Prefer hotels w/breakfast or without?
 

I've always thought it was better to get a hotel that included the breakfast b/c it is convenient, you can get a head start on the day, and it is cheaper. This is in the US and I was carrying over that philosophy when looking at hotels in Paris. My husband said that he read that it is better not to get a hotel that comes with breakfast b/c you will feel obligated to eat there when there are so many places that serve wonderful breakfasts in Paris. Which do you prefer?

IMO, a very simple answer. If you're staying at a 1/2 star hotel and they provide a breakfast of roll/coffee/juice (go out) or a 5 star hotel with a lavious buffet. We stay mostly at hotels that provide/offer a "nice" breakfast.

You get what you pay for!!!

I personally prefer breakfast at the hotel on most days. It is not generally cheaper than going to the corner shop but I like the convenience. I like to be able to go back to the room and finish getting ready for the day's adventures.

I'm not a coffee drinker but have noticed that you can get more than one cup of coffee at the hotel without the additional charge.

Have a fun trip!

I like having the option. Sometimes after a day or two I'm bored with the hotel breakfast and will search out neighborhood places. I don't feel obligated either way. But if the hotel breakfast is fresh and tasty, and not to my mind overpriced, I like going downstairs to start my day with breakfast, using the time to plan my day, and still having the opportunity to go back to my room to get ready for the day before venturing out.
Obviously there's no right or wrong answer here, just preference. :)

PS, hotel breakfasts in my experience, are rarely cheaper than what you can find in a neighborhood bakery or cafe.

Hi Brender, since I only want coffee first thing in the morning I don't want breakfast included as for me it is a waste of money. Also anytime the weather is even half way decent I want to sit at an outdoor cafe while I enjoy my coffee, people watch and wake up.

I stay at 3-star type hotels in Paris and the breakfast there never interested me.

Paris has so many bakeries and pastries shops on most streets. It's best to go out and try different ones each day. Hotel breakfasts are usually boring.

Hi B,

In France, the hotel cannot require you to have breakfast and must show how much you are being charged for it in addition to the room cost.

If you feeling like eating out, just tell them not to bill you fro breakfast. (Keep track of it.)

((I))

PS,

I have yet to find a hotel breakfast that, considering quality of what you get, is cheaper than going out to Denny's or McDonalds, etc.

((I))

If it's not a question of money (read: I don't need to worry about whether I've somehow "paid" for my hotel breakfast in the room price and thus am obligated to eat it), I like having the option. I like having coffee before getting really ready for the day, as a poster above mentioned. Again, it's more for the coffee than the food.

In fact, I generally stay in apartments because I enjoy lounging about in my pajamas drinking cup after cup of coffee.

I have no problem stopping again later for more/better coffee. Or a delicious pastry. ;)

Ditto on the a cafe for petit dejeuner. I like the idea of sitting at a cafe, planning my day, and just enjoying the ambience of the city while I eat. Sitting in a hotel means (to me) less time taking in the essence of Paris. I'm there, I want to be spending as much time as possible doing "Paris things".

Ah the morning coffee or evening hot cocoa.

I bring a "hot pot" and the coffee bags (like tea, but actual coffee) and the little hot cocoa mixes. The hot pot isn't a big deal, as I can stuff socks in it for travel, so it takes up almost no room. That way, when we're waking up we have that first cup of coffee. My power adapter works great, as the hotpot only uses 900 watts.

Then we are out to find some out-of-the-way cafe and watch the world go by.

dave

Sometimes we book special rates at our favorite hotel in Paris that comes with breakfast at no extra charge. In that case, we usually take advantage of the option to have breakfast in our room instead of going down for the buffet. It's a nice little luxury, to start off the day enjoying croissants and pain au chocolat, fresh sqeezed OJ and coffee or hot chocolate in our room. If the breakfast isn't part of a special rate, then we have it at a cafe nearby.

In Austria and Germany, breakfast is almost always included in the price of the hotels we stay at and we do enjoy those German/Austrian breakfast spreads.

I agree with Leely 100%.

Its the coffee, jump-start, that I truly enjoy...in my jammies, waiting for my hair to set/dry/lay down flat (i.e, serious bed-head), etc.

Plus, I sorta get a kick out of, lets say for example, France's version of Today or Good Morning America.

I've stayed in several hotels that offered breakfast delivered to your room at the same price as in the breakfast room. Though 6 Euros is a bit more than I would have paid for that coffee/roll/juice at a nearby cafe, it was less than half the cost of the same in-room breakfast in an American hotel, so a great treat for me. Since my regular routine includes coffee the minute I get out of bed, I loved havinfthe having coffee while I dressed and watched the weather forecast on French or Italian TV.
However, if the hotel's breakfast is not available in my room, I find my coffee eslewhere.

I don't eat breakfast at home, so I'd much rather pay less and get no hotel breakfast when traveling. Coffee is a definite morning must, but much more fun to go out for it. I gained weight on my last trip, despite lots of walking, because I often ate three meals a day instead of two. I also drink OJ at home, but have had some terrible excuses for it on the road!

