
How to Be a Gastro-tourist
Food-focused vacations can be immersive, illuminating, and fun. Here's what you need to know before you start traveling again.
“For many travelers, there’s a sense of ‘been there, done that,’” says Karen Rowley, founder of Napa, California–based Env Travel, which leads food-focused journeys worldwide. That’s one reason, she adds, that some people are embracing gastro-tourism, the act of visiting a destination primarily to experience its food and drink culture. This generally involves traveling with a group whose organizers can arrange cooking classes, chefs’ demonstrations, kitchen visits, and special dinners.
By focusing on a region’s culinary offerings, you’re able to see a city or country through a different lens, Rowley says. Many travelers find these experiences to be immersive—imagine learning the personal history of a Moroccan souk vendor instead of just snapping photos of his spices.

Gastro-tourism can include anything from an afternoon street-food outing in Tokyo to a weeklong encounter with northern Italy’s cheese culture, complete with a guided tour of the region’s biggest cheese festival and visits to wineries and truffle farms. Across the Adriatic, gastro-tourists can explore Croatia’s islands by day and learn to cook regional dishes by night aboard a luxury yacht.
During vacations, people often eat out two or three times per day, says Rowley. Why not make those meals the most they can be?
Gastro-tourism doesn't benefit only the traveler, Rowley says; it can also aid the local community and economy. In some instances, you might even be helping the planet. When visiting Brazil, skip the Starbucks to meet with a coffee-shop owner who uses only shade-grown beans. By encouraging a bird-friendly habitat, the owner will tell you, the coffee plantation reduces its reliance on chemical pesticides.

Many of these experiences require engaging a guide or agency to offer transportation and translation services as well as provide access to the region’s growers, chefs, and producers. To ensure that a tour will meet your expectations, ask lots of questions, including about transportation and accommodations. Also, make sure you’re booking a custom tour, not a run-of-the-mill experience provided by a team that doesn’t specialize in gastro-tourism.