Traveling to Spain-Hotel Breakfast?

We’re travelling to Spain in October. 4 nights in Seville and 4 nights in Madrid. We’re getting ready to book our hotels and one of them has 4 prices. The non-refundable, refundable, non-refundable with breakfast, refundable with breakfast.

The up charge for breakfast at the hotels we’re looking at is $35-40 per night which I think is pretty expensive for breakfast. I think we’d probably be better off just getting breakfast on our own either inside or outside the hotel (I’m assuming that if we don’t order it with the room we can still eat in the hotel restaurant if we want to).

Anyone have any experience with this? Do you think $40 per night for breakfast is worth it?

And in case anyone’s interested the hotel we’re considering in Seville is the Fernando III. In Madrid we’re looking at the Carlos V. Both recommended by our travel agent and both with decent reviews on Hotels.com.

And any additional advice you care to share about traveling to Spain would be most welcome. Thanks!

Sounds like a lot of money to me.

I remember loving Seville, especially the Old Quarter, whatever they call it. The Cathedral is magnificent. And just roaming around the old streets, stopping at the quaint little bars and shopping in the quaint little shops. I even found a barber shop; had to take a picture.

I got a lot of advance advice from a site called MadridMan.com. Their forum was full of helpful tips.

Have a great time!

Considering that it’s likely the standard Euro hotel breakfast of cereal, yogurt, cold cuts, pastries, fruit, juices and coffee, I’d say it’s exorbitant.

If we were talking a full-tilt British breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, plus all the above stuff, then maybe not quite so bad. If it was the everything and the kitchen sink buffet plus to-order stuff that the Hotel Intercontinental had in Budapest, then it’s probably a bargain.

Breakfast for how many people? Is it $40 each? If so, that’s ridiculous.

Oh, btw, I’m jealous. I’ve been to Spain twice, and I’m itching to go back again. Enjoy! Be prepared to eat dinner really late. Like don’t even think about going out until around 9PM.

It’s $35-40 per room per night. We’re traveling with my mother so there will be three of us, two rooms that’s breakfast for three people for $70 each day. Seems high and even if it is the full on buffet, I don’t really want to be locked in to breakfast at the hotel each day but if I’m paying for it I will feel obligated.

Yes, I head the same about dinner. 9pm is the early bird special, lol. We will have to adjust.

That said, I have a question? If dinner’s at 9 pm when is lunch? If lunch is 12-1:00 I think I’ll be pretty hungry by 9pm. Do they have a little something in between?

Sounds expensive.

As I understand it, the Spanish aren’t big on breakfasts. But in Madrid, you simply must get churros and chocolate at Chocolateria San Gines. Divine, cheap and open 24 hours!

I just got back from Spain two weeks ago.

We never got up in time for breakfast…

Not been to Seville but we were in Granada in June :slight_smile: 70USD for three breakfasts sounds pretty high but don’t expect it to be cheaper if you decide on the day to eat in the hotel restaurant - there is probably a fixed price higher than if you pre-book. Having said that, if you want a substantial breakfast the hotel is probably your best bet. As sandra_nz says there will be stacks of places doing great pastries and coffee but only the hotels will do the big breakfast buffet.

Oh, and lunch is generally from 2 onwards! Though in fact in somewhere as touristy as Seville I expect they cater to the stupid foreigners and serve dinner earlier than 9 in many places.

Who you callin’ stupid? :stuck_out_tongue:

Ok - turistas estúpidos it is then :smiley:

Since you’ve got specific hotels in mind I’d read through a few pages of Trip Advisor reviews and see if anyone specifically mentions the breakfast. I’ve found that they often do!

If you divide $70 by three, that’s $23 and change for breakfast. Not cheap by any means but pretty standard for hotels. It would be a standard price even if it was in euros. You will be able to get breakfast outside the hotel for less than 10 euros but most Spaniards do not have large breakfasts so don’t be surprised if all you can find is coffee or hot chocolate with churros or a bun. If you prefer a full breakfast like I do, the hotel may be a safer bet. Of course, you can decline the breakfast-added room and just pay for it if/when you decide to dine in, but the breakfast charge will be higher than it would have been had you reserved it as a room package.

Lunch for most Spaniards is around 2pm, but restaurants that cater to foreign tourists will serve lunch and dinner at usual American times. It’s true that dinner doesn’t start in Spain until 9 or 10pm, but many people snack on tapas to tide them over. They prefer to have smaller meals spread throughout the day.

Check out which kind of breakfast is being offered: buffet, buffet completo, continental, or no-adjectives?

Those prices make me think you’re going to the kind of super upscale hotels I wouldn’t even enter, the breakfast will most likely be a buffet spread that’s only missing a few pasta dishes to be more varied than the menu of some restaurants.

If you want the kind of breakfast that consists of a sweet pastry and a large coffee, you’re better off hopping over to a bar. If you want a full breakfast forget about it in most locations, at that hour bars don’t have the salty stuff out yet (exceptions exist, for example Bilbao, but they won’t have things like beans or bacon, they’ll have the potato omelette pinchos).

And at least you’re going in October, Seville will be in “winter hours”. In the summer, 9 is considered early, as it’s usually still too hot to leave the house. My recommendation for dinner is forget about sit down and stick to tapas and raciones; we usually have lunch as the heavy meal, so dinner menus and cooking are iffier.

Many Spaniards have a snack mid-morning. For those who have solid breakfasts it’s usually just coffee, maybe a piece of fruit; for those who can’t have anything more solid than coffee for breakfast (stomach isn’t awake yet), sandwhiches (which can be footlongs), fruit, yoghurt… The aperitivo is from 12-lunch, you get a tapa or ración and a drink. In Seville you should be able to find sitdown places that are open for lunch at 1, but “open for lunch” is one thing and “food on the table” is another. And merienda is about 5-6.

There will be tapas places which are chains. I only know one that I considered up to standards (Lizarrán), IME avoid Tapas y Cañas and especially 100 Montaditos or, better yet, stick to the places that are not chains.

It really depends on the breakfast and how much you’ll eat. I have stayed in a few hotels where full English/American, cereal and pastries along with coffee, tea, juices and mineral water have been available. That 1 and 1/2 hour meal was worth the extra expense.

I was in southern Spain (Granada, Malaga, Seville, etc.) last winter and breakfast for most locals consists of cured meat, bread and coffee. If that’s fine with you, I would definitely not pay the hotel the up-charge. If you want a full American-style breakfast, make sure that’s what the hotels are offering for the considerable charge.

There are always cafes and the like where you can grab a snack in between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. Tapas are common in southern Spain, but I’m not sure about Madrid. Tapas were wonderful to have with beer or wine in the late afternoon and evening, and made up for not eating dinner until very late.

Have you considered staying at the Amadeus Hotel in Seville? It’s the most wonderful hotel I’ve stayed in. Breakfast (less than $40) was served on the roof garden that overlooked the entire city.

When I went to Spain for work about 20 years ago the rooms in Madrid came with breakfast. (I wasn’t paying so I don’t remember if it was extra.) It was the most amazing breakfast ever. The buffet covered about an acre and had an amazing variety of meats, eggs, rolls, etc., etc. I could have stayed there all day and not gotten through everything.
So you should check what the breakfast is. Our hotel in Barcelona a couple of years ago had nothing so interesting.

That’s been my experience too. The hotels we stayed at are kinda high-end, and the breakfast buffets were insane! But, the prices - EEK! (just like you are seeing, and worse.) The problem is, even though they have a massive selection, I can only eat so much…