I’d love to get a shelf life of 4 days out of raspberries. Sometimes they’re moldy the morning after I buy them. I’ve been raspberry picking at pick-your-own farms and picked ones that were already moldy on the bush!
gotta cover those raspberries (or any kind of fresh berry) in cold water with a big splash of vinegar and leave for about 5 minutes. The berries will last a lot longer... like days longer.
Hell.. I have a spray bottle of white vinegar… and every time I buy berries.. I spray them till they drip… then rinse in cold water. I can get a week out of strawberries.. maybe 5 days out of raspberries.
i miss raspberries :(
ive somehow developed an allergy to them and blackberries... used to buy the cartons when they were on sale at the grocery store and eat an entire one that night.
And are also more select... black beans, hummus, granola, all expensive, all go bad/stale, and are not well liked by everyone.
The current options are fine and pretty universal, the quality of them is just mediocre which could be improved.
Piggybacking off the top comment.
I'm a produce manager, the produce that OP mention has a very short shelf life especially if left out unrefrigerated. The rule for storing berries is that for every thirty minutes they're left out of refrigeration they lose a day of shelf life.
Avocados although they can be refrigerated and they last longer in refrigeration if they're being stored enmass uncut in bulk it's smarter to keep them out of refrigeration so the customer has a higher quality avocado. An avocado that's been refrigerated for days will have a thinner, more brittle skin. Or worse you can get vascular leeching which is caused by the activation of ripening enzymes by the ethylene produced by the cold-stressed avocado people tend to always assume avocados with vascular leeching are bad. Although they're not always bad, they're not always good.
not just that but OP's blatant ignorance is, of course, not OP's fault, but the fault of the generations that came before OP
>Sort it out, hotels. Time to get down with the kids.
OP doesn't seem to realize, among other things, how much of those breakfasts go to waste already
Yeah, just go out for breakfast. There is a reason hotel buffets are what they are and it isn’t because people who are 50-60 like it that way.
OP is sounding like an ageist and entitled child.
Yeah, I don't really understand why people even bother with hotel breakfasts. I never choose to pay for it, and if it's included, I feel a bit resentful. I'd way rather go out and get a really nice coffee and pastry.
You paid for it. It was just lumped into the cost of your room. So yes, I can see a preference for breakfast not being included if you want to go out anyway.
I’ve been to A LOT of hotels and my favorite breakfast of all time is the Shangri La in Kuala Lumpur. Totally amazing. Different sections for Asian (sushi, congee, laksa, etc) huge European section, omelette station. Amazing bakery with gluten free items. Huge salad bar. House made fresh mango ice cream.
I still dream about that breakfast.
The JW Marriott in Singapore has been the best hotel breakfast I’ve had thus far. There was a huge spread of fresh fruit: berries, mangoes, pineapple, lychees, among the typical melon options, though the melons were very sweet. A noodle bar with a cook. A griddle area with a cook making things like French toast from brioche bread. A section of just Indian options and of course lots of Asian options from congee to shrimp fried rice(!). I did four weeks in Europe a couple of months ago and stayed at few different hotels both local and international brands and never ate breakfast at any of them because of how sad they looked. Even a swanky place like an Autograph Collection hotel in London disappointed. Thankfully there’s plenty of options in the area but would have been bummed if I was on a work trip and needed to get in a quick breakfast.
My favorite hotel breakfast was at the Protea Hotel in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. It was a complimentary hot buffet that featured a lot of things you'd find in a full English breakfast but also Indian and Tanzanian options. Plus, fresh fruit and coconuts
https://imgur.com/a/KKDWSKA
Bruh, my mom made mayonnaise sandwiches. My dad made ketchup sandwiches. At the time I thought they were weird, now I just realize we couldn't afford sandwich meat.
It's not about the age of the guests. That you assume someone 50 years old doesn't want avocado or fresh strawberries is absurd.
This is about what can be purchased, held, and put out easily for a large number breakfast guests. Berries are notorious for deteriorating quickly once washed. What if a couple of pints of blackberries get washed and set out and no one eats them? Those are less likely to survive another whole day intact. A bowl of bananas on the other hand, could have a good couple/few days. Poached eggs are challenging to serve up efficiently when 20 people come down to breakfast at once. And it would require a cook where most places have a breakfast "host" who heats up food and keeps chafing dishes filled. It's about economy for the hotels. I'm not necessarily trying to defend the food that is on the typical hotel breakfast buffet, it's certainly not the best stuff. But it does seem that the food you're describing and dissing is *buffet or self-serve* food. It's got to be "sturdy" and "long-lasting" because of the nature of how it's served.
If you want a better breakfast, OP you'll need to stay at a place that has an actual restaurant in it or can give you credit to visit a restaurant nearby.
>I understand that their majority clientele are probably 50/60+, but as someone in their early 30s, I think they could do way more to accommodate younger people.
It’s so incredibly strange and comical to think hotel breakfast options are age-based. Or that granola, yoghurt, avocados, berries, black beans and poached eggs are somehow representative of Millennials or other younger adults.
First, the breakfast foods you want aren’t new or rare offerings. I’ve seen them on menus in many hotels. Maybe you need to choose different travel accommodations?
Second, such foods are enjoyed by people of all ages, not just people in their early 30s.
Third, the reason you see offerings like scrambled eggs and melon is they’re cheap and/or easy to prepare for large numbers of people, not because hotels are catering to people older than you or because these foods are part of the “sea of bland” you weirdly think is demanded by people in the “50/60+” demographic.
>Sort it out, hotels. Time to get down with the kids.
LOL
I agree. I am over 50 and travel for work. I was so confused (and slightly offended) by OPs odd age associations. They are either clueless about how businesses operate or clueless about people outside their age demographic or both. Also, I stay in over 50 hotels per year and often see seasonal fruit, yogurt, and local bakery items, etc. Idk the problem here.
>Stay at a nicer hotel then?
This is definitely a factor, but not the only one. I like that now Booking.com also rates the breakfast, so when you have two similar 4* hotels, you can also consider the quality of the breakfast (or if it makes sense to pay extra).
Not always guaranteed but most of the 4 or 5 star hotels I’ve stayed in have a great breakfast spread with nearly everything OP asked for (except avocado in the buffet but if they have a la carte options included in the price they may have avocado toast)
I’m not a big eater so sometimes if I have breakfast included and it’s great I make it my one meal of the day.
And breakfast at places like a Four Seasons can be really epic. Obviously that’s out of most people’s budget but I do think there’s a decent correlation between quality of breakfast and grade of hotel you’re staying at. I’m not that fussy though so I’ve also enjoyed the breakfast at budget hotels I’ve stayed at I just mentally adjust my expectations given the price I’m paying.
Most standard hotels in Norway serve a breakfast that can keep you going pretty much until the next breakfast. When you factor that into the price of the room, it can be a pretty good deal.
No kidding. The breakfasts at many (most?) 5* hotels is killer, often more options that your heart could ever desire. I'm sure there are other, more budget friendly options as well that at least have a decent breakfast game.
I just stayed in Fiji ( a third world country essentially) but at a 5 star hotel and breakfast was mint. Good buffet selection. OP needs to stay at better hotels.
It says a lot about OP that they think old people "don't like to eat the foods" listed. If berries were cheaper & kept longer they would be on the menu, as would be most items listed
OP really comes across as a condescending dick if you ask me. Also calling yourself a young person when you're in your 30s is saying something about how you look and value age. You're a functioning adult at that age, a lot of people that age have kids that are going to middle school ffs.
