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).
Casa Platón Páramo, Oropesa, Spain, 18 March 2025
it is difficult to know how to rate the breakfast. Let me explain. This is an amazing hotel (five rooms in total in the former home of an antique loving pharmacist. It also houses a museum. Given its size, the breakfast is by necessity small, but it is a buffet.…
Parador de Mérida, Mérida, Spain, 17 March, 2025
In a previous post I noted that the paradors tend to be similar, as are, therefore, their breakfasts. That being said, today’s breakfast was somewhat more disappointing than the others encountered on this trip. The bread continued to be unattractive, clearly not freshly baked. As previously, no vegetables for breakfast.…
Parador de Ciudad Rodrigo, Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain, 16 March 2025
The paradors all have fairly standardised menus and arrangements. These are of decent, I would say high quality. That being said, there are a few points to make. Once again, surprisingly, the orange juice is not freshly squeezed despite this being a large orange-growing country. There are machines for coffee,…
Parador de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain, 15 March 2025
There is an interesting feature at this breakfast. There are no implements for taking any of the food at the buffet. Instead, you get wooden tongs on your table, and have to remember to bring them each time you go to get food. We wondered if this was a remnant…
täCH, Madrid Airport, Spain, 14 March 2025
There is good and there is bad. This is a small airport hotel. The buffet has a decent choice, with some warm dishes. Unfortunately, the quality is rather uneven. The bread is nice. But the cold cuts and the cheese are fairly tasteless. The tortilla was unimpressive, although the small…
Villa Dagmar, Stockholm, Sweden, 17 February 2025
The environment: Surprisingly comfortable oasis – luxurious and elegant – in a nice part of Stockholm. Comfortable chairs and conducive to conversation. Staff: Friendly greeting on arrival. Later somewhat difficult to order. Correct, but weak knowledge about the menu and its contents. The food: Nicely presented in, as already noted, a…
BA Club World, 12 January 2025
Strangely, I don’t think I have ever reviewed the BA BusinessClass breakfast. As with my recent review on First Class, I am fully aware of the problems of cooking in the air. I will therefore restrict myself to saying that the fruit platter was very nice, as was the granola.…
dusitD2 Kenz, Dubai, UAE, 11 January 2025
Given how much I you usually tout the virtues of the Middle Eastern breakfast, this was a bit of a disappointment. It’s a medium-sized buffet, with a decent selection of warm and cold dishes, as well as an egg bar. On the plus side they have shakshouka but it wasn’t…
BA First Class, 10 January 2025
I do not often fly First Class. (In fact, with regards to British Airways, I don’t think I ever will again. But that is not because of the breakfast.) However, for various reasons I did so on this very short trip, and since it is eight years ago since I…
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…