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).
Hanting Hotel, Renmin Road West, Kashgar, China, 9 October 2026
This hotel is from the same chain as some of the others we have stayed in on this trip. It is very standardised (and very good). There is therefore not much new to say about the breakfast. However, one of the party in particular like the fried noodles; and as…
Ji Hotel, Kuqa, China, 6 October 2026
This one is difficult for me to judge. There is absolutely no concession at all to Western taste. This is not a criticism, nor is it surprising. In the one week I have so far been in Xinjiang, I have seen exactly two foreigners. But it does mean that, regardless…
Hilton Garden Inn, Yanqi, China, 2 October 2026
This is a perfectly decent, average breakfast. And yet I am still going to mark it down slightly. That is not as strange as it sounds. Again, judging it by local standards, it is an ample buffet, with quite a lot of choice. Good spread of warm dishes, including rice…
Orange Hotel, Urumqi, China, 1 October 2026
You have to judge a breakfast, not only against your tastes and preferences, but also against local breakfast culture. This is true; but is it also the start of a bad review? Not sure. This was a reasonable buffet, very heavy on the local (Chinese, not Uighur) food with a…
Hyatt Place Shenzhen Airport, Shenzhen, China, 29 September 2026
My initial impression was that this was a small breakfast buffet. As I began to look around for more, I realised that it was actually quite sizeable. Good choice of both local (Chinese) and Western dishes. Surprisingly, the croissants were very nice, as was the bread. The bacon was very…
Elite Hotel Plaza, Stockholm, Sweden, 25 September 2026
The breakfast room in this hotel is somewhat peculiar. It is quite dark, and it is not quite open plan. It is therefore easy to get lost until you realise what the layout is. That being said, a very nice breakfast. Excellent scrambled eggs with chives, crispy bacon, Swedish sausages,…
Hotel Derby Eiffel, Paris, France, 18 September 2026
A fairly conventional French hotel breakfast. That is to say, a small buffet, some nice bread, cold cuts and cheese. Tea was bags only and the croissants, while not bad, were average at best. The scrambled eggs were a disappointment and the fruit selection was weak. There isn’t much else…
Lidö Värdshus, Lidö, Sweden, 30 August 2026
This was never going to be a spectacular breakfast. The inn (värdshus is Swedish for inn) is on a small island used mainly for parties or by those following the archipelagic trail. Nevertheless, once again, even a very small offering can be excellent. True, the choice was limited: two types…
The Canopy Lounge, Nice Airport, France, 18 July 2026
The initial impression is of a, by airport standards, quite decent buffet. Small, yes, but very varied. And, to be fair, there are some nice surprises, such as the better-than-expected teabags; or the scrambled eggs with asparagus. Also a good vegetable choice and nice patisseries. But the choice of fruit…
Le St-Paul, St Paul de Vence, France, 17 July 2026
Another French hotel breakfast. Again, a by some standards relatively small, but nevertheless well-stocked buffet. The bread was excellent, good choice of cold cuts and cheese as well as vegetables. The local tomatoes were delicious. Once again, the warm dishes consisted only of scrambled eggs and bacon as well as…