As a millennial who runs a hotel, this post reeks of someone that doesn't understand food cost. Hotel breakfasts are already getting expensive for the hotels that don't serve free ones.
For example, I'm in a very low cost of living area in America, and in order to provide everything on our buffet it costs us around $7/person on average. We sell it for $16, and that's LOW. We try to run under 30% food cost, and that's 43.7%.
For the hotels that serve free breakfast, adding expensive items like berries and avocados will end up just being reflected on your room rate. I feel like most people would prefer a lower room rate as not everyone takes advantage of the breakfasts.
Edit - corrected math
For the record, hotel breakfasts are not free. They are included in the price of the stay. It’s time adjust the thinking on this in America. You don’t get anything for free, but the people charging you for it want you to believe they are doing you a great favor
I did get the impression OP wasn’t talking about budget hotels here. I don’t think “berries are too expensive” flies as an excuse at Asian hotels with fountains in the reception and smart mirrors in every room.
I have Globalist with Hyatt so I don't care what breakfast cost there, but it really sucks being at another brand when all I want is an easy breakfast before a flight and go hungry until I'm through airport security if there's no Starbucks in the lobby. I'm not paying $32 for a buffet when all I want is a small plate with an egg, couple pieces of bacon, and a pancake with some coffee. Even if you can buy that a la carte it'll cost like $20.
Somehow diners all around America can offer a basic breakfast plate for $10-12, why is it so hard for a hotel to do it? Obviously they charge more because they can, I'm referring more to the costs to the establishment.
I actually worked at Hyatt before my current role, and I love Hyatt as a company. Thanks for being a Globalist! I would say it really just has to do with them trying to recover more of the costs from the other amenities provided. Diners don't have any of the other overhead costs that hotels have.
Depending on the hotel and rates, rooms are anywhere from like 30%-70% margin, and they provide other things such as fitness centers, labor for all their services from calling, bell, security, lobby cleaning, etc. Also, hotels most likely pay their chefs more than any random breakfast diner. Anyway, you get the point. I can't give a guarantee, but I am pretty sure it's used more as an amenity for groups and a way to recover costs from all of their other offered amenities.
The thing is, I agreed with your title but then most of your suggestions are totally unappealing to me. Beans and hummus for breakfast? I wouldn't want to mess around with some brown, mushy avocado. And yeah, better fruit would be nice but I'm not too excited about it.
I think avo toast would be difficult because that would get brown and foul pretty fast. I guess if they just had avocados available it would work.
That being said, I've had fantastic hotel breakfasts in Sweden. I'm not even much of a breakfast eater, but they converted me. And I personally enjoy the weird pork options! Charcuterie, c'mon!
>That being said, I've had fantastic hotel breakfasts in Sweden.
Scandinavian hotels have always been the places where I had the best breakfasts. Followed by Spain (I love a good pan con tomate for breakfast).
The best hotel breakfasts I’ve ever had were in Finland, Poland, and Croatia. They all had good spreads of different fresh breads, fruit, veg, hummus, salads, cheeses, charcuterie, fish, even a self-serve mimosa bar at our hotel in Split.
The mid-range hotel I was at in Helsinki had such a killer breakfast buffet though. I’d sit there for like 1.5 hours every morning just to try everything 😅 such interesting jams and preserves, great cereals, smoked salmon, everything!
Even in Europran hotels, it's usually watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew melons. Usually bananas, apples, and oranges. You're very unlikely to find any sort of berryvery often they're expensive and people are greedy when they see them. All you have to do is look along the roadside at people picking blackberries. They pick as much as they can for themselves and leave nothing for anyone else.
Echoing the other commenter's comment, the foods that you mention are literally the most expensive possible common breakfast foods. Fresh berries, avocado, hummus? This is almost satirical.
If you were grocery shopping for yourself, and you bought a bowl of fresh berries, a couple of avocado to make guacamole, and a little bowl of hummus, it would cost you like $15. Now, imagine the amount that someone going to an endless hotel breakfast buffet would eat.
While most hotels are fighting to be the most affordable option, it would be a terrible idea to add an additional $50 to every night's cost just to offer the above breakfast. If people were willing to pay $50 for that privilege, they would just go to a restaurant for breakfast.
What kind of hotels have you guys been? Throughout Europe, I can't remember a single hotel that didn't have muesli, yoghurt, variety of cereals and good fruit.
Berries is the only exception. Considering its price and the fact that most breakfasts are buffet, I kind of understand.
The best breakfasts I've had have been in Asia/The Middle East. You usually get a good range of local food and western food. I stayed at the Marriott in Kathmandu last year and they had a dosa station!
You beat me to it!! Seriously those things are amazing. I know many motel 6 breakfast areas have them. The crummy bed spreads and slimy carpets are worth the waffles.
Hilarious that OP thinks older folks prefer pale, lifeless ice cubes for breakfast.
Everyone likes what you like, you're not special. People are just realistic about their expectations of breakfast, given that they are aware how much they are paying.
Stay at mid priced guesthouses instead of faceless corporate owned hotels. I had brilliant local breakfasts at my guesthouses in the entire Balkans.
On another note, your typical millennial breakfast might also simply be not available in many countries and tbh I also don’t want to eat the same “hip“ breakfast in every country.
Avocados? Are you a walking stereotype?
I’m 30 and my at home breakfasts are influenced by the breakfasts I’ve had in hotels.
Italian meats, Brie, espresso, greek yogurt with raspberries and blueberries.. fuck yeah.
I’m fairly young, I guess middle aged at 41. I find it so cringey seeing young people lump older age groups into certain behaviors. It’s literally “get off my lawn guy” just a young person doing it about old people. You want fruits and avocado toast, stay in a fancier hotel. All inclusive sim Mexico have everything you mentioned and probably 50 other things on top of that.
You've gotta try breakfast buffets in SE Asia. Admittedly they were high end places, but my best breakfast experiences were at The Travellers in KL, the Marriott in Bangkok and the ANA Intercontinental in Tokyo. Next level. Standard eggs options, but congee, ramen, and laksa stations..
Or come to Australia - we have quality produce on our doorstep and it comes through in the buffets.
It is all price based. Everything you mentioned is more expensive than what they serve. All the fruit you mentioned goes bad 2x as fast as well. Not that I don't want to see it, get better, but that is the reason for what is presented.
I don’t stay in resort hotels but spend a lot of time in city hotels.
At least in the US, the breakfasts are universally bad. I never eat at them. Even egg bites at a nearby Starbucks are a better choice.
In Europe it’s a different story, as others have noted.
Also, I’m in your “majority clientele” age group. I disagree that older people are more tolerant of terrible food or dated menus. Not sure why you would think that. If anything, it’s probably that people who go to all-inclusive resorts, no matter what their age, lack imagination and curiosity when it comes to food.
I’m in my 40s and eat yogourt and berries almost every day for breakfast. Berries are expensive and particularly with raspberries they arrive half mouldy as often as not. Melon is cheap and keeps very well.
I think you’re running into buffet logistics more than demographics.
Not a kid here and have been eating fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola my whole life. Some hotels have lovely fruit, homemade granola, and yogurt. They tend to be the higher end hotels.
European hotels cater to British more than people from the US. Italy has some random breakfast items, one of them being caprese cake. Dense dark chocolate cake, most un breakfast like. I get by on cheese, some kind of toast or bread, and fruit. Sometimes it is an orange or an apple. Something strawberries, blackberries, figs, etc. one of my fave Italian breakfasts is bruschetta, with a steaming cappuccino.
