Of the many conveniences that hotels offer, few are as welcome as the in-house breakfast. Whether you’re raring to go or still slumped over after that early morning wake-up, there’s no better reward for having made it out of bed at all than the sumptuous spread that awaits. Here, we’ve rounded up the most sublime hotel breakfasts our editors have enjoyed this year, comprising national dishes, pastry repasts, snow-day bread baskets, and so much more.
I arrived in Paris on a wet gray Tuesday, exhausted and injured. I had just been hit by a car two weeks before (no broken bones, but a fairly debilitated left foot and ankle) and, as such, was especially sensitive to kindness; when a friend offered to pick up my pain meds from the pharmacy, I was so touched that you’d think that he had offered his hand in marriage and his good health insurance. So it was par for the course when, upon checking into the plush Hôtel Lutetia and hobbling into my room (already pressed and primed upon my 8:30 a.m. arrival) only to find a basket of fragrant, buttery croissants, a bottle of freshly-squeezed orange juice, and a warm jug of coffee waiting for me, my immediate reaction was to weep. It was the simplest of breakfasts, no different from what I’d grab on any other wet gray Tuesday at home in New York, but it was also a thoughtful expression of care. Little touches like this throughout my stay (e.g. being escorted to the restaurant, receiving a pedestal at all meals on which I could keep my foot elevated, even getting a pillowcase at turndown service personally embroidered with my initials) are what will make me remember this palatial hotel—and its ambrosia of a jus d’orange—for a very long time. —Matt Ortile, associate editor
I’m entering the new year dreaming of my mornings at Jua House on Kenya’s Lamu Island. The bed-and-breakfast, in the beachside village of Shela, has a breezy terrace with ocean views and in-house bakery. The two meet every morning, with an included breakfast feast—there are eggs, fruit, fresh juices, yogurt, but also your choice of Swahili baked goods. It’s the type of breakfast that is delightfully simple and yet totally decadent. Sitting up there in the morning, as the sun got stronger and the chatter from the street rose up, was the kind of luxury that is so hard to pin down. (But, if you are looking for luxury in the most traditional of senses, the breakfast buffets at Tivoli Doelen Amsterdam or Immerso Hotel in Ericeira, Portugal, were two other hotel breakfasts I can’t stop thinking about.) —Megan Spurrell, senior editor
