Happy Thursday! Today I am excited to share with you how I recently ate vegan while traveling. Many hotels offer a complimentary continental breakfast with your stay, and I definitely want to take advantage of that perk to save money on the go. While at first the breakfast buffet might seem intimidating, there are bound to be at least a few options for those of us with a vegan lifestyle. This post will share with you all of the vegan options I found at the Fairfield Inn & Suites during a recent stay.
I am not affiliated with the Fairfield Inn & Suites. Ebates referral link used. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites is a business hotel with limited amenities. In fact, the location where I stayed was very simple. There is no restaurant, bar, pool, gift shop, or anything that you might see at a hotel aimed at tourists. I appreciated that the hotel is very clean and simple, and equips the rooms with things like free WiFi and a microwave and mini fridge. If you like efficiency, the Fairfield Inn & Suites is a great place to stay. Of course, I also appreciate that a continental breakfast buffet is included! I was very happy to see a handful of vegan options that allowed me to easily fill up before heading out the door.
Let’s begin with my favorite vegan option available – the oatmeal bar! I double checked with hotel staff that the oatmeal was prepared with water, and not a dairy product like milk. I was also super excited for all of the vegan toppings available. The toppings included are dates, apricots, walnuts, almonds, raisins, and brown sugar. There is even a bottle of agave next to the oatmeal bar (no honey here!). If you stay away from sugar that may have been filtered with bone char (more info on that HERE), avoid the brown sugar. Everything else in the oatmeal bar is vegan, though! I even added some maple syrup from the waffle area to my oatmeal for added flavor.
The buffet also includes a section with fresh fruit. There are bananas and apples available daily. The two domed cases held different fruit depending on the day. This day there was cantaloupe and grapes, but I also saw pineapple and mixed fruit during my stay. Whether I wanted to add some fresh fruit to my breakfast, or grab an apple for later, I was glad that fruit was always available for me.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites also offers a variety of breads and bagels for toasting. Bagels are almost always vegan, especially plain bagels. If you want to double check the bread’s ingredients before eating them, ask the staff at your hotel. During my stay, there was always a staff member available during breakfast who was more than happy to answer any questions I had. I absolutely love bagels, so I did enjoy a couple during my stay. Toppings for toast included peanut butter and fruit spreads.
Last but not least, I wanted to quickly mention the cereal bar. While the cereals can rotate depending on the day, the varieties available during my stay were Frosted Flakes, Kellogg’s Granola, and Raisin Bran. All of these cereal varieties do contain micro-ingredients that are not vegan. That being said, I like to follow PETA’s suggestion and not worry about these micro-ingredients, especially in situations like this one where this cereal might be your only food option. You can learn more about PETA’s stance on the organization’s website HERE. Of course, you have to do what you feel comfortable with, and I decided not to eat these cereals because there were other vegan options available to me at this particular hotel. I would love to see this hotel offer some dairy-free milk options, too!
In the end, I hope this blog post helped you to discover that vegan options can easily be found at a hotel continental breakfast buffet! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the hotel I stayed at is very basic, so there is a good chance that a larger hotel would have even more vegan options! While I am in no way affiliated with Fairfield Inn & Suites, I do recommend this hotel chain. I’ve had a great experience during each stay, and I love that my breakfast is included. Make sure you book your trip through Ebates HERE to earn cash back on your stay.
What vegan options have you found at a hotel breakfast buffet?
Let me know in the comments!
Follow me on Instagram HERE for daily vegan lifestyle posts.
This is helpful, thank you! I tend to go for oatmeal and would appreciate more variety, but at least there is something. I also have to make sure the oatmeal is prepared with water instead of milk. I suppose it makes sense for them to use water even if they don’t care about vegans because it is more affordable and makes the food more accessible for people who are lactose intolerant.
Definitely! I hope with time hotels will expand on the options as well.