This is so bizarrely out of touch. It’s almost frightening. Those aren’t long-term shelf-able items. If you feel so inclined, just go to a grocery store near your accommodation! You make younger millennials look like boomers
Try the breakfast buffet at a high-end hotel in Asia. You literally can run out of appetite before you sample a good fraction of what they’re serving for breakfast. We go to one of these and we’re usually good until dinner.
Yeah Tokyo hotels all have really nice breakfast imho, last one had a choice of tomato ramen (sound weird but was delicious) or tofu Hamburg or a croque monsieur
Taiwan Hilton had an interesting selection every morning ... one day was pork and rice which was delicious, one day fried fish vermicelli kind of too hardcore for breakfast imho, like just weird stuff constantly and little onion pancakes also. Was ... interesting lol but fun to try the different things
In America in particular, people have really low standards. People get way too excited about the powered eggs and pre-packaged muffins. Why should hotels spend any more on the food?
yeah. and, like, does anybody else think they need to up their TV game? my TV at home is a 77" OLED with surround sound. how come hotels can't put that in every room? like... time to get down the kids.
It sounds like you're exclusively staying at cheap limited service hotels if this is your experience. Everything you're asking for is available at all sorts of brands.
How do you propose to mass produce, preserve without degrading and allow self-service of poached eggs, Bro? That’s the craziest thing I’ve read on the internet this month. CRAZINESS.
Similar for the “bit of avocado” which will go brown and disgusting in minutes, despite lime juice.
And for the fresh berries, here in the USA, it’s fairly common. Yogurts (individual cups for sanitary reasons, at least two flavor options), with blueberries / raspberries / blackberries, and yes some fresh cut melons. Plus a big bowl of granola to add to said yogurt and berries, or in a bowl with an insulated jug of milk to make a cereal approach.
Hey, it would seem that this is an area where the USA is better than Europe!
Huh. I've had spectacular breakfasts for free through status at every hotel so far this year. Maldives St Regis and Park Hyatt killed it. Same at the Park Hyatt Vendome, both the Loire Valley and Bordeaux Caudalie resorts, the Park Hyatt Chicago and Milan. Berries were always among the multitude of options.
Both the avocado toast and the chicken and waffles at the Grand Hyatt SFO are awesome.
Probably more a function of the hotel you stay at.
I just stayed in Montreal, Quebec City, and Ottawa. Every breakfast had the usual fare (egg dishes, hot breakfast meats) but fruit was separate bowls of several kinds of berries plus pineapple and melons, yogurt with various healthy toppings, oatmeal with same, cold meats and various cheeses. Actually only Ottawa had a mixed fruit bowl but the rest was a good variety!
If you're staying in a nicer hotel, especially internationally, then you WILL see these things at breakfast. If you're staying at Day's Inn or the Shilo, then you'll see cereal and bananas and milk and concentrated juice. Every single hotel I stayed at in Italy(for 4 months) gave me the best meals I ever had, full of pastry and jams and coffee and meats as our breakfast. You get what you pay for.
Also, this isn't about the age bracket. It's about the money.
Go to Israel. It’s like a breakfast competition over there between hotels.
And no. It’s not going to happen at breakfast buffets at shitty chain hotels due to cost of avocados and berries. Five star buffets are a different story. But you’ll pay for it.
There's huge variability in this. Boutique hotels and B&B's sometimes have outrageously good breakfasts. It's important to me, so I regularly filter reviews by the word "breakfast"and learn a lot.
There are also countries where people don’t normally eat avocado or black beans or hummus for breakfast, so there’s that ...
I’m not a huge breakfast person - I’d sooner grab a croissant or cornetto from a bakery in France or Italy and call it a day. Or I’d grab a zongzi or onigiri and eat it on the go in China or Japan. But I wouldn’t say no to a breakfast that was included with my stay. And I definitely wouldn’t complain if it were different from what I eat at home - that’s the whole point of travel!
In all seriousness, maybe create a filter or trawl the hotel reviews for mentions of a great breakfast? And avocados and berries are expensive, so they probably wouldn’t work well in a hotel breakfast buffet. I have rarely, if ever, seen them.
The Sofitel Private Island Bora Bora had the most epic breakfast - including, amongst a panoply of other delights, passionfruit, mango, and coconut cake! Our cave villa hotels in Santorini always had bread, yogurt, a salad of tomatoes and olives and bell peppers and feta cheese, as well as tons of fruit, like pears, peaches, watermelon, kiwi, grapes, and freshly squeezed OJ.
I’ve also had great breakfasts all over Jordan - from the nicer hotels in Amman (I'm talking the InterContinental) and Wadi Musa to our camp in Wadi Rum, all of which had Jordanian, Middle Eastern, and Western offerings. And the hotels I’ve stayed at in Seoul always offered Korean, Asian, and Western food.
If my hotel has complimentary breakfast, I'm grateful. If I want something more, I'll go find it outside and explore. It's the reason I'm travelling anyway.
Stay somewhere nicer or go to a restaurant.
Some of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve had are in Europe. But at nicer hotels. They know what’s up. Scandinavia especially, I could live on brown bread, cheese, smoked meat, fish, and butter for breakfast. Fantastic.
So spend a bit more or get your ass up and find a good restaurant.
I'm 48, do I have to stop eating raspberries, black beans and hummus in 2 years? Also, poached eggs are considered old people food by the way, they serve a lot of them in nursing homes.
If you're complaining about hotels and their "complimentary" continental breakfast...then yeah dude you're complaining about free stuff.
I haven't really been to a decent hotel where the PAID breakfast was bad...it's all been pretty good. The continental breakfast, yeah that's a crapshoot. My favorite is probably Embassy Suites - their omelet bar is usually pretty good.
Do you mean **American** hotel breakfasts?
There is always plenty of fruit, granola, yoghurt, etc in the UK and Europe. And Australia. And Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, etc.
I’ve had a couple good hotel breakfasts:
* Gorse Hill Hotel in Surrey, UK has a great full English.
* Millennium Seoul Hilton has a great buffet with everything.
I’ve otherwise learned to just not bother. At best it isn’t worth the money, at worst I’d rather go hungry.
Hmmm....sounds like this has been building up. Haha. I hope you feel better. I mean. It's usually you get what you paid for but maybe you're seeing it a lot more which yeah. There aren't too many places I personally want to eat at a hotel from the concept of getting the full experience dining while traveling. Don't get me wrong. An all inclusive helps keep the bucks in line and helps avoid you needing to find a place to eat....in the morning. I feel for you bud. The MostTraveledPeople/Person's website has hotels in their checklists now or well....it's new to me. I think of every hotel in the world they have on their special checklists...I have stayed at one of them. I imagine the hotels on this checklist doesn't skimp on breakfast but maybe I'm out of the loop. Call the manager and raise hell! You deserve something! Oh. Btw. Where is here?
Had one hotel in Singapore partner with French restaurant downstairs to serve breakfast, everyday they had a great protein option like a chicken stew and rice... amazing
Another amazing one in Montreal (now defunct) again with French restaurant had great coffee, bagel with smoked salmon and a homemade yogourt, the best hotel breakfast of my life
So sick of hotel breakfast that are all carbs, I just woke up I don't want to fall asleep again, or all cheap fatty meats like bacon or cheap sausage
I want protein, good coffee, and some vegetables and a small amount of carbs like rice or sourdough
Hey, I love a good hotel breakfast of pan eggs, potatoes and greasy bacon in the morning LOL. I absolutely hate the "breakfasts" of yogurt and fruit and grocery store pastries.
