The most points you get by using a credit card is from signup offers that require minimum spend. So, for example, if a card needs $2k of spend (in a small number of months) to give you 50k miles, the 25 miles per $ spent until you get to $2k).

Then you apply for another card with a big bonus for meeting another spending threshold.

But even if you only get 1x for a while after that, who cares? You got 25 miles/$ for a while, and so you can "balance that" with "only" getting 1x for a while until your next card signup.

And you don't have to worry about categories. Any merchant that accepts the card you are meeting the spending threshold for, you earn at the higher rate until you meet the threshold. It doesn't matter whether it's a restaurant, a hotel, and airline, a gas station, a grocery store, a shoe store, a book store, a online pet supplies store, who cares about categories. (All you have to worry about is that it counts as a "purchase", rather than a "cash advance". But I'm sure all your "normal" spend on credit cards already does, anyway.)


But if you don't want to do that, some Hilton cards (at the very least the no-fee Amex) give extra points for restaurants, as does the Chase Marriott Rewards card. Figure out which hotel program(s) would work for you, and then among those see which ones have cards that give extra points for restaurants.