I prefer to have breakfast in the hotel.The time of year plays an important rol, in Winter in Europe for instance it is much, much betterthan to go out. It is also true that in some hotels it is out of hand, our last stay in Amsterdam this last Feb/March the breafast was like 23 eu per person, which at the end of the day, in spite of being Winter prompt us to have breakfast in cafes for aprox 16 eu for both.And of course it would have been cheaper in other places .
Location of course is also a factor, like when in a Parador Nacional in Spain, since they are often located on top of hills and the like, it is imperative to have breakfast in the Parador but they are reasonable like 12 eu per person and since we qualify for Seniors there is a 35 per cent discount, and of course we never miss them. As some one said you can mix it up and have breakfast some times in the hotel some times out. In very tiny hotels this might no be possible.
In some hotels ,Hotel DONA mARIA ,4 STARS, COMES to my mind in Seville the breakfast was both bad and not cheap which prompt us to have it out after one try.Once during the off season we had a miserable breakfast in a 4 stars hotel, Best Western it was, facing the sea,forgot the name. Good luck.

The hotel with the shameful breakfast was in Santa Maria Ligure in Italy.
It was off seasons but fresh bread is not that difficult to get...

I never cared for breakfast in the hotel, just my coffee please, however, I have just returned from Norway and now I'm all about the hotel breakfast. OMG I have never been so impressed with a morning meal Norwegians lay out a buffet that is both healthy and delicious. No muffins, no doughnuts, no croissants, bagels or anything we do in the U.S. No fruit loops, cheerios or english muffins. Instead, they put out eggs, sausage, norwegian meatballs, 3 types of fish, fresh baked breads, flat breads, granola, fresh apricots, prunes, raisins, yogurt, fresh fruit, juices, coffee, tea, etc. With a breakfast like this, we didn't get hungry again until 4 pm. and then we ate the fruit we saved for snacks.

Good thing we ate well at breakfast as Norway is probably the most expensive city on the planet and by dinner time you are hungry but very aware that a good meal will cost about $45. Money aside Norway was wonderful.

We always prefer to go out for a breakfast. In Paris, we'd trade off between the local crepe place or the cafe, where we'd just get cappuccino & croissants. We enjoy the people-watching and interactions at the cafes.

At the hotels I've been at it's typically a roll & so-so coffee. Some places have better breakfasts but at an additional price that's more than we spend at the cafe.

It's a matter of preference. One of my favorite parts of traveling in Europe is the hotel breakfast, something I realized after maybe 2 trips. Now I look at the breakfast room/breakfast reviews when booking the hotel. At home I'm not a big breakfast person, but when traveling I like to have coffee and something before going out; plus on vacation my DH and I actually have that meal together, something our schedules don't allow at home. Having breakfast in the hotel is one less thing we have to decide for the day, too.

I like to rent apartments. That way, some members of the family can be eating breakfast while another is showering, another is dressing, etc. It saves our family a lot of time in the morning.

One thing I hate is hotels with tiny breakfast rooms, where you feel like you have to leave your room super-early if you want a table.

I adored the hotel breakfast in Paris, and because I had paid for it and it was delicious, I made sure to get down in time for it everyday (no matter how tired I was from the previous day's sightseeing!). This meant a couple days racing downstairs with my wet hair in a ponytail. It will, of course, depend on the individual hotel, but I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have gotten as nice a breakfast if we'd had to go in search of it ourselves - we'd have probably just grabbed something small and quick on the way to the day's first sight, as opposed to haing a nice meal complete with extraordinary pastries and the little jelly jars. I personally can't get enough of little jelly jars.

I don't eat breakfast normally, just coffee, so it doesn't matter that much. When traveling, I prefer a hotel with breakfast when I'm in an inconvenient location or in an area in a city without good choices nearby. In Paris, I prefer never to have breakfast in my hotel, although sometimes I've enjoyed the coffee when it was free.

I have never stayed in a hotel where the breakfast was cheaper than eating out (in US or anywhere), and have never seen that in Paris. You have to pay for breakfast in Paris (and in many other hotels), although all hotels I've stayed at from 2* up offer it. There are only a few hotels I've ever heard of that claim it is "free" (or included) in Paris, and that is illegal as I've read the regulations. I guess it's not illegal to say it is free, but illegal to force you to pay for it there.

Almost all hotels have breakfast in Paris because they make a lot of profit off it. I don't think it's usually very good in Paris, at least not where I've stayed (just juice, a croissant or bread/butter and coffee). I mean it's fine for me, but not for folks that like to really chow down in the am. There are some that do have large buffet breakfasts with all kinds of food, but it's not free or cheap.

I like having coffee and small breakfast at the hotel... then we might have a "cafe" coffee mid-morning.

Our Paris hotel gives a small pot of coffee, hot milk, orange juice, jams, butter, 'cream cheese', honey, and 3 kinds of bread/rolls(a basket for each person) - it's included in the room price. I just survey the baskets as we walk to the tables so I can choose a seat with a different array of rolls than I had yesterday. I can't eat 3 rolls anyway, so this is plenty of food for me. The room is inexpensive so it would be ok if we went out, but we never do. I usually pour one more cup of coffee and carry it back to the room while we finish getting ready to go out.