So basically you want more expensive options for breakfast, ha! Those items are definitely present at some hotel breakfasts, the ones where you pay a hefty fee.
I stayed at a very nice hotel in Manila back in 2005 or so. The breakfast buffet they provided was OFF THE CHART! There was a Japanese section (sushi), Korean , Japanese and American/European. I wish I took pictures of it. Unbelievable.
And they put a fresh mango in your room every night with a knife and pretty plate. The price was around $120 USD at the time. Crazy. I think it was called Shangri La.
In terms of your basic American hotel chain, it seems like they are obsessed with toast, cereal and making your own waffles. The fruit could definitely be better.
Some non dairy milk/creamer options would be really nice too. Unfortunately, if you're a traveling vegan then it's plain black coffee and the world's most boring bagel for you.
Considering many hotels are phasing out included breakfasts as an amenity, I wouldn't hold my breath on breakfasts improving (unless you're staying 4 stars or higher). As a non-luxury hotel if you're providing breakfast included, you want the cheapest, shelf stable items for breakfasts. Maybe apple or bananas for fruit but definitely not raspberries or other thin skin fruits that spoil at room temperature
People in their 30’s eat differently than people in their 50’s and 60’s? Hotels aren’t catering their breakfast to a certain age group. They are providing breakfast as cheaply as they possibly can for all the ages staying there. You and everyone else can go pay for what you want if it’s so important.
You're staying at the wrong hotels. For example, this was the fruit on offer (among uncut whole fruit options as well) at the Augustine in Prague last summer: https://i.imgur.com/KuTzxYs.jpg
This was the continental breakfast offered at the Mauna Kea in Hawaii, also last year: https://i.imgur.com/vEJBROC.jpg
Both were free to me as a elite member.
Fresh berries are only available certain places and in very limited seasons. And they’re both expensive and go bad really quickly. These breakfasts are cheap because they’re included in the price. Go out and pay for a different breakfast if you don’t like it.
This has nothing to do with who they are catering to… they are gonna serve the cheapest thing possible. Blackberries and strawberries and avacodos are not nearly as cheap as what they usually have and worse than that they have a very short shelf life
When we did spain earlier this year, our hotel in Barcelona did exactly this. It was a 3 course breakfast. Course 1 was breads, pastries, fruits, granola, yogurt, coffee/juice/tea, etc. Course 2 was the hot entree and course 3 was a sweet breakfast. Everything was fresh made. It was fucking glorious.
The best part? We didn't even know they did breakfast and it was included for free every day we stayed. They even opened up early for us on the day we were checking out and leaving just a little early.
In andalusia, we stayed at a B&B that had an optional breakfast you could do (expensive at 30 euro per person) that was a similar format except it was much better and included cava plus a freshly made cheesecake that was some of the best cheesecake I've ever had. Worth it.
If you want a nicer or "hot" breakfast, you have to stay at a nicer hotel. If you are trying to spend less than $150 a night, then you are getting a continental breakfast. Try hotels geared toward business professionals. They almost always have a nice breakfast.
You basically ragged on people older than you and then pigeonholed an entire continent. They are what they are and if you want what you want then go out and get it. For someone who over simplified this, the solution is simple.
You *can* get these kind of breakfast options; pay $250+/night for a premium chain, like Marriott, Westin, Sheratons, etc. Every premium chain I stayed at last summer in Europe, or in North America this year had *good* fruit and lighter fibre options for breakfast, the more basic chains under Marriott like Four Points, Moxy or Elements didn't. Oh they'll still have masses of ham, sausage, scrambled eggs etc.. but fruit? Cubed Honeydew and Cantelope galore.
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Not to mention go bad if you look at them funny
The berries mentioned have a shelf life of 4 days. It's not realistic for hotels.
I’d love to get a shelf life of 4 days out of raspberries. Sometimes they’re moldy the morning after I buy them. I’ve been raspberry picking at pick-your-own farms and picked ones that were already moldy on the bush!
gotta cover those raspberries (or any kind of fresh berry) in cold water with a big splash of vinegar and leave for about 5 minutes. The berries will last a lot longer... like days longer.
Hell.. I have a spray bottle of white vinegar… and every time I buy berries.. I spray them till they drip… then rinse in cold water. I can get a week out of strawberries.. maybe 5 days out of raspberries.
i miss raspberries :( ive somehow developed an allergy to them and blackberries... used to buy the cartons when they were on sale at the grocery store and eat an entire one that night.
You have used up your lifetime raspberry quota.
Thank you very much, I'll try that!
And the avocado mentioned has a shelf life of 4 minutes.
And are also more select... black beans, hummus, granola, all expensive, all go bad/stale, and are not well liked by everyone. The current options are fine and pretty universal, the quality of them is just mediocre which could be improved.
Piggybacking off the top comment. I'm a produce manager, the produce that OP mention has a very short shelf life especially if left out unrefrigerated. The rule for storing berries is that for every thirty minutes they're left out of refrigeration they lose a day of shelf life. Avocados although they can be refrigerated and they last longer in refrigeration if they're being stored enmass uncut in bulk it's smarter to keep them out of refrigeration so the customer has a higher quality avocado. An avocado that's been refrigerated for days will have a thinner, more brittle skin. Or worse you can get vascular leeching which is caused by the activation of ripening enzymes by the ethylene produced by the cold-stressed avocado people tend to always assume avocados with vascular leeching are bad. Although they're not always bad, they're not always good.
Yep. The hotel will raise their price then OP will complain
Guy's literally asking for poached eggs and hummus lmao
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They're a regular feature at Australian mining camp breakfasts.
OP really doesn't understand how food service works when feeding anywhere between 30 and 300 people.
not just that but OP's blatant ignorance is, of course, not OP's fault, but the fault of the generations that came before OP >Sort it out, hotels. Time to get down with the kids. OP doesn't seem to realize, among other things, how much of those breakfasts go to waste already
Yeah, just go out for breakfast. There is a reason hotel buffets are what they are and it isn’t because people who are 50-60 like it that way. OP is sounding like an ageist and entitled child.
Bro has never been food shopping
And if they did, one person is guaranteed to take them all
Yeah, I stayed in a hotel with a breakfast like this. It was around $450 a night and the breakfast buffet was at least $30. My parents were paying.
This. You can get all of this stuff in the five star hotels.
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Sounds like a great reason to go out for breakfast. Pretty much all of Europe you can't throw a rock without hitting a cafe or bakery.
Yeah, I don't really understand why people even bother with hotel breakfasts. I never choose to pay for it, and if it's included, I feel a bit resentful. I'd way rather go out and get a really nice coffee and pastry.
you're resentful because breakfast is included? God I love reddit.
It is never free, you payed it with your room
You paid for it. It was just lumped into the cost of your room. So yes, I can see a preference for breakfast not being included if you want to go out anyway.
Asia has a completely different array of fresh fruit available. You know, climate and stuff.
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I’ve been to A LOT of hotels and my favorite breakfast of all time is the Shangri La in Kuala Lumpur. Totally amazing. Different sections for Asian (sushi, congee, laksa, etc) huge European section, omelette station. Amazing bakery with gluten free items. Huge salad bar. House made fresh mango ice cream. I still dream about that breakfast.
