If what you eat on vacation is just as important as where you go, culinary travel tours can be a smart way to satisfy both your appetite and your sense of adventure. And tour companies keep introducing new experiences that help travelers taste their way around iconic regions of the world.
CIE Tours is launching a new Northern Spain and Portugal itinerary for 2027 that includes a Rioja winery visit and tasting lunch, a pintxos walking tour through the Basque Old Town in San Sebastián, and a port wine tasting and river cruise in Porto. Departures will run from February through December 2027, and select departures will be limited to just 26 guests for a small-group experience.
“For more than 90 years, CIE Tours has focused on helping travelers experience the local culture, traditions, and food that make a destination memorable,” says Stephen Cotter, managing director of CIE Tours, a longtime specialist in guided vacations to Ireland and Britain. “With our new Northern Spain and Portugal tour, we’re delighted to give guests the opportunity to experience some of the Iberian Peninsula’s most distinctive regions, while expanding into Portugal for the first time in CIE Tours history.”
Smithsonian Journeys has recently announced a new series of immersive, food- and wine-focused active journeys debuting in 2027. The guided walking tours will visit the celebrated European food and wine regions of Tuscany and Piedmont, Burgundy, and Rioja and Basque Country.
On the agenda? Strolls through vineyards, visits to historic sites, encounters with regional artisans and winemakers, and plenty of exclusive food and wine tastings. Travelers can choose between an easier or more challenging excursion every day to tailor the trip to their own abilities and interests, and tours are limited to a maximum of 16 travelers per departure.
“Our travelers are increasingly looking for ways to stay active while also connecting more deeply with the places they visit,” says Walter Littlejohn III, senior vice president for Smithsonian Journeys. “These new active journeys bring together scenic walks through some of Europe’s most celebrated wine regions with the chance to experience local food, wine, and culture in a way that is both engaging and rewarding.”
Exodus Adventure Travels’ new collection of European walking journeys launched in 2026 includes the seven-day Walks and Food of the Italian Riviera itinerary. With the Riviera’s “secret city” of Chiavari as their home base, travelers can enjoy scenic coastal and hillside walks and regional food and wine experiences like pesto making in a historic Genoa palace and pasta making in Sestri Levante using ancient recipes and original wooden molds.
Explore Worldwide also has several new culinary tours, including a Northern Spain food-focused tour. A Taste of Morocco–Imperial Cities and Chefchaouen includes a medina tasting tour and pastilla demonstration in Fes and a food tour of Marrakech followed by a tagine cookery lesson, while A Taste of Northern Sri Lanka–Jaffna to Colombo features a cooking demonstration in Jaffna, a fresh-caught seafood lunch in Trincomalee, a tour of a rice paddy field, and a typical Sinhalese village lunch.
TourScoop takeaway: We wholeheartedly approve of eating your way around a destination. Local cuisine tells you so much about a destination, and when you get to meet the people actually producing the region’s food and drink, it’s all the better.
