Sometimes you want a tour that hits the highlights; other times, it’s the chance to slow down and dive deeply into a destination that makes a trip unforgettable. Immersive cultural tours let you settle into a place, meet locals, and explore its history, cuisine, and traditions at a more relaxed pace.
Programs from EF Go Ahead, G Adventures, Road Scholar, Smithsonian Journeys, and Discover Corps offer that kind of meaningful connection. Staying in one location with day trips also makes these tours a great option for travelers with mobility challenges.
TOURS WITH FLEXIBILITY: The top tour companies specializing in independent tours
1. EF Go Ahead Tours: City Stays tours
EF Go Ahead Tours has a strong education and immersion focus, so it makes sense that the tour company has a handful of single-city tours that go deep rather than wide. Its City Stays itineraries are exactly that: stays in a single city that bundle city tours with optional excursions so you can mix and match free time and organized activities. There’s a lot of flexibility built into the tours, and those optional excursions include home-hosted dinners, day trips, food tours, and more.
EF Go Ahead’s City Stays tours include itineraries in Barcelona, London, Paris, and Rome plus special tours for New Year’s in London, Paris, and Rome. All tours include hotel accommodations at a “well-located hotel,” some meals, and transportation passes. Tours have optional extensions to add a nearby city before or after the tour (the Barcelona tour has a Madrid extension, the Rome tour has a Florence extension, the London tour has an Edinburgh extension, and the Paris tour has a Normandy extension).
2. G Adventures: Local Living tours
Adventure tour company G Adventures takes cultural immersion to the next level with its Local Living tours. The current lineup of countries is Croatia and Ecuador, plus three spots in Italy, but the focus isn’t on big cities. Instead, these tours put travelers deep in the heart of the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, and Tuscany in Italy; Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest, and Southern Dalmatia in Croatia.
If you’re familiar with G Adventures, you know the company isn’t luxury focused, and accommodations prioritize hyper-local over fancy—think converted 17th-century monasteries on the Amalfi Coast tour and local homestays in the Amazon jungle.
Activities are also hyper-local. On the Amazon tour, you’ll learn about medicinal plants and how to use a blowgun. On the Sorrento tour, you’ll head to a lemon farm to see how Limoncello is made. On the Croatia tour, there’s cooking classes led by locals and stops at secluded beaches on the Adriatic Sea. The incredible depth of these tours really capture my imagination, and the affordable price puts it within reach of many adventurous travelers.
3. Road Scholar: Living & Learning tours
Living & Learning tours are Road Scholar’s answer to study abroad programs for adults. On these 45-day single destination programs, the focus is on local living, language classes, and independent and guided visits to local spots. There are also weekend group excursions led by the Road Scholar group leader.
The tour provider has seven programs centered in France (Provence and Bordeaux), Italy (Amalfi Coast, Florence, Sicily, and Siena) and Spain (Sevilla). Since these programs are longer, accommodations are pre-arranged apartments and apart-hotels. The idea is to give travelers enough structure to live confidently in a place for six-ish weeks but also offer enough free time and independence that it really feels like living in a place.
I love the idea of this kind of tour, especially for new retirees looking to make the most of their newfound flexibility and for digital nomads who can live and work anywhere. As a way of having structure and guidance as you dip your toe into a culture you’re curious about, it’s a great option.
4. Smithsonian Journeys: Living In tours
Smithsonian Journeys has four Living In tours that offer three-week tours to France (based in Aix-en-Provence), Italy (based in Florence), Portugal (based in Lisbon), and Spain (based in the Andalusian seaside town of Marbella). Each tour parks itself at an apart-hotel that becomes the home base for the extended stay.
Enrichment tracks allow guests to tailor their time with activities that interest them most. For instance, on the Living in Portugal tour, which is based in Lisbon, guests choose among three tracks: Food & Traditions, Active Discovery, and Hidden Gems.
There’s a lot of cultural learning and sightseeing on these tours, and a mix of included and optional activities. Smithsonian loves its experts, and guests get a lot of access to locals who share their deep knowledge of the place and its history.
5. Discover Corps
Discover Corps isn’t a traditional tour company, but its volunteer-vacation focus is a great way to meaningfully immerse yourself in a place. The company has small-group, purpose-driven itineraries to destinations around the world, including Africa, South America, and Cuba.
The Signature Journeys collection of trips offer higher-end accommodations and behind-the-scenes experiences—for instance, tracking tree-climbing lions and doing other volunteer work on the Uganda: Gorilla Conservation Adventure while staying at upscale safari lodges.
There are also Grassroots Expeditions, trips that combine comfortable but not fancy locally owned accommodations, more hands-on volunteering, and deep cultural immersion. On the Cuba: Building Bridges tour, participants do art projects with Havana youth and repair local soccer fields in between sightseeing outings.
