Travelodge Breakfast To Go Review
The world right now seems to be going a bit more back to normal travel restrictions are being relaxed and countries are opening up their borders. Now you might be thinking let's ago away on a break, let's go away on a holiday and you might be thinking when you are looking for hotels in the uk, let's look at hotels. This might lead you to thinking of staying at the Travel Lodge brand, and in particular the one in Merthyr Tydfil. An obvious thing to do when you are living a van life style.
With such high lights of tea and coffee-making facilities along with free parking, you might be tempted to go for the breakfast for £5.50, like I was… let me review the breakfast to go for you!
Merthyr, February 2022
For context, this was the tail end of the pandemic. Restrictions were easing, masks were coming off, borders were reopening, and everyone was itching to go somewhere. Anywhere. Even Merthyr Tydfil.
In the video I compared Merthyr to Obi-Wan's description of Mos Eisley. I stand by roughly half of that. The Travelodge itself is exactly what it says on the tin: plain room, tea and coffee making kit, free parking. Nothing to write home about, which is precisely what you're paying for.
So, to the box.
What the £5.50 Travelodge Breakfast to go got me
I genuinely could not believe I was about to film an unboxing of a breakfast. But here we are.
| What was in it | Verdict |
|---|---|
| A small tub of cornflakes | Small. Very small. |
| Orange juice | In what looked like the cheapest packaging ever made |
| Cranberry and orange muffin | Tiny. Would not feed half an elephant |
| Milk | For the cornflakes, at least |
| A spoon | One spoon. Plastic. Don't get excited |
That's it. That's the box.
I'd heard a rumour that the next version, the "generation two" box if you like, would come with an oat bar as well. Mine didn't. Mine came with a muffin the size of a golf ball and a sense of mild betrayal.
What's in a Travelodge Breakfast To Go now
Travelodge has rebuilt the box since then, so I went and checked what you get today.
The current Breakfast To Go costs £6.95 per person, either added to your booking before you stay or bought at reception. Inside, according to Travelodge:
| What's in it now | Compared with my 2022 box |
|---|---|
| Cornflakes with milk | Same idea, still there |
| A pain au chocolat | Replaces the golf-ball muffin. An upgrade, frankly |
| An oaty flapjack bar | The rumoured oat bar finally turned up |
| A Starbucks Doubleshot Espresso Iced Coffee | New. Replaces the orange juice |
If you don't want the coffee, Travelodge says reception will swap it for flavoured milk.
So the box has had a genuine glow-up. The muffin's gone, there's caffeine in it, and you'd struggle to call it a breakfast for half an elephant now. More like a breakfast for a slightly peckish adult who's driving.
But so has the price. £5.50 to £6.95 is a 26% rise since I filmed mine. For context, when Travelodge first launched the boxed version in July 2020, it was £5.25.
One more thing worth knowing. Mine back in 2022 had a muffin and no flapjack, even though the July 2020 launch box already came with a flapjack and a pain au chocolat. Either Merthyr was running its own version, or the flapjack went walkabout before it reached me. Contents can clearly vary, so check yours at reception.
The other option: Travelodge's unlimited breakfast
If your Travelodge has a Bar Café, there's a proper sit-down option. The unlimited breakfast starts from £9.99 and includes hot drinks, and it runs at over 220 hotels with a Bar Café.
If you've got kids with you, children under 15 get breakfast for £1 each with every full-paying adult. That deal does not apply to Breakfast To Go, so the box is the worse option for families by a distance.
Not every Travelodge has a Bar Café, so check the hotel page before you book. It changes the maths completely..
The van life answer
These days I live in the Sprinter, and breakfast costs whatever a box of cornflakes and a pint of milk cost in the nearest supermarket, divided by however many mornings they last. It's not glamorous. But it's mine, there's always enough milk, and nobody hands me a single plastic spoon in a cardboard box and calls it a meal.
If you're in a hotel for a night, or a £6 a night campsite that's cheaper than a Travelodge breakfast, the same logic applies. Five minutes' walk to a corner shop or a Greggs will almost always beat a pre-packed box on both price and quantity.
The bottom line
The Travelodge Breakfast To Go is fine if:
- You're leaving before anything else opens
- You genuinely can't be bothered to walk anywhere
- You just want something in your hand for the drive
It's not fine if you're hungry. If you've got kids with you, the unlimited breakfast at a Bar Café hotel is better value. If you've got legs and there's a Greggs nearby, use the legs.
Would I buy it again? No. But I'm glad I did it once, if only so I could film the world's most pointless unboxing and save you the money.