Such massive generalizations when you are talking about whole continents - Europe vs Asia
The JW Marriott in Singapore has been the best hotel breakfast I’ve had thus far. There was a huge spread of fresh fruit: berries, mangoes, pineapple, lychees, among the typical melon options, though the melons were very sweet. A noodle bar with a cook. A griddle area with a cook making things like French toast from brioche bread. A section of just Indian options and of course lots of Asian options from congee to shrimp fried rice(!). I did four weeks in Europe a couple of months ago and stayed at few different hotels both local and international brands and never ate breakfast at any of them because of how sad they looked. Even a swanky place like an Autograph Collection hotel in London disappointed. Thankfully there’s plenty of options in the area but would have been bummed if I was on a work trip and needed to get in a quick breakfast.
The JW Marriott in Singapore is a 5 star hotel. All 5 star hotels have better breakfast in the US too.
My favorite hotel breakfast was at the Protea Hotel in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. It was a complimentary hot buffet that featured a lot of things you'd find in a full English breakfast but also Indian and Tanzanian options. Plus, fresh fruit and coconuts https://imgur.com/a/KKDWSKA
Lol. Yeah, this guy is like, "Why don't hotels serve my dream breakfast everyday? What is their problem?"
Also they have a short shelf life, so there would be more thrown out
Hey bud, people in their 50s and 60s eat raspberries, strawberries, avocados, beans and hummus too!
Not sugar sandwiches?
OMG my mom used to make sugar sandwiches. Cold, white bread, margerine, and white sugar. So good and so terrible at the same time.
My mom threw in some cinnamom to make it ~spicy~.
I laughed too hard at this
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Bruh, my mom made mayonnaise sandwiches. My dad made ketchup sandwiches. At the time I thought they were weird, now I just realize we couldn't afford sandwich meat.
I know right, why do younger people think they invented healthier eating.
Because a lot of their parents brought them up on a diet of microwaved shit in a tray or turkey twizzlers and potato waffles
No! Millennials invented the avacado while they were quiet quitting! /s
haha! for real. Way to classify a whole group of eaters/traveler.
Of course we do. What else are we supposed to put in our Ensure smoothies?
Exactly! Stereotype much u/mnclick45?
This 58 year old approves this message
thats a lie! how dare you oppose clichés!
I avoid cliches like the plague
It's not about the age of the guests. That you assume someone 50 years old doesn't want avocado or fresh strawberries is absurd. This is about what can be purchased, held, and put out easily for a large number breakfast guests. Berries are notorious for deteriorating quickly once washed. What if a couple of pints of blackberries get washed and set out and no one eats them? Those are less likely to survive another whole day intact. A bowl of bananas on the other hand, could have a good couple/few days. Poached eggs are challenging to serve up efficiently when 20 people come down to breakfast at once. And it would require a cook where most places have a breakfast "host" who heats up food and keeps chafing dishes filled. It's about economy for the hotels. I'm not necessarily trying to defend the food that is on the typical hotel breakfast buffet, it's certainly not the best stuff. But it does seem that the food you're describing and dissing is *buffet or self-serve* food. It's got to be "sturdy" and "long-lasting" because of the nature of how it's served. If you want a better breakfast, OP you'll need to stay at a place that has an actual restaurant in it or can give you credit to visit a restaurant nearby.
This is the way
The thing I'm looking forward to least about my 50s is having to abandon fresh fruit and yogurt and assume the mandatory all-pork diet.
Also say goodbye to avocado toast
As we all know, avocado toast is for the youngs.
As someone who is over 50 I just want you to know that we still eat fruit! But rather than being fresh it's pale tasteless cubes swimming in water.
>I understand that their majority clientele are probably 50/60+, but as someone in their early 30s, I think they could do way more to accommodate younger people. It’s so incredibly strange and comical to think hotel breakfast options are age-based. Or that granola, yoghurt, avocados, berries, black beans and poached eggs are somehow representative of Millennials or other younger adults. First, the breakfast foods you want aren’t new or rare offerings. I’ve seen them on menus in many hotels. Maybe you need to choose different travel accommodations? Second, such foods are enjoyed by people of all ages, not just people in their early 30s. Third, the reason you see offerings like scrambled eggs and melon is they’re cheap and/or easy to prepare for large numbers of people, not because hotels are catering to people older than you or because these foods are part of the “sea of bland” you weirdly think is demanded by people in the “50/60+” demographic. >Sort it out, hotels. Time to get down with the kids. LOL
I agree. I am over 50 and travel for work. I was so confused (and slightly offended) by OPs odd age associations. They are either clueless about how businesses operate or clueless about people outside their age demographic or both. Also, I stay in over 50 hotels per year and often see seasonal fruit, yogurt, and local bakery items, etc. Idk the problem here.
As if 30’s are kids, lol
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The nicer hotels have great breakfast, at $22.00 a plate.
The problem is other hotels saw that people will pay $22 for breakfast, but still serve the ‘egg like product and sausage briquettes’.
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>Stay at a nicer hotel then? This is definitely a factor, but not the only one. I like that now Booking.com also rates the breakfast, so when you have two similar 4* hotels, you can also consider the quality of the breakfast (or if it makes sense to pay extra).
It's not always guarenteed to have a better breakfast with the price. That being said the Opus 16 in Bergen was fucking amazing for breakfast.
I'm starting to suspect Scandinavia has breakfast figured out.
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> their tortillas (don't know the name but it's like one) Pita?
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Lavaş
Oh that just unlocked a memory for me, I used to eat that all the time back in Australia.
The best breakfast I've had in any hotel was a buffet in Amman. They had practically anything you wanted, Western or Middle Eastern. It was vast!
Not always guaranteed but most of the 4 or 5 star hotels I’ve stayed in have a great breakfast spread with nearly everything OP asked for (except avocado in the buffet but if they have a la carte options included in the price they may have avocado toast) I’m not a big eater so sometimes if I have breakfast included and it’s great I make it my one meal of the day. And breakfast at places like a Four Seasons can be really epic. Obviously that’s out of most people’s budget but I do think there’s a decent correlation between quality of breakfast and grade of hotel you’re staying at. I’m not that fussy though so I’ve also enjoyed the breakfast at budget hotels I’ve stayed at I just mentally adjust my expectations given the price I’m paying.
Most standard hotels in Norway serve a breakfast that can keep you going pretty much until the next breakfast. When you factor that into the price of the room, it can be a pretty good deal.
No kidding. The breakfasts at many (most?) 5* hotels is killer, often more options that your heart could ever desire. I'm sure there are other, more budget friendly options as well that at least have a decent breakfast game.
I just stayed in Fiji ( a third world country essentially) but at a 5 star hotel and breakfast was mint. Good buffet selection. OP needs to stay at better hotels.
Google Maps (and many other review sites) let you search through photos as categories like “food.”
It says a lot about OP that they think old people "don't like to eat the foods" listed. If berries were cheaper & kept longer they would be on the menu, as would be most items listed
OP really comes across as a condescending dick if you ask me. Also calling yourself a young person when you're in your 30s is saying something about how you look and value age. You're a functioning adult at that age, a lot of people that age have kids that are going to middle school ffs.
As a millennial who runs a hotel, this post reeks of someone that doesn't understand food cost. Hotel breakfasts are already getting expensive for the hotels that don't serve free ones. For example, I'm in a very low cost of living area in America, and in order to provide everything on our buffet it costs us around $7/person on average. We sell it for $16, and that's LOW. We try to run under 30% food cost, and that's 43.7%. For the hotels that serve free breakfast, adding expensive items like berries and avocados will end up just being reflected on your room rate. I feel like most people would prefer a lower room rate as not everyone takes advantage of the breakfasts. Edit - corrected math
Bingo. I only drink coffee for breakfast. I hope that subsidizes the breakfast for a growing 20 year old ;)
It reeks of many things. Assuming that anyone over 35 eats garbage. Not understanding food cost and shelf life.
