Food Tours & Travel
Uncover a world of authentic, mouth-watering food tours & travel designed to suit any budget, appetite and time frame. By pairing the classic grassroots Intrepid travel style with a special food focus, our itineraries aim to really get you under the skin of the world's most exciting food cultures, be it chomping a trail through Thailand's food markets, whipping up Peruvian delicacies under the tutelage of world-class chefs or touring Tuscan vineyards.
These are real-world experiences with a foodie twist: one part culture, one part adventure and three parts delicious. From bite-sized trips to gastronomic odysseys, we’ll get you munching, crunching, sipping and slurping just like the locals.
Our Food Adventure tour styles
Real Food Adventures
8-15 days
These are cross-country food tours designed to fully immerse you in a destination's food scene. Taste the freshest market produce, meet artisanal producers, find the best street food and learn the subtle changes in regional cuisine. But although these trips are packed with flavour, we haven't left out the essence of Intrepid travel: each real food adventure is filled with cultural exploration, historic highlights and plenty of grassroots travel. They're just seasoned to perfection - food travel at its best!
Bite-Sized Breaks
2-3 days
If you’re looking to take a bite from a particular region and don’t have a lot of time to do it, Bite-Sized Breaks are for you. They’re more focussed food itineraries, usually 2-3 days each, which dig down into the heart of a specific area. Whether it’s Beijing’s street market scene, Lima’s distinct local flavour or the cooking techniques of Northern India. They make a tasty add-on to a longer itinerary, delving a little deeper into what makes a region’s cooking unique. While these food tours may be a little shorter, they pack a punch.
Urban Appetisers
2-6 hours
These are our compact food tours, carefully designed to pack the most flavour into the shortest time. When you arrive in a new city, it’s always a challenge to unearth the most authentic local cuisine. But with Urban Appetisers, we’ll give you a quick 3-4 hour intro into the hidden gems and secret bars that really make a place tick. Cook up a storm in a local family’s own kitchen, kebab crawl your way through Istanbul, or find the trendiest eats in the backstreets of Brooklyn.
Browse food tours by region
Eat for a cause
In 2016 $3 from every Real Food Adventure sold will go towards culinary skills training for locals in Cambodia. By booking a Real Food Adventure, you’ll not only be munching your way through some of the best street-level food in the world, you’ll also be eating for a really good cause.
FAQs
Expect to eat the local way. We didn’t call these trips ‘food adventures’ for nothing. Forget Michelin stars and 20-course degustations – our local leaders will help you get behind the scenes of a local food culture, track down the freshest street food, discover the most authentic local restaurants and reveal the traditions and techniques that make these destinations so deliciously mouth-watering. From lining up with locals for fresh tortillas in a Mexican market to hopping between Logrono’s thriving tapas bars, they’ll show you local food from the perspective of those who eat it every day.
All of our food trips have been designed with one thing in mind – experiencing the best local food on the planet. But we all know that there’s much more to food than just eating it – so whether it’s browsing markets for fresh produce, sizzling up a storm in a cooking class or meeting a local street-food legend, we’ve stuffed your plate to the brim. And once you’ve devoured all the local food you can handle, we’ve made sure our Food Adventures are rolled up into a burrito with the lot so you won’t miss out on the iconic sights and authentic cultural experiences that are found on all our Intrepid trips.
Like all Intrepid itineraries, we’ve made sure our food trips provide free time between activities, allowing you to digest a destination either with your group or on your own. You might spend the morning exploring a buzzing local market with your guide and cooking a delicious local dish with your group before heading off on your own to wander the marbled halls of a museum or cycling through ancient alleys. We’ve also left plenty of mealtimes free of organised activities, which gives you the flexibility to ‘get your gourmet on’ at a fine dining restaurant or simply seek out your own ‘real food’ adventure. Needless to say, your leader will be there every step of the way with suggestions and recommendations.
Sometimes, the best way to eat like a local is to travel like one too. That could mean jumping on a boat to discover the flavours of the Mekong Delta, riding the Tokyo subway to a sake bar or rattling along in a rickshaw in pursuit of Agra’s finest chaats. We love to use local transport because it gives us a chance to experience everyday local life from a new perspective.
Whether you’re spending the night in an ancient fortress or in the home of a local family, most of our trips include a memorable overnight stay that is designed to make your trip extra memorable. When we do choose to use hotels, all of our accommodation options are in our Original style, which means a mix of 2-3 star establishments that are safe, clean and comfortable.
It goes without saying that by eating in local restaurants, buying things from street-side sellers and using local guides, our trips help support local economies. But that’s just the start of it. Many of our itineraries incorporate visits to community projects and we offer carbon offsetting on all of our food trips. Above all, we are committed to a style of travel that is culturally, environmentally and socially responsible.
Browse by experience
Traveller reviews
Our Product trips score an average of 4.84 out of 5 based on 376 reviews in the last year.
Real Food Adventure - Mexico , October 2016
Julie Ward
An excellent trip for food and culture lovers alike. Spend a couple of extra days in Mexico City. There's so much to see and do, including museums and galleries. It's safe and reasonably priced. Go up the Latin American tower in the evening and admire the amazing view. Bring good sturdy walking shoes and a torch. Balam is an excellent guide.
Review submitted 22 Oct 2016
Real Food Adventure - Mexico , September 2016
karen and martin liiv
With our wonderful guide this was a fabulous trip in a wonderful part of Mexico. I would have liked another day in Mexico City so I should have arrived the day before.
Review submitted 22 Oct 2016
Real Food Adventure - Mexico , October 2016
Celina Luk
Eat local, live local, enjoy local arts and culture, go for responsible travel - Intrepid is your choice.
Review submitted 20 Oct 2016
Real Food Adventure - Cambodia , September 2016
Eva Krantz
Are you looking for adventure and something out of the package? Are you open enough to try tarantula, rat, fertilized egg or ant soup and don't mind squash toilets without running water? REAL FOOD ADVENTURE Indochina gets you by far the closest to real life in a guided tour.
Review submitted 17 Oct 2016
Read more about food tours
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Posted on Mon, 8 Aug 2016
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Posted on Fri, 5 Aug 2016
We’re in Kyoto’s Gion district, and the Geisha Hour is about to begin. Time to look for a drink...
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Posted on Mon, 25 Jul 2016
Ask any American who invented the cocktail and you'll get a pretty definitive answer. It was us, buddy, all right?
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5 of the best wine bars in Buenos Aires
Posted on Wed, 20 Jul 2016
Welcome to Buenos Aires, the wine-stained capital of Argentina famous for its juicy steaks, spicy chimichurri and late-night tango trysts...
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