Travel Kettles - The Best 120V, 240V Kettles For Travelling Abroad

I never really liked using the tea and coffee making facilities in any hotel room I stayed in unless they came wrapped in plastic first. The coffee makers in particular never looked all that clean and I'd heard some pretty gross stories about maids being caught washing out the cups with the same cloth they just wiped around the toilet seat and seeing how people can be real pigs in rented rooms anyway, the thought of using something which had passed through countless grubby hands has always just been kind of...well, yuck I guess.

That's why I started bringing my own travel kettle for hotel stays rather than playing what sometimes felt like Russian roulette with the facilities they provided. The straw which broke the camel's back for me however was turning up in a 4 star Las Vegas hotel and finding no tea kettle provided at all in the hotel room. Aparently they decided not to offer it to guests any more and it looks like this is a trend which is spreading through hotels. I went out the same day and found a travel sized kettle small enough to fit inside a suitcase and I haven't used a hotel kettle or coffee maker ever since.

My first travel kettle was an impulse buy like I said and frankly, it was OK but I knew there were better ones out there. You can find a lot of different mini kettles on the market, from the most basic to those with dual voltage settings for a European vacation and other bells and whistles. I look upon it as an investment especially since a half decent beverage will cost you minimum of $5 from room service which, for two people drinking say just one cup each per day, works out at a hefty $70 in 7 night stay, more if you drink more. Spending $30 - $60 on a mini portable kettle which you can use over and over again every time you travel seems like a much smarter way to go about it.

The best kettle for hotels and general travel for you personally is going to depend on how and where you want to use it. You can find everything from a 12V car kettle for use literally on the road in your vehicle to portable small kettles for hotels and I suppose things like RVs and camper vans. You can of course just bring your regular electric kitchen ketttle along with you too if you have the space in your luggage, but for me personally, I prefer to take something a little smaller and save the space in my suitcase for other things.

If you do most of your travelling inside the United States, or your particular home country then the chances are you will be just fine with a regular mini kettle which runs off your country's regular electric system.

However, as an American resident like myself, who regularly travels to Europe on vacation, it makes sense to buy a dual voltage kettle for travel instead. These mutli voltage kettles work on both 120V and 240V systems which allows you, at the flick of a switch, to safely use them in other countries around the world. I mostly visit the UK when I travel outside of the US and it is nice to have a water boiling kettle which can handle both electrical systems.

The best mini kettle is the one which suits your needs perfectly. There are plenty of options out there which range from one or two cup kettles to larger sizes, or simple hot water boiling elements which drop directly into a cup to heat it up. Which you choose, will depend mostly on what your requirements are. For me, I like a two cup kettle so, if I'm traveling alone, I always have an extra cup for myself or he ability to boil extra water if I want to make soup or noodles in my room, and if I'm traveling with someone else, then there's always enough water in the pot for two cups. You, might prefer to save space in your suitcase with a single cup boiler or one of those heating elements which dunk directly into the cup of liquid and warm it up there instead of in a jug kettle.