Stop Settling for Bad Hotel Coffee—Copy My Portable Setup Instead

There are two things I live for: beautiful hotels and excellent coffee. The two, unfortunately, don’t always go hand in hand. I’ve stayed in some of the most luxurious properties around the globe, from overwater villas in Tahiti to historic hotels in Egypt, and it never ceases to amaze me how few invest in their coffee programs—especially at remote resorts where there’s nowhere nearby to find a better option. There are, of course, exceptions to this—like the Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo, which offers a solid specialty coffee menu, along with coffee tastings and barista-led classes, and Explora Journeys’ ships, which are effectively floating hotels with better on-board cafés than most vacation spots. While Nespresso machines are offered in most luxury hotel rooms, it’s often the hotel restaurants that surprise me—particularly when they opt for automated machines rather than a quality espresso maker and trained baristas. A poorly made latte is frankly the last thing I want at a stunning property, especially when morning coffee is such an instrumental part of my routine. On a two-week trip to Egypt, my equally hotel-obsessed friend had the brilliant idea to pack so