Floating breakfasts are the picnic lunch of the influencer era. By most practical metrics, they make very little sense. While a picnic requires you to sit uncomfortably cross-legged on the ground while swatting bugs away from your food (which hopefully isn’t blowing away in the wind), floating breakfasts take the inconvenience to a new level. Now offered by many luxury hotels around the world — most notably in Bali and Maldives — floating breakfasts have become hugely popular for their Instagrammable aesthetic, but add a watery question mark into the mix as well. What if someone cannonballs into the pool and your breakfast capsizes? What if you splash pool water onto your eggs? Influencers and luxury travelers don’t seem to care. The decadent optics of consuming fruit and toast in an infinity pool is simply too tempting to ask questions. They might not be the most practical, but they’re certainly among the most visually pleasing breakfast experiences. From Italy to Bali, these are the hotels known for their extravagant floating breakfasts and how much they cost.
The Top Hotels for Extravagant Floating Breakfasts and How Much They Cost
1. The Four Seasons, Maldives
Photo: Four Seasons Maldives
The Maldives are known for their ritzy experiences curated to look as appealing as possible on the ‘gram. It makes sense, then, that one of the Maldives’ most luxurious hotels also has one of the most widely known and coveted floating breakfasts. The floating breakfast at Four Seasons Maldives comes highly recommended by Wendy, a photographer and creative director who has traveled to hotels all over the world.
“Imagine waking up in your villa and having a beautiful floating breakfast waiting in your private pool outside,” she says. “Their menu includes everything from a Maldivian sampler to fresh baked goods, eggs, waffles, freshly squeezed orange juice, mimosas and a tropical fruit plate.”
Indeed, the breakfast arrives in your pool on a designed tray full of Continental breakfast goods, including a bakery basket with a croissant, pain au chocolat, bread, toast, Danish pastries, roll and bagel. There’s also a selection of sliced tropical fruits, juices, marmalades, and of course, Mimosas. There’s also the option to order Floating Sundowners, if you’d prefer to take another meal in the pool besides breakfast.
Price: $65 per person
2. Chalet al Foss, Italy
Photo: Hotel Chalet al Foss and Hotel Chalet al Foss/Facebook
Floating breakfasts might immediately conjure images of paradisiacal islands, but they’ve made their way to some of Europe’s luxury hotels, too. Chalet al Foss, located in the Italian Alps, offers a floating breakfast rivaling anything you’ll find on an island vacation. Served in an infinity pool with a view of the surrounding Alps, the floating breakfast is available by prior reservation only for hour-long blocks. You must contact the hotel concierge to confirm availability.
The hotel also offers a unique “Foss Breakfast” in the winter, which is pretty much the complete opposite of the floating breakfast. The Foss Breakfast is served on a heated bed tucked into a snowbank for a wintry breakfast in bed.
Price: $153 for two people
Foss Breakfast Price: $130 for two people
3. Tanah Gajah, Bali
Many of the world’s most decadent floating breakfasts can be found on the small Indonesian island of Bali, popular among vacationers and digital nomads for its beauty and affordability. At the Tanah Gajah resort in Ubud, visitors can enjoy a floating breakfast either in the main swimming pool or in your personal villa’s private pool, with goodies like fruit, eggs, coffee, tea, bread, and champagne served up on a wooden tray.
Price: $58 per couple for a floating breakfast, or $102 per couple for a floating breakfast with sparkling wine
4. Monte-Carlo Bay, Monaco
Photo: Monte-Carlo SBM/Facebook
Monaco is defined by its extravagance. Supercars zoom through the streets, billion-dollar yachts sit in the harbor, and scrambled eggs float on the water as if by magic. Ok, it’s not magic, it’s just one of Monte-Carlo Bay’s more extravagant offerings. The floating breakfast at this Monaco hotel allows guests to start their day in the sandy bottom lagoon, which winds between the hotel terraces and green islets. The floating tray comes fully stocked with bread and pastries, cheeses, cured meats, cereals, yogurt, juice, Veuve Clicquot champagne, fruit skewers, crêpes, hot dishes a la carte, a cooling towel, and your choice of newspapers. You must book 24 hours in advance to reserve the experience.
Price: $153 per person for hotel guests, $94 surcharge for additional non-overnight guests
5. Hurawalhi Resort, Maldives
Photo: Hurawalhi Maldives and Hurawalhi Maldives/Facebook
This is the Maldives’ second appearance on this list, and it’s well-deserved. The Hurawalhi Hotel offers a Floating Champagne Breakfast, which has quickly become a favorite among frequent travelers and influencers looking for a photo-ready culinary experience.
According to frequent traveler and digital nomad Olivia Living, the floating breakfast here is the best she’s ever had.
“While I initially presumed my seven-course dinner at the resort’s 5.8 Undersea Restaurant would be my most Instagrammable meal at Hurawalhi Resort,” she says, “I retracted that statement the following day. The intimate floating breakfast in the privacy of my pool villa took the cake (literally). Surrounded by a kaleidoscope of blues, I toasted with Taittinger Brut Champagne, consumed courgette and smoked salmon fritters with avocado salsa, and finished with a banana cake. What elevated this particular floating breakfast from others I’ve experienced was that I shared it with curious ocean critters below: nurse sharks, clownfish, and even a Hawksbill turtle.”
The hotel even describes the breakfast on its website as one with “envious photo opportunities.”
Price: $240 per couple