Airline and Hotel coffee not to your liking? Travelling With Your Own Coffee Maker

Is your coffee to weak, too strong, too stewed? On an airline if you are in first class you are more likely to get freshly made coffee. But whichever class you are travelling in, if you think you are the last person served or the coffee has been sitting around too long, you can tell the staff that it doesn't taste right and ask them to make another pot.

In a hotel, the alternative if you are too shy to ask, is to make sure you are served early. Turn up on time for the meal or snack at coffee break. Watch when the new coffee pot is delivered.

I like weak coffee. So do most Americans. Which is odd. Because Americano is so named because that's how the Americans like it, and I am British, although I did live in Rockville, Maryland, north of Washington DC, for more than a year.

A couple of years ago I was at Fishguard Bay hotel, which is the venue for Writers' Holiday every July, and a member of my family wanted to work in the bedroom, drinking coffee. The coffee in the hotel was not to their liking, so they drove all the way to Carmarthen to buy a Nespresso coffee machine and some Nespresso capsules.

I stayed at Fishguard Bay Hotel this year and had no problems drinking the coffee, although I usually reject airline coffee. My solution is to have a lot of milk with my coffee. I also add cold water from the water jug on the table.

I have given up sugar. I thought I might indulge in sugar again, whilst on holiday. But that is one temptation I have resisted. In addition to the danger of falling into the habit of taking sugar in coffee for the rest of the year, the food at Fishguard Bay Hotel is so filling, and the portions are generous.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.