We are considering some hotels in Paris/Rome where breakfast is extra. Neither of us eats breakfast every day, but we like coffee as soon as we wake up.

What is the proper etiquette regarding "just coffee"? All the hotels I've ever stayed at included breakfast in the room rate, so I've never dealt with this. If we don't want to pay the extra fee, do we find a cafe nearby and bring coffee back to the room? Or is hotel coffee offered even if one isn't eating breakfast?

A few hotels might have coffee and tea in the lounge just for the taking, and a few simple hotels/pensiones might provide instant coffee and an electric kettle. A full-service hotel that has all kinds of room service will certainly, for a charge, bring coffee to your room, for a considerable charge.
Many hotels provide coffee only as part of breakfast. As for your specific hotels, you can certainly ask if just coffee is available.

Yes, you can get coffee outside and bring it back, with pastries if you like.

Hello JeanneB, I do not want to eat early in the morning. But I sure want my coffee!

I have never seen coffee included in the hotel room rate unless one includes breakfast in the hotel rate.

I do not pay to have breakfast included in the hotel price.

I go "down the street" and have coffee at a cafe. Much nicer then taking the coffee back to the hotel room IMHO. And personally I have never seen "coffee to go" but perhaps there is.

I have "traded" coffee being delivered to the room for the breakfast in the breakfast room at the hotel.

I would suggest that you discuss this with the hotel(s) where you are staying.

I prefer to have a couple cups of coffee before I go out in the morning. Since many of the places we stay in overseas charge for breakfast (even if I just want coffee), I find that my little Wal-Mart immersion heater helps me out. I can use it for coffee (little instant packs), tea, hot chocolate, even oatmeal. Since the rooms only have glass cups in the bathroom, I pack or purchase a cheap-o mug for use during the trip. Works like a charm.

Happy travels!

Most of the hotels we stay at have coffee in the room, but most people in Europe do not ingest coffee in quite the same way as Americans do. Coffee is considered a compliment to a meal, even a "continental breakfast". It is not a stand-alone beverage (France, Spain and Italy), nor something taken to stimulate you in the morning, especially since espresso is actually very low in caffeine.

Coffee to go is impossible from regular cafes. I once tried to do so while doing my laundry across the street. Finally when the guy figured out where I was going with it, he let me take it in a regular cup. But cafe's won't have paper or syrofoam. On the other hand if you see one of the Croissanterie or other chains, you can get coffee to go there.

I usually throw on some clothes and go get a coffee at a stand up bar or sidewalk cafe near by, then go back and shower and prepare for the day. It seems so much more "civilized" in Paris, than getting take-a-way coffee to drink in your hotel room.

I don't stay at hotels in Paris that have ever included coffee in the room in any kind of coffee maker. I guess I don't stay at that level of hotel. I don't usually take the hotel breakfast in Paris because I prefer to go out to a cafe and because I don't care to eat a lot in the morning. Some hotels I've been in that had a breakfast (which has always been a separate fee in the hotels I stay in) didn't have anything very exciting anyway (often just a baguette and butter, maybe a croissant, along with coffee and perhaps juice).

Once I'm dressed and go out, I don't want to go back to the hotel and so don't do that.

I don't agree with Robert that folks don't drink just coffee in cafes in Paris, without a meal. They do all the time, especially in the morning.

Thanks, all. It seems to be as I assumed. The hotel would not appreciate an order for just coffee unless one were paying for breakfast. But we don't like going to a cafe until we've showered and dressed, either.

So. We'll give priority to a hotel w/ breakfast included. If not, we'll just cross that bridge when we get there.

Another option you might consider is to take your own - I often do this, as I too like my morning fix before I've even got dressed. I have a small electirc travel kettle and a small cafetiere (I think what you might call a coffee press?). In this I stuff a bag of good ground coffee. I would then buy milk from a nearby store and keep it in the minibar in my room.

I then use the glasses found in the bathroom as my drinking vessel. Perfect!

I should add that if you go for the breakfast option, you'll find hotel breakfasts a pretty paultry affair - coffee, juice, break and jam, perhaps croissants, perhaps yoghurt, but nver a full cooked hot breakfast. It seems only us anglo-saxons like a hearty meal at that time of day.

You might try this: my brother-in-law is a very early riser and likes coffee as soon as he gets up. He simply makes friends with the night clerk at our Paris hotel and the night clerk has coffee ready for him at 6:00. The coffee appears on the hotel bill. We always stay at the same hotel so he is able to work out the arrangement easily.
At hotels both in Paris and Rome we have been able to order coffee from room service but our experience has been that most of the hotels we have stayed at in Italy include breakfast so it is not an issue.

My guess is that if your hotel charges 8 euro for breakfast, that if they just prepared coffee for you and had it ready for you, you'd get a daily charge of about 15 euro for the two coffees. Just a guess, of course.

>[Coffee] is not a stand-alone beverage (France, Spain and Italy), nor something taken to stimulate you in the morning, especially since espresso is actually very low in caffeine.<

Don't know about Spain, but I have spent many an early morning having a cuppa and listening to the locals as they had their morning coffee and cigarette.

As for low levels of caffeine - I don't think it is the water that causes that buzz, especially in Italy. I have seen many sleepy faces gulp an espresso and leap for the bus like a dragster on oxygenated fuel.


standing at the bar

For me,one of the most enjoyable aspects of travelling is taking part in the important rituals of local life. In Italy, caffe (with a cornetto) in a bar in the morning is de rigeur(or however you say that in Italian.) I think it's good (for me,at least) to step outside of what I do everyday at home and try something new.It makes me feel more Italian (or French,or Romanian,or whatever)

My experiences in Italy have included a place that charged a small amount for a morning cappucino (you could also have breakfast, but for a larger fee), and the "breakfast included" hotels in Florence and Rome. In the case of the latter, taking just coffee or having it delivered to your room was simply fine, and was included in the room rate.

BC

It seems like this would be worth taking your own coffee makings. I'm not usually a heavy packer, but if coffee is important, and you'd just as soon not have to get dressed and troup down the street looking for some (that would be me!), why not pack (or buy upon arrival) a simple electric kettle of some sort?

When you "breakfast" with your room, all you are really paying for is the coffee. They more or less throw in that piece of bread with it for free.

I often go down to breakfast in the hotel that I stay at in Paris and just have coffee or tea. I don't like to eat a lot in the morning. I know the hotel staff very well by now, and if I tell them I just had coffee they believe me and only charge me a euro or two for that.

But in a hotel where I'm not known I wouldn't presume to do that without checking first. I'd probably opt to go out to a café and have a coffee rather than try to get the hotel staff to make an exception for me.

I've never stayed at a hotel in Europe that had a coffee maker in the room. I've only seen that in American hotels.

And I also disagree with Robert - if anything I think Europeans tend to hang out in cafés and drink just coffee at all times of day much more than Americans.

I go with a double espresso to get that needed jolt. A single espresso generally has a bit less caffeine than a 7-8 oz. cup of drip coffee, but doubling up does a good job.

The executive room (discounted!) that we had at the CDG Hilton had a coffee maker in the room, along with regular and decaffeinated coffee packets, hot chocolate mix, and assorted teas. But that's the only place in France that I've seen such a set-up. In the U.K., however, our room often had a kettle and assorted hot-drink supplies.