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 South Lake, Qiuci, China, 16 October 2026
Hanting is the brand name of the budget version of the Huazhu/Orange Group hotels. I would say that this is showing up in a slightly less varied breakfast offering. However, it should be noted that the quality is the same as in the other group hotels (Ji and Orange), and…
Orange Hotel Hotan City Square, Hotan, China, 14 October 2026
There were some differences at today’s breakfast, compared with previous Orange Hotels. Real croissants, for one thing. Not very good (rather doughy, as opposed to flaky), but still a good attempt. A different type of fried dumpling (very good). And slight differences in the fruit and vegetables choice. On the…
Orange Hotel, Yarkant, China, 12 October 2026
The hotels of this chain (H World, also known as Huazhu Group or China Lodgings Group) are very standardised, including the breakfast. That is not necessarily wrong; the standard is good, actually very good, considering the price. But it leaves little room for variation in the breakfast reviews. So, a…
Atour Hotel Pamir Tourist Area (Yaduo), Tashkurgan, China, 11 October 2026
This is the best breakfast so far on our journey through Xinjiang. In addition to the standard choice of Chinese dishes, there are also some Western (including croissants) and halal options. The choice of warm dishes and salads is good, and there is an egg bar. And the tea is…
Ästad Vingård, Tvååker, Sweden, 7 October 2026
Difficult for me to rate, as I have no frames of reference and have never been served a four-course breakfast before. The tea was bags only (Earl Okej) and served from a pot, the apple juice was probably freshly squeezed. The breakfast was rounded off with blueberry sorbet with lime…
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, Qiuci, 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…