Explore a New City With a Good Breakfast
My favorite part of staying in hotels is breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast food, or at least the breakfast food I usually eat, is one of the easiest to prepare, but I really love it when someone else whips or fries that bacon for me. I sincerely look forward to it every time I travel.
Quartz published a story this week in which the writer suggested eating breakfast to get to know a new place. I never really thought about this idea much before reading the passage, but after a little reflection I realized that this is a practice that I have been doing for years.
When I travel, I am traveling alone most of the time for work, with only a few hours of free time each day to really get to know the place. I always go to the hotel restaurant (if there is one) to have breakfast there, read the newspaper and watch people.
Quartz suggests heading to a fancy hotel, which is nice, but probably not necessary. She suggests doing this to watch the service, which I don’t really care about, but if you like it then you should definitely give it a try. Instead, I would suggest finding a place to wait for you rather than going to the buffet, but other than that, it doesn’t have to be super fancy.
The key is wherever you go: talk to people.
When you are alone in a restaurant, I find that the waiters are usually very interested in talking to you (you don’t have anyone to talk to, right?). Start small talk. Ask them if they are from the area and find out how they think you should spend your free time on that day. Locals will always have better things to do, and will often point to specific times related to a particular time, such as a festival in the area or a special event that you won’t find out about in travel guides and internet searches.
If you find yourself in a hotel buffet, ask the guy who makes you an omelet.
Yes, you can ask the same question to the concierge at your hotel, but they will most likely recommend more formal recommendations or suggest locations the hotel can partner with. With the waiter, you will receive an honest answer to what he will do in your place during the day.
The same trick works with taxi drivers. I am always chatting with Lyft drivers. Most of the time I visit a place because I am working on a story about a brewery or distillery in the area, the driver often tells me about a local trend, a bar, or even a new brewery that I dream of. did not hear.
I have traveled with too many people who want to take pastries with them and head into town in the morning rather than have breakfast. It is the most important food of the day, and when you travel, it can be important for more than just food.