Food and Wine Tours with Flights Included
Multi-day culinary tours with small groups, winery visits and chef-led cooking classes. Flights bundled, one price per person.
- ✓Trip length: 6-14 days across culinary regions
- ✓Land prices: 1,500-9,000 EUR by region and class
- ✓Flights from Europe: 80-1,100 EUR economy
- ✓Includes 8-12 group meals, 2-4 winery visits
- ✓Small groups of 10-16, food-focused leaders
- ✓Operators: Intrepid, G Adventures, Exodus, The International Kitchen
Food and wine tours are the fastest-growing slice of the guided tour market, and for good reason. A week in Tuscany eating where a local chef eats is a different trip from a week in Tuscany eating where TripAdvisor sends you. On Multiday.tours we pair culinary departures from Intrepid Real Food Adventures, Exodus Food-Themed, G Adventures Food & Wine, and specialist operators like The International Kitchen with Kiwi.com flights. Expect 1,800-4,500 EUR land price for a 7-10 day tour, plus 300-900 EUR flights from Europe. Most departures run 10-14 travellers, include 8-12 meals, and build the itinerary around producers rather than museums.
What a real food and wine tour includes
A proper culinary tour is built around producers and practitioners, not restaurants alone. On a 7-day Italy tour that means visiting a Parmigiano Reggiano dairy at 6am when the cheese is pressed, a balsamic vinegar producer in Modena, a pasta workshop in a home kitchen, and two or three winery lunches with the owner pouring. Eating well is the reward for understanding what you are eating.
The better operators include at least one hands-on cooking class per week, two to four winery visits with structured tastings, and one or two market tours with a chef who actually buys there. Watch for padding: a 'wine bar visit' is a drink, not a tasting. A 'market walk' without a chef is just a walk.
Expect 8-12 group meals over a 7-day trip. Breakfasts are usually at the hotel. Several lunches and dinners are free for you to pick a spot yourself, often with the guide's shortlist. Solo dinners in a food-focused country are part of the point, not a gap in the itinerary.
Best destinations for food and wine tours
Italy is the dominant country, as it should be. Piemonte for Barolo and white truffles in October-November, Tuscany for Chianti and Montalcino year-round but best in September, Sicily for seafood and Etna wines, Emilia-Romagna for the holy trinity of Parmigiano, prosciutto di Parma and balsamic. A 7-day regional trip runs 2,200-3,800 EUR land price.
Spain follows close behind. La Rioja for tempranillo, the Basque country for pintxos and Michelin-star density, Andalusia for sherry and jamon iberico. Expect 1,800-3,200 EUR for a 7-day trip, usually with two regions combined.
France is expensive but precise. Burgundy, Bordeaux, Provence and Champagne each support a dedicated week. Budget 2,800-4,500 EUR for 7 days with proper winery access.
Outside Europe, Vietnam and Thailand run excellent 10-day food tours at 1,500-2,500 EUR land price. Peru's Lima-to-Cusco food scene is a genuine destination in its own right. Japan's kaiseki and sake trail is a growing niche, with prices in the 3,500-5,500 EUR range for 10 days.
How food tours compare to booking it yourself
The honest comparison: a food tour costs more per day than a DIY trip, but fixes two problems that matter.
First, access. A solo traveller cannot walk into a family-owned Barolo winery unannounced and expect a two-hour tour with the owner. An operator with a long relationship can. The same applies to Parmigiano dairies (morning-only, booking required), Jerez sherry bodegas (appointment only for the interesting ones), and most grower-champagne houses.
Second, curation. A week in Tuscany has roughly four good food days and three forgettable ones if you are booking cold. A good operator has already sorted the four good ones and skipped the misses. Time-cost and dinner-cost of trial and error is real if your trip is limited.
Where DIY wins: flexibility on restaurants, longer stays in one city, the ability to linger at a winery you like. A hybrid model works well — book a 4-day guided block in the food-rich region and tack on 3-4 DIY days in a city like Florence or Barcelona. Multi-city Kiwi flights make this cost-neutral.
Typical prices and what drives them
Three variables move the price. Region, hotel class, and what is included.
- 6-7 day Italy or Spain food tour, 3-4 star hotels, 8-10 group meals: 1,800-2,800 EUR land price. Intrepid Real Food Adventures sits here.
- 7-8 day France or premium-Italy tour, 4-star hotels, winery pairings, some Michelin: 2,800-4,500 EUR. G Adventures Food & Wine and Exodus Food-Themed Premium.
- 7-10 day luxury culinary tour, 5-star and boutique hotels, private winery access, multiple tasting menus: 5,500-9,000 EUR. Operators like Cellar Tours and The Lux Traveller sit at this end.
- 10-14 day Asia food tour (Vietnam, Thailand, Japan): 1,500-4,500 EUR depending on country.