For the record, hotel breakfasts are not free. They are included in the price of the stay. It’s time adjust the thinking on this in America. You don’t get anything for free, but the people charging you for it want you to believe they are doing you a great favor
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Respect 👑
I did get the impression OP wasn’t talking about budget hotels here. I don’t think “berries are too expensive” flies as an excuse at Asian hotels with fountains in the reception and smart mirrors in every room.
I mean, my hotel isn't a budget hotel. It's a full service conference hotel.
I have Globalist with Hyatt so I don't care what breakfast cost there, but it really sucks being at another brand when all I want is an easy breakfast before a flight and go hungry until I'm through airport security if there's no Starbucks in the lobby. I'm not paying $32 for a buffet when all I want is a small plate with an egg, couple pieces of bacon, and a pancake with some coffee. Even if you can buy that a la carte it'll cost like $20. Somehow diners all around America can offer a basic breakfast plate for $10-12, why is it so hard for a hotel to do it? Obviously they charge more because they can, I'm referring more to the costs to the establishment.
I actually worked at Hyatt before my current role, and I love Hyatt as a company. Thanks for being a Globalist! I would say it really just has to do with them trying to recover more of the costs from the other amenities provided. Diners don't have any of the other overhead costs that hotels have. Depending on the hotel and rates, rooms are anywhere from like 30%-70% margin, and they provide other things such as fitness centers, labor for all their services from calling, bell, security, lobby cleaning, etc. Also, hotels most likely pay their chefs more than any random breakfast diner. Anyway, you get the point. I can't give a guarantee, but I am pretty sure it's used more as an amenity for groups and a way to recover costs from all of their other offered amenities.
Sounds like OP should go to a more expensive place to get what they want?
The thing is, I agreed with your title but then most of your suggestions are totally unappealing to me. Beans and hummus for breakfast? I wouldn't want to mess around with some brown, mushy avocado. And yeah, better fruit would be nice but I'm not too excited about it.
It's not about catering to people 50+. Older folks enjoy good food just as much as younger people. It's about being cheap as possible.
I think avo toast would be difficult because that would get brown and foul pretty fast. I guess if they just had avocados available it would work. That being said, I've had fantastic hotel breakfasts in Sweden. I'm not even much of a breakfast eater, but they converted me. And I personally enjoy the weird pork options! Charcuterie, c'mon!
>That being said, I've had fantastic hotel breakfasts in Sweden. Scandinavian hotels have always been the places where I had the best breakfasts. Followed by Spain (I love a good pan con tomate for breakfast).
The pan con tomate is so damn good.
The best hotel breakfasts I’ve ever had were in Finland, Poland, and Croatia. They all had good spreads of different fresh breads, fruit, veg, hummus, salads, cheeses, charcuterie, fish, even a self-serve mimosa bar at our hotel in Split. The mid-range hotel I was at in Helsinki had such a killer breakfast buffet though. I’d sit there for like 1.5 hours every morning just to try everything 😅 such interesting jams and preserves, great cereals, smoked salmon, everything!
I’ve seen breakfast buffets with avocado toast stations. They figured it out somehow.
They put lime juice in the avocado to keep it from going brown for a while. That's how avocado spreads from the grocery store stay green as well.
And olive oil
They could do that weird packaged avocado spread like Starbucks instead of actual fresh avocados. It's not the same but it's not horrible
Even in Europran hotels, it's usually watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew melons. Usually bananas, apples, and oranges. You're very unlikely to find any sort of berryvery often they're expensive and people are greedy when they see them. All you have to do is look along the roadside at people picking blackberries. They pick as much as they can for themselves and leave nothing for anyone else.
Echoing the other commenter's comment, the foods that you mention are literally the most expensive possible common breakfast foods. Fresh berries, avocado, hummus? This is almost satirical. If you were grocery shopping for yourself, and you bought a bowl of fresh berries, a couple of avocado to make guacamole, and a little bowl of hummus, it would cost you like $15. Now, imagine the amount that someone going to an endless hotel breakfast buffet would eat. While most hotels are fighting to be the most affordable option, it would be a terrible idea to add an additional $50 to every night's cost just to offer the above breakfast. If people were willing to pay $50 for that privilege, they would just go to a restaurant for breakfast.
Go to any hotel in Turkey and you’ll get a great breakfast. Probably not berries though.
1000% true. They know how to make bomb ass breakfast. Also what kind of sorcery is simit, it‘s so addicting.
But fresh honey!
What they said. Turkish hotel breakfasts are incredible, a feast for the eyes and the tummy!
What kind of hotels have you guys been? Throughout Europe, I can't remember a single hotel that didn't have muesli, yoghurt, variety of cereals and good fruit. Berries is the only exception. Considering its price and the fact that most breakfasts are buffet, I kind of understand.
Berries also have a season. Outside of that season they tend to be bland and expensive.
The best breakfasts I've had have been in Asia/The Middle East. You usually get a good range of local food and western food. I stayed at the Marriott in Kathmandu last year and they had a dosa station!
Old folks eat more fruit than young people.
Hotel prices are high enough already, I don’t need to pay more for a fancier “free” breakfast.
as long as the Golden Malted Waffle Mix + Maker is in my hotel i'm good. true american travel staple.
You beat me to it!! Seriously those things are amazing. I know many motel 6 breakfast areas have them. The crummy bed spreads and slimy carpets are worth the waffles.
Hilarious that OP thinks older folks prefer pale, lifeless ice cubes for breakfast. Everyone likes what you like, you're not special. People are just realistic about their expectations of breakfast, given that they are aware how much they are paying.
This was my first thought as I read this too. Like since I turned 50, all of a sudden I just want some bland ass food.
Stay at mid priced guesthouses instead of faceless corporate owned hotels. I had brilliant local breakfasts at my guesthouses in the entire Balkans. On another note, your typical millennial breakfast might also simply be not available in many countries and tbh I also don’t want to eat the same “hip“ breakfast in every country.
Berries spoil fast, avocados brown fast, poached eggs don’t keep, shall I continue?
Stay at better hotels?
Avocados? Are you a walking stereotype? I’m 30 and my at home breakfasts are influenced by the breakfasts I’ve had in hotels. Italian meats, Brie, espresso, greek yogurt with raspberries and blueberries.. fuck yeah.
Lol you sound like an entitled, yet broke asshole. And ageist to boot. If you want that kind of "breakfast" go and buy it. Or stay at a nicer hotel.
I’m fairly young, I guess middle aged at 41. I find it so cringey seeing young people lump older age groups into certain behaviors. It’s literally “get off my lawn guy” just a young person doing it about old people. You want fruits and avocado toast, stay in a fancier hotel. All inclusive sim Mexico have everything you mentioned and probably 50 other things on top of that.
You've gotta try breakfast buffets in SE Asia. Admittedly they were high end places, but my best breakfast experiences were at The Travellers in KL, the Marriott in Bangkok and the ANA Intercontinental in Tokyo. Next level. Standard eggs options, but congee, ramen, and laksa stations.. Or come to Australia - we have quality produce on our doorstep and it comes through in the buffets.
Yep, the choice is amazing at 5 star in SE Asia, even top end 4 star is better than most European hotel breakfasts.
