FREE Hotel Breakfast – Important criteria for choosing hotel?
FREE Hotel Breakfast: It is important criteria for a hotel choice?
We recently traveled to Turkey and every single hotel choice offered a free breakfast. These hotel breakfasts were huge and incredibly varied with every sort of ….well everything, to choose from! Since trying the local food is so much of the travel fun, a free hotel breakfast buffet is an easy and cheap (obviously!) way to sample everything – especially for kiddos in your group that may or may not be foodies, yet.
Have you ever tried peach juice?
The turkish delight you find at the hotel breakfast is really different than the others you’ll find. It is not as chewy or as sweet.
The usual suspects…
So many wonderful tastes to choose from!
Some we don’t think of as ‘breakfast food’…
but who cares? We are on VACATION! That is honey right off of a honeycomb in the background. How cool is that?
Is lack of a FREE breakfast a deal breaker when you choose a hotel?
Like most things these days…..who offers and who doesn’t offer a free breakfast has been studied! Yes, it is true! Read the whole she-bang here.
Interestingly…..in the United States…the more stars the hotel has, the LESS likely to have free breakfast. Doesn’t that seem….backwards to you?
Which countries top the list of highest percentage of hotels offering free breakfast?
Can you guess who made the top 10?
#1 – US
#2 – Tanzania
#3 – Honduras
#4 – Peru
#5 – Sweden
#6 – Tunisia
#7 – Bolivia
#8 – Cambodia
#9 – Uruguay
#10 – Jordan
Are you surprised? I sure am! Turkey, where every single hotel I looked into offered breakfast, isn’t even on the list! Neither are some of the other places I thought would be included….clearly I need to travel and do more research!! (Like I needed an excuse for more travel!)
Here is the rest of the list:
What is your opinion? Is a FREE breakfast important to you when traveling planning?
Happy travels with full tummies!
Natalie, The Educational Tourist
Free breakfast is a must for our family of 6 and growing! While I love to try new foods, I prefer a solid filling breakfast for my picky eaters. They don’t venture out on the food scale much. 🙂
The money savings can add up! Even if you are not big breakfast eaters, just coffee and juice for everyone is a nice and cheap way to start the day. It isn’t a requirement for us, but now that I think about it….I always choose a place that has it! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
In a sight seeing trip, it is ideal that complimentary breakfast comes with the room. It is one less thing to consider when traveling with the children.
However, if purpose of the trip is a lazy beach front vacation or similar, I may not choose to have the breakfast at a set time but enjoy being master of the time and choices locally available.
Sounds like the perfect choices!!
I definitely love trying new and unexpected things in breakfast buffets around the world. I was surprised that Canada is so far down the list!
Turkey was fun – they had some really different foods available for breakfast!! It was interested to see how countries ranked on the list. I never would have guessed the order. Thanks for stopping by!
It is definitely a “plus” for us when breakfast is included. However, it is not a deal breaker if it is not. Even when breakfast is offered, we find it usually is the same thing each day, so we end up venturing out for breakfast some of the time. Not that we have traveled much out of the country, but I will say that so far, our hotel in London offered a fantastic breakfast! We never tired of it and had breakfast there all but one of our 8 mornings there.
Variety is important to some folks and sometimes that is wonderful. Your comment reminded me of an included breakfast in London many, many years ago. When it arrived I just stared at is as it was very heavy meaty stuff I usually didn’t eat. It is moments like that I am especially glad the breakfast was free. 😉 Thanks for adding your 2 cents!
Hmm tricky one this! I love getting up and indulging in a delicious buffet breakfast… but at times, it’s so nice to get up at your own leisure and head out to explore your surroundings and local cafes. Sometimes it’s harder to justify this when breakfast is included in what you’ve already paid for.
We stayed at a hostel in Mykonos which was just perfection… they offered the most stunning breakfast (you choose whatever you wanted from a list and it’s cooked fresh for you – champagne included!) and the best thing – it was available until 1pm! Loved it.
So hmmm, not a make or break… i’d say it’s always a ‘nice to have’ though :).
Available till 1? That is the best ever!! Well, champagne is awesome, too. 😉 Always nice to have! Thanks for stopping by!
Hello Gaby,
What is the name of the hotel in Mykonos?
Cheers from Istanbul,
Lale
I like a free breakfast from a value standpoint (I have kids and it makes it so easy), but I must also say that I love to start my day in a cafe where I can hang out with the locals. I often will sneak out and just grab a coffee before my family wakes up and then return for the hotel breakfast if offered.
You must be an early riser! I wouldn’t trade a moment’s sleep for much of anything. LOL!! Thanks for stopping by!! 🙂
I would vote a mix of #1 and #2. Fill up on the standards, but sneak something new in for the adventure of it. Here in the US Residence Inn is upping their game by offering free social hours with things like local specialties and food trucks. I got to check one out and it was pretty great: http://www.theroadlotstraveled.com/2015/07/marriott-gets-back-to-its-roots.html
That would be both fun and easy on the budget! Thanks for sharing.
Ugh, I hate to admit it, but I am a poor little bacpacker… I LOVE a free breakfast, it just takes the stress off of having to get ready to go find breakfast AND saves money… Time and money, who doesnt want to save that
Sounds perfect to me! When I started traveling not only was free breakfast a must, but sometimes eating salad out of a bag from the grocery was dinner! Whatever works, right?? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Hard choice for the vote, we were so fed up with stale bread and jam in Peru and Bolivia but at least it filled us up and there were no surprises.
I too had breakfast in Turkey and was surprised to see olives! Olives with every meal which suits me fine.
LOl! Your comment reminds me of my earliest travels to France. With a small budget we ate as cheaply as possible and that meant the croissants for breakfast from the hotel and ham and cheese sandwiches more days than not….I was so sick of ham and cheese! LOL! Olives and yogurt – Turkey loves them! Thanks for stopping by!
Wow! That list was surprising! While not having breakfast isn’t a deal-breaker, we are definitely more inclined to book with a hotel that does offer complimentary breakfasts. We’d both have to say number 1 – we like trying new things that are authentic to the place we are visiting.
I thought so, too! Food helps make the experience! Thanks for stopping by.
I love a good breakfast buffet but it’s not a deciding factor in choosing a hotel.
I appreciate you stopping by!
I think it’s a lot of fun to try new foods in other countries. I always enjoy seeing how different breakfast can be around the world, so I’d probably vote for number one. Some breakfasts (like those including fish) I am not so fond of, but I have found that when the traditional breakfasts of a country are available at hotels, usually my comfort breakfast foods are around too.
Fish is a pretty strong smell in the morning for me, too! I am just reading how good it is for you that perhaps I should get over that!!! Thanks for stopping by!
I usually love it when then the accommodations come with free breakfast. Its a good way to try local cuisinr. Plus, I am usiusually hungry when I wake up so having easy access breakfast is a good thing.
Quick, easy, cheap, and yummy! All fantastic pluses, right? Thanks for stopping by!
Breakfast is never on top of our decision process, however if two places are fairly similar in other respects it definitely will put it over the top. I say that because we are much bigger fans of street food in other countries than the hotel breakfasts (which are normally catered to american continental style) IMHO. Great post!
Thanks for stopping by, Mike!
I usually incorporate my breakfast as part of my trip, mainly to try as many of the local restaurants as possible. But I do tend to wander by the breakfast table sometimes. I guess it depends on where I’m traveling and why.
Always nice to have coffee at least! Thanks for adding your two cents!