Every great trip leaves you with unforgettable moments. The ones that linger longest often happen around a table. Whether it’s learning to make pasta from an Italian grandmother in a Sicilian kitchen, sharing tapas and Rioja in a tucked-away bar in Barcelona, or sipping wine overlooking a vineyard in Tuscany, food has a way of turning a destination into a story you can taste.
For Craig Oberting, travel advisor and owner of Sear Travel, cuisine isn’t an afterthought tacked onto an itinerary. It’s a tool that allows travelers to truly connect with a place, its people, and its culture. “Today’s travelers, they’re looking for immersive experiences. So many of them have already visited the major landmarks, and now they want to understand the culture behind the destination. Food and drink are one of the most authentic ways to make that connection. Those experiences stay with you. Years later, people may not remember every museum or hotel that they stayed in, but they’ll remember the stories that they shared around a table,” shared Oberting.
There is nothing quite like experiencing a region through its food. It’s a doorway to learning about what’s important in the local culture. Every carefully prepared bowl of tea in a Japanese tea ceremony reflects a tradition built around mindfulness, respect and an appreciation for the uniqueness of each moment. Sitting down to a family-style meal in Italy allows you to explore the region through each dish and embrace family traditions. Sipping French wines outside the vineyards where the grapes were grown allows you to experience how the region’s terroir can influence the wine in your glass. These experiences allow you to connect to a place through your senses in ways that books and museums can’t match.
Incorporating food experiences into your trip can be as simple as exploring a local market, sampling your way from stall to stall as an impromptu lunch, or booking a local restaurant that comes highly recommended. But for more intrepid travelers, it can be as extensive as cooking classes with a local or a hike to a special tea house on the side of a mountain.
“I want to know what experience they’re looking for. So, the best place to start isn’t the destination. It’s really with the traveler, the experience they’re looking for and the culture they want to learn more about. One couple may love a Michelin-starred restaurant. Another wants wineries and vineyard lunches. Another wants to visit local markets and learn family recipes. So, as a travel advisor, we spend time understanding our clients and how they like to travel before recommending a destination or an itinerary,” explained Oberting.
The trick to finding the best experiences is how to wade through all the options available to avoid the tourist traps and find something that will feel authentic. “A travel advisor would be able to help. When you go to the internet, it’s overwhelming. A travel advisor would be able to narrow that down, simplify it, and give best options,” offered Oberting. That doesn’t mean that if a place is popular, it isn’t worth experiencing. Sometimes a simple conversation with a skilled travel advisor or a trusted local can guide you to something just as special, but without the crowds.
One of the biggest pitfalls to having a great food-focused experience is simply not reserving the experience you want early enough. “Just because you’re going to the destination doesn’t mean you’re going to actually be able to do those things you want to do. Make sure you book those excursions in advance so you are on the list. A lot of these things are smaller groups, so it’s not like those mass-market tour groups where you have 50 or 100 people in a group. When you’re doing a cooking class or a small event, those are much smaller groups,” said Oberting.
If you or a travel companion has food allergies, intolerances, or restrictions, it’s important to make those issues clear well in advance. “Nowadays it has gotten a lot easier, but definitely let your tour guides know in advance of that allergy, and that will definitely get you a better experience,” explained Oberting.
In the end, travel is less about ticking off landmarks and more about savoring the moments that linger long after you unpack. Whether you’re pairing local wines with a tasting menu, learning a family recipe in a home kitchen, or discovering a café that never makes the guidebooks, each bite becomes a story. Those stories are what Craig and Sear Travel (seartravel.com) design trips around. With a thoughtful advisor asking the right questions, even a simple meal can turn into the memory you talk about for years, a reminder that some of the most meaningful travel memories are made one plate, one glass, and one shared table at a time.