Customizing group tours around food is trending—see why
If you enjoy experiencing a new culture through its food, add a little zest to your next trip by planning it around a destination’s cuisine.
Our Customized Tours make traveling for niche interests not just plausible but approachable and fun. Take it from seasoned travelers Bobbi and Eldora, who each recently crafted food-focused itineraries alongside their teams at EF Go Ahead Tours to mix up their most memorable (and delicious!) trips to date. We sat down with the two Group Coordinators to discuss their experiences, the highlights, and how Go Ahead made their Customized Tour dreams come to life.
Dining through Italy, Croatia & Slovenia with Eldora
Eldora is an experienced Go Ahead traveler and Group Coordinator. After years of choosing tours for her group off the menu (see what we did there?) as well as customizing various other tours, Eldora was looking to design her own custom Food Tour, full of off-the-radar stops that were both unique and close to her heart. “I love visiting the countries around the Adriatic Sea, especially Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia, and I love doing Food & Wine Tours,” Eldora said. “I was searching for tours that would go to the lesser-known regions of those countries.”
The result was an epic Food Tour of Italy and some of Italy’s wine regions, combined with a Food Tour of Croatia and Slovenia. “The Go Ahead Customized Tours team turned my dream trips into reality,” Eldora said. “They found interesting villages to visit and arranged meals and tastings at unique, fabulous restaurants, cheese and olive oil producers, and wineries. They provided us with many unique experiences.”
And the journey did not disappoint. “My dream was to show travelers these less-visited areas that are so close to my heart,” she said. “I knew that they would absolutely love the experiences these places offered: beautiful, unspoiled nature, historic and cultural undiscovered gems, and fantastic, real, local foods and wines.”
Some highlights from the tour included a trabocco dinner, which is an Abruzzese tradition of dining on fishing platforms that extend into the water. Eldora described the experience of enjoying fresh seafood on a 500-year-old pier in Termoli as “unforgettable.” There was also a visit to the lesser-known wine region of Brda Hills in Slovenia, nicknamed “the Tuscany of Slovenia,” where the group enjoyed a wine tasting and cellar tour. But what was most special to Eldora, a well-traveled Group Coordinator? “Go Ahead even arranged for our group to attend a cheese tasting in my town of birth!” Eldora said. “There, we were treated like VIPs.”
Exploring the Blue Zone with Bobbi
Like Eldora, Bobbi is a seasoned traveler—but she’s also a retired nurse practitioner, and her medical background gave her an interest in taking her travelers to the famed Blue Zones. What’s a Blue Zone, you ask? They’re areas of the world where citizens live longer, healthier lives compared to other areas of the world, and often reach the age of 100 and above.
Bobbi was drawn to exploring the Blue Zone diet and lifestyle in the area where it was initially noted. “Researchers discovered that Sardinia’s mountain villages, especially in the Barbagia region, have some of the highest concentrations of centenarians on Earth,” Bobbi said. “Their longevity is linked to a traditional lifestyle: fresh Mediterranean foods, daily physical activity, close family bonds, and a deep sense of community and purpose.” With her curiosity and love of travel leading the way, Bobbi planned her Customized Tour around exploring Sardinia and getting a sense of what the Blue Zone lifestyle was like.
Unlike many other Customized Tours, which are strongly inspired by one or more of our 200+ existing itineraries, Bobbi’s Customized Tour did the opposite. It inspired our new Sardinia & Corsica: Undiscovered Islands of Italy & France tour! “This was the first comprehensive itinerary to Sardinia that we had ever built as a team, so it was an exciting challenge that led to Sardinia becoming part of our brochure portfolio,” said staffer Arlena. That’s right, thanks to Bobbi and her dream of bringing her group to the original Blue Zone, even more curious travelers can visit this region on tour with us. “It’s a destination for travelers like mine who are seeking authenticity, wellness, and natural beauty all in one unforgettable place!” said Bobbi.
One highlight from Bobbi’s Food Tour of Sardinia was a visit to San Benedetto Market in Cagliari, where her travelers were able to explore one of the largest indoor food markets in Europe, floor by floor. And of course, no Go Ahead Food Tour is complete without a cooking class for travelers to learn how to make traditional local cuisine, and this Food Tour of Sardinia was no different. More highlights included lunch with the Sheperds of Orgosolo—a group of goat herders made famous in 1961 after starring in a documentary that showcased their harsh and rustic lives—and a classic Sardinian wine tasting. Call it a true sampling of the Blue Zone diet and eating habits.
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Why crafting a customized Food & Wine Tour works well with group travel
Crafting a Customized Tour for group travel means you can bring together people with the same interests—and designing a tour around food and wine is one of the best ways to travel in a group. Cuisine is shaped by culture, tradition, ritual, and terroir, which makes exploring the world through the lens of food and beverage a unique entryway to almost everything a destination has to offer. Gathering your fellow foodies for a Customized Tour of Italy’s UNESCO-protected dishes, Southeast Asia’s world-famous street food, or Spain’s hidden-gem wine regions is an unforgettable way to see the world together—one bite at a time.
Get started by telling us what you want to see, eat, and sip on during Customized Tour, and we make it happen. It’s as simple as that! Your group will enjoy the flexibility you and your Go Ahead team built into the tour—like taking trains rather than planes to savor more scenery along the way. You can even become a Group Coordinator like Bobbi and Eldora and earn one free spot on tour for every six travelers who join you—with no limit to the number of free places you can get!
Plus, building a Customized Tour naturally combines different elements that make your trip unforgettable. Your group will enjoy the flexibility of how you and your Go Ahead team planned the tour—like taking trains rather than planes to get from place to place, so that your group can enjoy more of the landscape as you go. You’ll also bond over your shared passion for food—how it's harvested, prepared, and enjoyed—while tasting a country’s iconic cuisine. (Nothing brings a group together like a well-cooked meal). So, add a dash of customization to your next Go Ahead Food Tour and take your group’s trip from great to delectable.
Thea fell in love with travel as soon as she arrived in Venice, Italy on a family trip as a child. Since then, she has made having adventures around the world a priority, with trips like retracing her grandfather’s steps through WWII, climbing glaciers in Alaska, and horseback riding in Iceland. Thea is a nomad at heart, always planning the next trip. In her off-time she is working on a novel inspired by the woman she was named after, mixing cocktails, and watching any procedural crime show she can find.
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