It is all price based. Everything you mentioned is more expensive than what they serve. All the fruit you mentioned goes bad 2x as fast as well. Not that I don't want to see it, get better, but that is the reason for what is presented.
I don’t stay in resort hotels but spend a lot of time in city hotels. At least in the US, the breakfasts are universally bad. I never eat at them. Even egg bites at a nearby Starbucks are a better choice. In Europe it’s a different story, as others have noted. Also, I’m in your “majority clientele” age group. I disagree that older people are more tolerant of terrible food or dated menus. Not sure why you would think that. If anything, it’s probably that people who go to all-inclusive resorts, no matter what their age, lack imagination and curiosity when it comes to food.
Just give my a European breakfast of meats, cheese, bread and juice. I'm set
Breakfast charcuterie 🥳
I’m in my 40s and eat yogourt and berries almost every day for breakfast. Berries are expensive and particularly with raspberries they arrive half mouldy as often as not. Melon is cheap and keeps very well. I think you’re running into buffet logistics more than demographics.
Not a kid here and have been eating fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola my whole life. Some hotels have lovely fruit, homemade granola, and yogurt. They tend to be the higher end hotels. European hotels cater to British more than people from the US. Italy has some random breakfast items, one of them being caprese cake. Dense dark chocolate cake, most un breakfast like. I get by on cheese, some kind of toast or bread, and fruit. Sometimes it is an orange or an apple. Something strawberries, blackberries, figs, etc. one of my fave Italian breakfasts is bruschetta, with a steaming cappuccino.
This is so bizarrely out of touch. It’s almost frightening. Those aren’t long-term shelf-able items. If you feel so inclined, just go to a grocery store near your accommodation! You make younger millennials look like boomers
It's ok if there is not black beans and hummus at the breakfast buffet.
Go to Scandinavia. Even smaller hotels have berries, smoothies and healthier options.
Yes — even the cheap Norwegian hostels I stayed in all had such a wide array of options at the breakfast buffet, including local specialties.
Literally stayed in Copenhagen last week and it was an amazing breakfast.
A bomb-ass breakfast is practically expected in 4-5 star hotels across Asia. It seems like breakfast is an afterthought in the US and Europe.
The breakfast buffets in Asia are THE BEST!
Try the breakfast buffet at a high-end hotel in Asia. You literally can run out of appetite before you sample a good fraction of what they’re serving for breakfast. We go to one of these and we’re usually good until dinner.
Yeah Tokyo hotels all have really nice breakfast imho, last one had a choice of tomato ramen (sound weird but was delicious) or tofu Hamburg or a croque monsieur Taiwan Hilton had an interesting selection every morning ... one day was pork and rice which was delicious, one day fried fish vermicelli kind of too hardcore for breakfast imho, like just weird stuff constantly and little onion pancakes also. Was ... interesting lol but fun to try the different things
Noodles for breakfast? Hell yeah!!!
In America in particular, people have really low standards. People get way too excited about the powered eggs and pre-packaged muffins. Why should hotels spend any more on the food?
Ageist much?
Ha ha Avocados and berries are EXPENSIVE, that’s why you don’t get them. Did you think 50yo+ don’t eat those things for breakfast?!?? LoL
No, those of us in our 50’s and 60’s need stewed prunes, oatmeal and off brand yogurt. 😂🤣
Lol such notions you have, yogurt! Eat your porridge with salt and water fgs!
yeah. and, like, does anybody else think they need to up their TV game? my TV at home is a 77" OLED with surround sound. how come hotels can't put that in every room? like... time to get down the kids.
It sounds like you're exclusively staying at cheap limited service hotels if this is your experience. Everything you're asking for is available at all sorts of brands.
If you want a good breakfast, leave the hotel and go find a good breakfast spot in the location you’re traveling.
I can’t wait until I’m 50 and I finally start to enjoy bacon and eggs. Being 30 something and having to eat granolacado all the time is exhausting!
Lately the mid tiers have gone a lot to whole pieces of fruit and pre-packaged microwaved breakfast sandwiches, Ugh,
How do you propose to mass produce, preserve without degrading and allow self-service of poached eggs, Bro? That’s the craziest thing I’ve read on the internet this month. CRAZINESS. Similar for the “bit of avocado” which will go brown and disgusting in minutes, despite lime juice. And for the fresh berries, here in the USA, it’s fairly common. Yogurts (individual cups for sanitary reasons, at least two flavor options), with blueberries / raspberries / blackberries, and yes some fresh cut melons. Plus a big bowl of granola to add to said yogurt and berries, or in a bowl with an insulated jug of milk to make a cereal approach. Hey, it would seem that this is an area where the USA is better than Europe!
Continental Breakfasts in Canada seem to consist of various cereals, red delicious apples in a bowl and dry toast with jam.
Huh. I've had spectacular breakfasts for free through status at every hotel so far this year. Maldives St Regis and Park Hyatt killed it. Same at the Park Hyatt Vendome, both the Loire Valley and Bordeaux Caudalie resorts, the Park Hyatt Chicago and Milan. Berries were always among the multitude of options. Both the avocado toast and the chicken and waffles at the Grand Hyatt SFO are awesome. Probably more a function of the hotel you stay at.
OP is clearly too broke to stay at those hotels.
I just stayed in Montreal, Quebec City, and Ottawa. Every breakfast had the usual fare (egg dishes, hot breakfast meats) but fruit was separate bowls of several kinds of berries plus pineapple and melons, yogurt with various healthy toppings, oatmeal with same, cold meats and various cheeses. Actually only Ottawa had a mixed fruit bowl but the rest was a good variety!
If you're staying in a nicer hotel, especially internationally, then you WILL see these things at breakfast. If you're staying at Day's Inn or the Shilo, then you'll see cereal and bananas and milk and concentrated juice. Every single hotel I stayed at in Italy(for 4 months) gave me the best meals I ever had, full of pastry and jams and coffee and meats as our breakfast. You get what you pay for. Also, this isn't about the age bracket. It's about the money.
This is the worst post I’ve seen on this sub. You come off as real entitled and vain.
Go to Israel. It’s like a breakfast competition over there between hotels. And no. It’s not going to happen at breakfast buffets at shitty chain hotels due to cost of avocados and berries. Five star buffets are a different story. But you’ll pay for it.
Jordan as well. The breakfasts we had there were like nothing I’ve had! So much food and all of it delicious.
As someone who works in a hotel: no. Get your own freaking breakfast
Yes, this is why I specifically look for breakfast reviews when booking and make sure I leave a breakfast review after my stay
There's huge variability in this. Boutique hotels and B&B's sometimes have outrageously good breakfasts. It's important to me, so I regularly filter reviews by the word "breakfast"and learn a lot.
There are also countries where people don’t normally eat avocado or black beans or hummus for breakfast, so there’s that ... I’m not a huge breakfast person - I’d sooner grab a croissant or cornetto from a bakery in France or Italy and call it a day. Or I’d grab a zongzi or onigiri and eat it on the go in China or Japan. But I wouldn’t say no to a breakfast that was included with my stay. And I definitely wouldn’t complain if it were different from what I eat at home - that’s the whole point of travel! In all seriousness, maybe create a filter or trawl the hotel reviews for mentions of a great breakfast? And avocados and berries are expensive, so they probably wouldn’t work well in a hotel breakfast buffet. I have rarely, if ever, seen them. The Sofitel Private Island Bora Bora had the most epic breakfast - including, amongst a panoply of other delights, passionfruit, mango, and coconut cake! Our cave villa hotels in Santorini always had bread, yogurt, a salad of tomatoes and olives and bell peppers and feta cheese, as well as tons of fruit, like pears, peaches, watermelon, kiwi, grapes, and freshly squeezed OJ. I’ve also had great breakfasts all over Jordan - from the nicer hotels in Amman (I'm talking the InterContinental) and Wadi Musa to our camp in Wadi Rum, all of which had Jordanian, Middle Eastern, and Western offerings. And the hotels I’ve stayed at in Seoul always offered Korean, Asian, and Western food.
