For me, and especially my kids, room service is one of the joys of travelling and staying in half-decent hotels.
For grown-ups, room service is so often simply a convenience – when you’ve arrived somewhere late at night and are starving or when you’re exhausted during a business trip. For kids, however, the concept is something altogether different – arguably the most exciting thing that can ever happen. The fact that most hotel room service dishes come with chips is just the icing on the cake.
When I ask my kids what are the things they love most about travelling, they will always include room service on the list.
For grown-ups, room service is so often simply a convenience – when you’ve arrived somewhere late at night and are starving, or when you’re exhausted during a business trip. For kids, however, the concept is something altogether different – dinner in your hotel room! – arguably the most exciting thing that can ever happen. The fact that most hotel room service dishes come with chips is just the icing on the cake.
My children have a very democratic approach to the concept. They get equally excited about a breakfast tray in a country motel – where we’re given a pitcher of milk and white bread wrapped in paper with sachets of butter and jam, which we’re to toast ourselves – as they do about a white-clothed trolley with silver cloches wheeled into the room by a liveried waiter. On a recent African adventure, they were tickled pink by the fact that their early morning hot chocolate was slipped into a valet cupboard which had doors both inside and outside the room.
I tend to use room service to feed the kids when the time differences in a country are conspiring against us, or when they’re too tired to sit for any length of time in a restaurant.
I remember one holiday in Byron Bay where we stayed at the upmarket Byron At Byron, a sprawling resort set amongst natural bush where honeyeaters sing and bush turkeys fossick in the undergrowth. Byron is home to some of Australia’s most glorious beaches with crashing surf and crystal clear water, where whale-spotting and dolphin-watching are all in a day’s sightseeing. Memorable things, you’d think. But what the kids still talk about from that trip is the room service and the fact that their meal was delivered in an electric buggy.
The best room service menus for families aren’t necessarily replicas of the hotel’s signature restaurant offerings. If you’re eating in your room (with kids) you’ll want simpler dishes, like grilled meats and steamed veggies, a burger or toastie, soups, salads or pasta dishes. And chips of course.