What hotels are you looking to book, they will have details of what type of breakfast they provide and if you can book room only. I must admit I prefer to book breakfast with the hotel. That way I know I can have a good breakfast to set me up for the day and not worry about searching a place out.Most hotels can now be booked room only and then if you want breakfast on any particular day they just charge to your room for the days you had breakfast. This would be a good option as you could use it on the first morning, and then you go out and see what else is out there for the other days your staying, or if the weather is bad. I have stayed in sevral types of accomadtions from Hostel to 4* hotels and it varies as to what they think is a good breakfrast. I must add some of the best breakfast that I have had in France have been in some of the 3* hotels. So it is not always correct that the more you pay the better the breakfast. The service maybe be better and the actual breakfast room maybe laid out nicer, but that does not mean the food is. One of the things that can be confusing is when the hotel says conitental breakfast. In the past this just meant things like ceral, fruit juice, breads, pasteries jams etc tec and maybe some hams or cheese etc. Now days this maens a buffet breakfasts
with a very large choice of things including some hots food.

for my preferred b'fast (yoghurt, fruit, cheese, bread, coffee) i can get that in any european hotel's included breakfast and usually it is good. therefore i don't have any reason to seek out different places to eat breakfast.

i never eat lunch or dinner in hotels (except if i have to for a work event).

Like other things, it's what you feel comfortable doing. Some people like myself prefer to eat the hotel's breakfast for convenience. However, personally, if the breakfast is really horrible I would choose to go to a cafe. Luckily I've never encountered a bad hotel breakfast yet. Others prefer to try the different local cafes. And I've read that the cafe breakfasts are cheaper than the hotels'. I think that depends on what is being served at the hotel. If it's just coffee and croissant with jam and butter you may get them cheaper at a cafe, but the coffee will be limited to just one cup. We did try Relais Odeon's complete breakfast at approximately 8.50 euro and it was a nice value (better value than at Paul in my opinion). They give you egg any style and it must've been at least three eggs they put in one order of scrambled eggs. The meal included baguette, toasted baguette, fresh orange juice, coffee, and the jam and butter. The hotel's continental breakfast cost 12 euro per person.

Well, if the B&B is at a reasonable price (I like the Hotel D'Argenson in the 8th Arr, they include croissants, cafe au lait, etc for breakfast and all at a great rate) then by all means go for the breakfast included. However, croissants, baguettes, and bread are inexpensive to buy at a local boulangerie, that it is almost more fun doing it that way and "winging it". IMO, you often save $$ doing it that way over getting a room that includes breakfast.

I like to eat at the hotel. I don't think of breakfast as my "gourmet" meal anyway, so it doesn't have to be perfect. Plus, if my wife wakes up earlier (or later) we can get a bite ourselves while waiting for the other to shower and dress.

My experience is only in two hotels in the Latin Quarter but the breakfast rooms were particularly unappealing. One in a basement and one off the lobby but dark and stuffy. We never ate at either.

This is a BK/AK type of question!

BK or before kids we prefered to get breakfast outside the hotel or skip it entirely....but AK or after kids it's tough to get them running on empty in the mornings. Both my kids have healthy appetites, eat well and love breakfast buffets. Believe me it does cost more to eat at a cafe with a teenager in tow.

I've actually grown accustomed to hotel breakfasts now and enjoy them... the highlight was a perfect buffet in an hotel in Crete with fresh yoghurt, honey, local olives, fresh baked bread, etc. I was kicking myself that we'd skipped breakfast here on day1 of our stay!!

Muc prefer with - as long as it isn;t unpleasant (stale rools or Tang "oranege juice"). Neither of us are hot breakfast eaters - we never do more than cereal or toast unless it's a bruch - so hotel breakfast is usually fine - esp when they deliver it to the room.

DH and I must have coffee. We are booked in a hotel in Paris where the breakfast is very expensive. I am not sure I can dress without coffee. I've been thinking of buying a hot pot or even a little coffee maker for the room. But it is really puzzling: where would I go in Paris to find one? BHV's basement?

At a minimum, I need coffee before I leave the hotel. Otherwise, I might not be able to find my way to the nearest CAFÉ!! Once there, the coffee is invariably better than it was at the hotel.

BHV should have a fine selection. They seem to have everything!

Tuscan... maybe it is possible to request just a pot of coffee to be brought to the room, not breakfast. You should ask them.

I want coffee in the morning and I don't want to go searching to far afield for that. Other than coffee, if the hotel has breakfast I'll eat it. At home I tend to eat a light breakfast- often it's just a green drink that I take with me on vacation.

I love excellent hotel breakfasts. However, at a certain price point, they are out of the question. We had an excellent breakfast buffet at Mercure An Der Charité in Berlin just over a week ago, with a special price of 13 Euros for two. It was very much worth it. The lox and cheeses and rolls were just one part of what made the buffet excellent. I've had fabulous breakfast buffets included with cheap hotel rates in several cities, and some that were pretty good if not stunning. I've found I have a better memory of those cities where I had good breakfasts at the hotel.