Chef Stefano Righetti on Duvine’s Dolomites + Lake Garda Chef on Wheels Bike Tour
Most adventure trips centered around walking or biking offer a taste of the local food and wine. Then there are a handful of unique trips that keep the activity level and ramp up the culinary component. These departures offer cooking classes, foraging sessions, vineyard visits, and guided market tours. Adventure and food are a perfect marriage since expending calories is part of any biking, hiking, or walking trip. Yet these trips are geared more toward the dedicated food lover than athletes.
Here are five trips I’ve unearthed that place adventure and food on the same level footing.
Dolomites + Lake Garda Chef on Wheels Bike Tour
Dolomites + Lake Garda Chef on Wheels Bike Tour from DuVine is packed with the best of Northern Italy. This trip is a six-day bike ride alongside a local star chef, Stefano Righetti, with an insider’s take on local restaurants, wineries, farms, and producers. The route crosses three regions from the Italian Alps to Lake Garda, a deep dive into risotto, handmade gnocchi and ravioli, trout, roasted meats, mountain cheeses, wild herbs, and mushrooms. There’s Amarone and Ripasso from the Valpolicella to drink, lighter reds from Bardolino, and world-class sparkling wine from the Trentino DOC. Expect meals at three Michelin-starred restaurants and family-run trattorias. Accommodations include the five-star Lido Palace on Lake Garda. Priced from $5,9995. All trips mentioned here are per person and based on double occupancy.
Maine lobster roll on Summer Feet’s Lobster Rolls and Localvores tour.
Lobster Rolls and Localvores
Maine is famed for its lobster and blueberries, and that’s the genesis for the Lobster Rolls and Localvores trip from a Maine-based company called Summer Feet. This six-day cycling tour goes beyond these favorites to explore other tastes of Maine in a state lauded for its food scene by The New York Times and Bon Appetit. Guests can explore the lively, food-besotted city of Portland, the oceanside town of Kennebunkport, and the picturesque village of Cape Porpoise. There’s a private tour of Spring Point Ledge Light, one of six lighthouses visited on this trip, and a mail boat ride over to Chebeague Island to ride quiet roads and take in the scenic vistas, with lunch at The Chebeague Island Inn. Accommodations are at The Nonantum Resort and The Press Hotel. Priced from $3,995.
Group cooking class with Classic Journeys’ Tuscany Culinary Walking Adventure
Tuscany Culinary Walking Adventure
Classic Journeys has created a Tuscany Culinary Walking Adventure that offers walks through Florence, Siena, and some of Tuscany’s most scenic hilltowns, pairing them with various food experiences. They include a visit with a cheese-making shepherd, a cooking class, and dinner in a farmhouse kitchen. A stroll through Chianti’s vineyards ends with cooking in a country home and a visit to Montepulciano’s oldest winery for a tasting of the locally pressed olive oil. Accommodations include Villa Marsili in Cortona, which dates back to the 8th century and was recently restored. The seven-day trip is priced at $5,725.
Tasting oysters on Backroads’ Provence Active Culinary Walking & Hiking Tour
Provence Active Culinary Walking & Hiking Tour
The Provence Active Culinary Walking & Hiking Tour from Backroads begins and ends in Avignon. In between are six days of walking through vineyards, hilltop villages, and the famous limestone hills of Provence, visiting towns like Roussillon, Gordes, and Les Baux-de-Provence, dubbed one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France. That walking is punctuated with market visits, and olive, goat cheese, and wine tastings. It features a private cooking class with a local chef and a picnic lunch at a traditional winery. Accommodations include Baumanière in Les Baux-de-Provence, Le Château des Alpilles in St-Rémy-de-Provence, and Hôtel Les Bories & Spa in Gordes. Priced from $5,399.
Seaweed foraging with Vagabond Tours on their 6-Day Epic Ireland Food Tour
6-Day Epic Ireland Food Tour
Vagabond Tours has a solid reputation for creative multi-day, multi-sport trips around the Emerald Isle. Their 6-Day Epic Ireland Food Tour manages to package hiking, kayaking, and horseback riding (the latter two at an extra cost) with a densely packed roster of food experiences. They include a guided walking food tour of Galway city and a culinary walking tour of Kinsale, Ireland’s unofficial food capital. There’s seaweed foraging in Kerry, a tasting with Ireland’s original female brewer at her historic pub near Dingle, farm tours, and a foraging session. Priced from € 1,945 per person (approximately $2,058).