Flights from Europe to Europe: 80-280 EUR economy, Ryanair and easyJet plus legacy carriers. Flights Europe to Asia: 550-1,100 EUR economy, usually via the Gulf carriers.
Tips and extras: budget 80-150 EUR for tour-leader and driver tips across the week, 40-90 EUR per person for optional Michelin or starred add-ons, and 20-40 EUR per winery for take-home bottles.
Who food and wine tours suit
They suit travellers who want a structured week with real depth in a single cuisine or region. Couples in their forties to sixties are the largest single demographic. Solo travellers do well too, particularly on Intrepid Real Food Adventures which has the most balanced solo-to-couple ratio of the major operators.
They suit people who already know they like food travel. If you have spent a Saturday cooking through a Marcella Hazan cookbook or gone out of your way to find a good wine bar in your own city, a culinary tour will resonate. If you consider eating a function and nothing more, the pace will bore you.
They do not suit strict dieters on pre-set regimes. Low-carb, raw-food or fasting routines are incompatible with how these trips run. Vegetarians are fine in Italy, Spain and most of Europe — flag it at booking. Gluten-free works surprisingly well in Italy; most producers understand it and have options. Vegans and kosher travellers should look at specialist operators rather than mainstream food tour lines, which still lean meat-heavy.
Booking tips and timing
Book early for autumn departures in wine country. Piemonte and Burgundy sell out six to nine months ahead for October dates because harvest and truffle season coincide. Italian summer tours need booking three to four months out. Winter and early spring departures (February-April) are lower-demand and often 15-20 percent cheaper.
Combine regions carefully. A 10-day 'Tuscany and Piemonte' sounds appealing but includes a long transfer and reduces time in each region. Better to pick one region for seven days and add a shoulder city. Rome before Tuscany, Milan before Piemonte, Madrid before Rioja all work.
On flights, arrive the night before the tour and avoid early-morning starts. Food tours typically begin with a late-afternoon welcome meeting and an opening group dinner, so a flight landing at lunchtime is ideal. Book the return with a buffer day — after seven days of serious eating, a quiet morning before flying home is worth the extra hotel night.
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Find combosFAQs
How much wine is actually included on a food and wine tour?
On a standard 7-day tour, expect 2-4 structured winery visits with 4-6 wines tasted at each, plus wine with 6-10 group meals. That is roughly 30-50 tastings and a dozen full glasses over the week. You never drive, so there is no pressure to spit unless you want to pace yourself. If you want deeper cellar access, look for the word 'immersion' or 'intensive' in the trip title — those usually add two to three more winery visits and one Master-of-Wine-led tasting.
Can I take wine home from winery visits?
Yes, most tours include a few hours at each winery with the option to buy and ship bottles. Shipping from Italy, Spain or France to EU addresses is cheap and well-organised; 50-80 EUR for a case to most European countries. Shipping to the US, Australia or Asia is expensive and slow (100-200 EUR per case) and subject to customs rules, so most non-EU travellers pack a few bottles in a wine-shipper suitcase instead. Two bottles in hold luggage almost always arrive intact; more than that, use a proper wine-carrier insert.
Are food tours suitable for vegetarians or other dietary needs?
Vegetarians are well catered for across Europe, especially in Italy where vegetable-forward cooking is part of the tradition. Vegans are harder on mainstream food tours — cheese and meat are central in most Italian, French and Spanish regions — but specialist vegan culinary tours run in India, Thailand and parts of Italy. Gluten-free works well in Italy and Spain; most producers have GF pasta and bread available. Kosher and halal need specialist operators. Flag requirements at booking, not on day one.
Do I need to know anything about wine before I go?
No. Good tour leaders pitch tastings to the group's experience level. First-timers get grape varieties, production methods and regional styles explained from scratch. Experienced drinkers get deeper terroir and producer comparisons. If you want an intensive experience, ask at booking whether your group will include a WSET or sommelier-led tasting session; those cost 40-80 EUR extra but are genuinely educational. A week on the ground teaches you more than a year of reading.
What is the pace like on a food tour?
Moderate. A typical day runs 9am winery or market visit, long lunch 12:30-2:30, optional afternoon walk or free time, group dinner 7:30 onwards. One or two days a week are activity-free, built around a cooking class or an at-the-winery lunch. You are not rushing from sight to sight. Pace is part of the point. Evenings end earlier than you might expect — after a long lunch and a 4-course dinner, 10pm feels late.
What should I pack for a food and wine tour?
Smart-casual for dinners — a jacket or blazer for men, a dress or nice trousers for women; wineries and better restaurants expect it. Comfortable walking shoes, because most medieval Italian and Spanish towns are cobblestones. A light day pack for market walks. Loose-fitting trousers because you will eat a lot. If you plan to ship wine home, bring an empty duffel for the outbound and check it for the return. Summer in Italy, Spain and Provence needs light layers and a hat; autumn in wine country needs a warm jacket for early-morning harvest visits.