How Rick Steves Saves Money On Breakfast While Traveling In Europe

Some of us start the day with nothing more than coffee or tea, but Rick Steves, a man who made a career out of bopping around Europe when many travel influencers were still in diapers, finds the meal to be a fun way to get a taste (literally) of other cultures. If a morning meal is included with your hotel stay, he advises making the most of it.

Steves does have a caveat, however — if there's an upcharge for the meal, he feels that European hotel breakfast options aren't always worth the extra money. In that case, he advises visiting a nearby cafe instead, since that way you'll likely get a better selection at a better price. If the food is free, though, why leave it on the table, so to speak? Sit down and dig in. Even if breakfast is a super skimpy continental one consisting of little more than a croissant and an itty-bitty jus d'orange, you'll have gotten everything you paid for, and you can always make up for it with an extra-large lunch. If, on the other hand, the hotel lays on a full breakfast buffet, feel free to fill up with enough food to tide you over to dinner. (It's not rude if travel guru Steves says it's okay, and he does.)

So, what might you find on your European breakfast board? Rick Steves is a big fan of Scandinavia's smörgåsbord-style offerings, which might run to boiled eggs, bread, cheese, deli meats, fruit, pickled herring, waffles, and yogurt. In Germany, you might find breads, cold cuts, and müsli (Germany's answer to granola), while Italian breakfast foods include biscotti, bread with jam and butter, and Nutella-filled croissant-like pastries called cornetti. In Sicily, you might even be able to make a morning meal from brioche buns and granita. (Italian ice for breakfast? Yes, please!)

Your best option for fueling yourself like a marathon runner might be in Great Britain, which is home to the full English fry-up that comes complete with sausages, eggs, beans, fried bread, mushrooms, and tomatoes. There's also a very similar full Irish breakfast that includes all of the above with the addition of black or white pudding (the former's the kind with blood in it).

The most hardcore hotel breakfast award, however, goes to Poland. The food is nothing too out there — kielbasa, smoked fish, farmer's cheese spread with bread – but one Redditor swears they saw a bottle of vodka on the breakfast buffet at a Warsaw hotel. Perhaps it's meant to be the world's most minimalist Bloody Mary? Just the thing for tomato haters.