I am a breakfast person. I have never been one of those people who proclaims it “too early to eat” or who can survive on a latte until lunch. I wake up hungry, and I can be something of a grump until I’ve had my breakfast.
This can be a problem for me when I’m traveling. Instead of padding into the kitchen in my jammies to fix a bowl of oatmeal or a piece of toast (and therefore having a warm breakfast in front of me less than five minutes after I have awoken), I have to get dressed, find shoes, shove some contacts in my eyes, and make sure that I look at least moderately presentable (e.g., no huge gnarls in my hair or smears of old mascara under my eyes). It’s a huge drag.
Staying at hotels with a complimentary breakfast makes it less of a pain. All you really need are shoes and a sweatshirt (although one of the hotels I recently stayed at specified “no pajamas” for breakfast, another did not – and there were plenty of pajama-clad people in the breakfast area). It’s something of a relief – the standard for looking acceptable is much lower at a three-star hotel’s breakfast bar than it is even in the Starbucks line.
I’ve written before about traveling with your own breakfast kit, but it might not be practical to travel with the ingredients for a full breakfast if you’re on a shorter trip or have limited space. Thus, you might want to consider a tricks to make a hotel breakfast buffet work for you.
Make a beeline for the (real) fruit.
You are likely to find two kinds of fruit in a hotel breakfast bar: mixed fruit and whole fruit. The mixed fruit selection likely contains canned fruit or added sugar. Do a taste test if you’re unsure – sometimes you’ll get lucky and find a bowl of fresh, segmented citrus or something. In most cases, the whole fruit will be your best bet. It may be an inspiring collection of hard bananas or Red (Not-So) Delicious apples, but you can usually find some fruit that works if you are persistent.
Amp up the oats.
Microwaveable oatmeal packets can be a good option, but I usually find them a little lacking. Slicing and adding some of the aforementioned fruit can be a game-changer. Bonus points if you bring some nuts to add for a protein boost. A word of warning: hotel breakfast bars usually cater to the lowest common denominator, so the microwaveable oatmeal options may be excessively sugary. If microwaveable oatmeal is your jam, you may want to consider traveling with packets from a favorite brand.
BYOP.
As I hinted above with the oatmeal, it can be a good idea to BYOP (Bring Your Own Protein) – especially if you are a vegan. Hotel breakfast proteins usually range from rubbery scrambled eggs in a warming tray to greasy sausage links – none of which are particularly appetizing. Sometimes you can find packets of peanut butter that can be spread on English muffins or toast, but this isn’t always true. If you’re a nut butter person (and I am), you might consider traveling with your own nut butter, either in jar fashion (the more the better, as far as I’m concerned) or in single-serving size.
Image credit: Ray Sawhill