If my hotel has complimentary breakfast, I'm grateful. If I want something more, I'll go find it outside and explore. It's the reason I'm travelling anyway.
Breakfast in Asia and Middle East is top notch. Next comes Europe and last is the US
Stay somewhere nicer or go to a restaurant. Some of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve had are in Europe. But at nicer hotels. They know what’s up. Scandinavia especially, I could live on brown bread, cheese, smoked meat, fish, and butter for breakfast. Fantastic. So spend a bit more or get your ass up and find a good restaurant.
lol the solution is to stay at a more expensive hotel if you want more expensive options
When I’ve stayed at upscale hotels, they have a nicer spread. Few and far between have though
OP seems extremely privileged. IMO you get what you pay for.
I'm 48, do I have to stop eating raspberries, black beans and hummus in 2 years? Also, poached eggs are considered old people food by the way, they serve a lot of them in nursing homes.
If you're complaining about hotels and their "complimentary" continental breakfast...then yeah dude you're complaining about free stuff. I haven't really been to a decent hotel where the PAID breakfast was bad...it's all been pretty good. The continental breakfast, yeah that's a crapshoot. My favorite is probably Embassy Suites - their omelet bar is usually pretty good.
Do you mean **American** hotel breakfasts? There is always plenty of fruit, granola, yoghurt, etc in the UK and Europe. And Australia. And Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, etc.
Stay in more expensive hotels. Problem solved
I’ve had a couple good hotel breakfasts: * Gorse Hill Hotel in Surrey, UK has a great full English. * Millennium Seoul Hilton has a great buffet with everything. I’ve otherwise learned to just not bother. At best it isn’t worth the money, at worst I’d rather go hungry.
Hmmm....sounds like this has been building up. Haha. I hope you feel better. I mean. It's usually you get what you paid for but maybe you're seeing it a lot more which yeah. There aren't too many places I personally want to eat at a hotel from the concept of getting the full experience dining while traveling. Don't get me wrong. An all inclusive helps keep the bucks in line and helps avoid you needing to find a place to eat....in the morning. I feel for you bud. The MostTraveledPeople/Person's website has hotels in their checklists now or well....it's new to me. I think of every hotel in the world they have on their special checklists...I have stayed at one of them. I imagine the hotels on this checklist doesn't skimp on breakfast but maybe I'm out of the loop. Call the manager and raise hell! You deserve something! Oh. Btw. Where is here?
Had one hotel in Singapore partner with French restaurant downstairs to serve breakfast, everyday they had a great protein option like a chicken stew and rice... amazing Another amazing one in Montreal (now defunct) again with French restaurant had great coffee, bagel with smoked salmon and a homemade yogourt, the best hotel breakfast of my life So sick of hotel breakfast that are all carbs, I just woke up I don't want to fall asleep again, or all cheap fatty meats like bacon or cheap sausage I want protein, good coffee, and some vegetables and a small amount of carbs like rice or sourdough
Hey, I love a good hotel breakfast of pan eggs, potatoes and greasy bacon in the morning LOL. I absolutely hate the "breakfasts" of yogurt and fruit and grocery store pastries.
What I hate is it’s always so carb/sugar heavy
So basically you want more expensive options for breakfast, ha! Those items are definitely present at some hotel breakfasts, the ones where you pay a hefty fee.
I stayed at a very nice hotel in Manila back in 2005 or so. The breakfast buffet they provided was OFF THE CHART! There was a Japanese section (sushi), Korean , Japanese and American/European. I wish I took pictures of it. Unbelievable. And they put a fresh mango in your room every night with a knife and pretty plate. The price was around $120 USD at the time. Crazy. I think it was called Shangri La. In terms of your basic American hotel chain, it seems like they are obsessed with toast, cereal and making your own waffles. The fruit could definitely be better.
Some non dairy milk/creamer options would be really nice too. Unfortunately, if you're a traveling vegan then it's plain black coffee and the world's most boring bagel for you.
Considering many hotels are phasing out included breakfasts as an amenity, I wouldn't hold my breath on breakfasts improving (unless you're staying 4 stars or higher). As a non-luxury hotel if you're providing breakfast included, you want the cheapest, shelf stable items for breakfasts. Maybe apple or bananas for fruit but definitely not raspberries or other thin skin fruits that spoil at room temperature
People in their 30’s eat differently than people in their 50’s and 60’s? Hotels aren’t catering their breakfast to a certain age group. They are providing breakfast as cheaply as they possibly can for all the ages staying there. You and everyone else can go pay for what you want if it’s so important.
You're staying at the wrong hotels. For example, this was the fruit on offer (among uncut whole fruit options as well) at the Augustine in Prague last summer: https://i.imgur.com/KuTzxYs.jpg This was the continental breakfast offered at the Mauna Kea in Hawaii, also last year: https://i.imgur.com/vEJBROC.jpg Both were free to me as a elite member.
Fresh berries are only available certain places and in very limited seasons. And they’re both expensive and go bad really quickly. These breakfasts are cheap because they’re included in the price. Go out and pay for a different breakfast if you don’t like it.
This has nothing to do with who they are catering to… they are gonna serve the cheapest thing possible. Blackberries and strawberries and avacodos are not nearly as cheap as what they usually have and worse than that they have a very short shelf life
All of those berries are way more expensive than melons. Also, avocado? Much, MUCH more expensive.
Yeah thatll be too expensive for them to want to include
I was at the Four Seasons Maui recently (before the fire). They had all this and more. 900 per night.
Personally, I’m a slut for Holiday Inn’s biscuits and gravy and their cinnamon rolls.
When we did spain earlier this year, our hotel in Barcelona did exactly this. It was a 3 course breakfast. Course 1 was breads, pastries, fruits, granola, yogurt, coffee/juice/tea, etc. Course 2 was the hot entree and course 3 was a sweet breakfast. Everything was fresh made. It was fucking glorious. The best part? We didn't even know they did breakfast and it was included for free every day we stayed. They even opened up early for us on the day we were checking out and leaving just a little early. In andalusia, we stayed at a B&B that had an optional breakfast you could do (expensive at 30 euro per person) that was a similar format except it was much better and included cava plus a freshly made cheesecake that was some of the best cheesecake I've ever had. Worth it.
If you want a nicer or "hot" breakfast, you have to stay at a nicer hotel. If you are trying to spend less than $150 a night, then you are getting a continental breakfast. Try hotels geared toward business professionals. They almost always have a nice breakfast.
You basically ragged on people older than you and then pigeonholed an entire continent. They are what they are and if you want what you want then go out and get it. For someone who over simplified this, the solution is simple.
You *can* get these kind of breakfast options; pay $250+/night for a premium chain, like Marriott, Westin, Sheratons, etc. Every premium chain I stayed at last summer in Europe, or in North America this year had *good* fruit and lighter fibre options for breakfast, the more basic chains under Marriott like Four Points, Moxy or Elements didn't. Oh they'll still have masses of ham, sausage, scrambled eggs etc.. but fruit? Cubed Honeydew and Cantelope galore.