Welcome to The Travel Breakfast Blog.
Here we review breakfasts all over the world, mainly in hotels, but also breakfasts on airplanes and trains, at airports, train stations or just breakfasts eaten somewhere on the road.
The motto of this blog is Never travel without checking out the breakfast!
Why? Because breakfasts are important.
But there are other reasons too. As no doubt your mother told you, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This was brought home to me when I was doing my army service (Royal Gotland Anti-Aircraft Battalion, 1978-79) and breakfast was the only meal you could be sure was decent every day. I still can’t believe the amounts I would eat then.
The importance of breakfast is also obvious to anyone who has to travel and do a series of daily meetings. It is the only meal you are likely to have without rushing to catch up with the next meeting.
I should have started this blog years ago when I did more business travel. But I didn’t. However, for the record, the four best hotel breakfasts I have ever had are:
- The Metropole Sofitel in Hanoi. The first breakfast to be awarded The Travel Breakfast Blog’s top rating, 10/10.
- The Epic restaurant in the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Possibly the best hotel breakfast in the world in terms of choice and quality.
- The Auberge Ostapé outside St Jean Pied-de-Port in France. Beautiful view of the Pyrenées combined with the best of French breakfast.
- The Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong. A sumptuous mix of European/American and Asian.
On a more general point, I find that the four parts of the world that do the best hotel breakfasts are the Nordic countries (waffles, herring, lots of different bread and cheese); the Middle East (olives, pita, various cheeses and vegetables); North America (waffles, eggs, bacon, bagels); and East Asia (a cornucopia of breakfasts from different parts of the world, including obviously local).
Hotel Adlon, Stockholm, Sweden, 3 December 2024
I was rather disappointed by this breakfast. Partly, this is because I am spoiled by the general excellence of Swedish and indeed Nordic hotel breakfasts. (The average rating for Swedish hotel breakfasts on this blog is 6.6, compared with global average of 5.7.) This one was merely all right. A…
Hotel Ruth, Stockholm, Sweden, 12 October 2024
Unbelievably charming och personal, with an incredibly good, varied and delicious breakfast. I have breakfasted in many places in the world, and this one is one of my top 3 – ever! (The other two are in Sun City in South Africa, and in Singapore.) Excellent variation, with pleasant and…
Hotel de la Coupole, Sa Pa, Vietnam, 21 September 2024
It is safe to say that the moment I walked into this amazing French colonial style hotel (at 3:30 am!), I thought, ‘they will have a great breakfast’. Fortunately, my instant impression was fully borne out. This is a very nice, very large buffet. Vietnamese and western only. Plenty of…
Gloucester Luk Kwok Hotel, Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., 14 September 2024
A fairly basic buffet, heavier on the Chinese side than on the western. Plenty of warm dishes, not so much on the cold side, which was mainly a small cheese selection and some vegetables. No cold cuts, no cold fish, limited fruit selection. The scrambled eggs were decent. The bread…
Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., 13 September 2024
In my introduction to this Travel Breakfast Blog, I write that one of the best hotel breakfasts I have had the pleasure of trying, was at the Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong. Although I have been back to Hong Kong a number of times, I had not revisited this breakfast…
An’s Home, Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, 1 September 2024
I have to declare an interest. I am a part owner of this homestay just north of Dien Bien Phu, site of the spectacular defeat inflicted on the French in the spring of 1954 by the Viet Minh, commanded by general Vo Nguyen Giap, one of the great military geniuses…
Là Cheminée, Pullman Hanoi, Vietnam, 17 August 2024
I often point out that even a small breakfast can be both varied and very good indeed. This one, is an example of the opposite, namely that bigger isn’t always better. Not that it was bad; it wasn’t. But even so. The first thing that struck me was that on…
SAJU Sushi & BBQ, Hanoi, Vietnam, 8 August 2024
This grill doubles as the breakfast restaurant of the hotel Somerset Hoa Bình. The buffet is small and not particularly impressive. A reasonable choice of warm dishes (and the bacon was very crispy). However, the choice of bread is uninspiring. Likewise the fruit and other offerings such as cheese or…
Lotte Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam, 4 August 2024
Quite an extensive buffet, since I needed eleven(!) pictures to capture it. And a view of Hanoi’s Tay Ho (West Lake) to die for. And yet… On the positive side, excellent choice or Western and Asian, primarily but not exclusively Korean cuisine. The croissants were very nice, as was the…
Templation Boutique Resort & Spa, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 3 August 2024
The first picture showed the packed breakfast that the hotel provided when I set out at 5 a.m. It was quite nice and I felt it deserved a picture. As for the main breakfast, two weak points. First, the tea is bags only. Second, no buffet. But, the menu is…