buildings: the Seward Hotel and the Portland Elks Lodge. We later found out that both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places – it’s easy to see why, each brims with character and personality.

We were welcomed into the lobby and glanced up at the lofty ceilings; there were racing-green walls, wooden panelling, bronze detailing and leather sofas: altogether it made us feel like we were entering a smart gentlemen’s club. Paired with the lovingly restored art deco building features, the hotel exuded an air of old-world charm, and we wanted to hunker down in the bar with a smoky Old Fashioned. Unfortunately, we had a tiny little Smith screaming at us because his normal naps in a cosy cot had been stolen away and replaced by bustling airport noise, an exciting flight and too many snacks.

We were quickly whizzed up to our room, noting the lovely vintage, gold lift and the striking brass knockers on each bedroom door en route. Our Parlour Suite lived up to its promise of space – it was an apartment-style space with a living room and a place for our little Smith to rest, so we put him to sleep in the bedroom, closed the door and put our feet up in our hideout.

Mr Smith’s eyes darted to the minibar goodies: all lovingly curated local products, including tea bags by local entrepreneur Steven Smith Teamaker, Portland Roasting Coffee, Durant Vineyards Oregonian wine, a pinch-pot of Jacobsen salt and an array of nutritional Portland-made snacks from the Better Bar. Portland is a proud city and this homegrown bounty made us feel the love. A lovely touch was the earplugs to quieten the sounds of the city for anyone who wasn’t used to that type of thing…and – we joked – our fellow guests could use them to muffle out little Smith if he wakes in the middle of the night.

Portland prides itself on being eco-friendly and Mr Smith (AKA Captain Planet) was very happy to see the green touches. All-natural bathroom goodies, supplied by Lather, were in recycled packaging and the peppermint leaves used in the soap were harvested from Oregon. Mr Smith also read happily from a little cork board in our bathroom that the city’s premier producer of artisan hyper-local honey, Bee Local, have installed four happy, healthy hives on the Sentinel’s roof. I was more excited about the equally important notice pinned next to it – a pint of Salt & Straw, the city’s famous ice-cream could be ordered to our room. Crazy delicious flavours on the seasonal menu included sea salt with caramel ripple, honey balsamic strawberry with cracked pepper, almond brittle with salted ganache or pear and blue cheese.

When little Smith woke up, we explored the many nooks and crannies of the hotel: a wine lounge attached for tasting local bottles; an old-school white-tableclothed restaurant called Jake’s Grill for steaks at night, and pancakes in the morning; the Jackknife bar for cocktails and a great happy hour. And, as hoped, Portland was just as we’d imagined it to be. We walked along the riverfront, explored a park overlooking the city, and sampled famous Portland delicacies (Stumptown Coffee and, of course, more Salt & Straw ice-cream). That night we collapsed on the comfortable bed, but not before ordering some CBD mocktails from the bar downstairs. Suffice to say, we didn’t need the earplugs.

On day two, we explored more, getting a free morning coffee at the hotel, and walked to Mother's Bistro & Bar, a lovely little spot with every classic on the menu – Mr Smith couldn’t get enough of the local jam that came with his toast. Portland has lots of cool, quirky shops and the labyrinthine Powell’s Books, the largest independently owned bookstore in the USA, allowed us to get lost in a wonderful sea of stories. That night we got a local babysitter and dined at hotspot Arden Restaurant – a must-try for city-breaking foodies. Sadly, the following morning we had to check-out – there were other parts of Portland we wanted to explore (Cannon Beach is a 90-minute drive away and movie geek Mr Smith wanted to see where they’d filmed The Goonies). 

We didn’t have to rush out though, as the Sentinel does a 12 noon check-out. (‘It should be law across the world!’, Mr Smith exclaimed). In a world without mini Smith, we would have had a lovely long lie-in on the soft bed – it wasn’t to be, but we appreciated the extra time nonetheless. And so, we readied ourselves for the next adventure, refreshed and happy, thanks to the Sentinel.

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Price per night from $141.45