The World's Best Culinary Tours for Traveling Foodies

by Elyse Pasquale posted to Food & Drink | 2,349 views

My favorite way to discover a new travel destination is through the cuisine. Organized food tours allow visitors to experience a city's culinary history firsthand, from a local perspective. The following tours are from ten fabulous foodie cities around the world. From back alleys to night markets to... More »

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Istanbul, Turkey: Istanbul Eats

Istanbul Eats offers culinary walks "through Istanbul’s lesser seen historic side streets and the authentic markets of the city, taking in countless hard-to-find culinary gems and, in between meals, a couple of untouristed monuments."

Istanbul Eats ranks as the top culinary tour I've ever experienced. The seven, unforgettable hours I spent eating my way through “Cosmopolitan Beyoğlu” with food guide/guru, Angelis, changed my life. Beyoğlu is Istanbul’s original melting pot, home to Armenian, Greek, Judeo-Hispanic and Anatolian roots, a history strongly reflected in the cuisine.

Beijing, China: Hias Gourmet

Hias Gourmet offers a number of food walks through the heart of Beijing, including the ancient Hutong alleyways and the city's bustling, vibrant night markets.

Hias Gourmet's team of culinary experts are the best in Beijing. Explore the city like a local. Learn about tea ceremonies, hand-pulled noodles and Muslim-Chinese cuisine. After dark, head into the crowded lantern-lit night markets and feast your eyes on everything from candy coated fruits to deep-fried scorpion.

Lima, Peru: Eat With Me Peru

Eat With Me gives visitors an inside view of the city known as the "gastronomic capital of South America." From street vendors to world-class tasting menus, these customized tours cover the diverse highlights of Peruvian cuisine.

Lima is hands-down one of my favorite foodie cities on Earth. With a local's guidance, experience everything Lima has to offer from upscale ceviche to street-side anticuchos (beef hearts), then wash it down with a world famous pisco sour. For extreme foodies, there’s always the Peruvian specialty: guinea pig!

Tokyo, Japan: The Tokyo Fixer

The Tokyo Fixer is Shinji Nohara, a "culinary navigator" whose knowledge and passion for Tokyo's food scene has attracted international clients like Anthony Bourdain and Condé Nast. Shinji designs personalized tours to fulfill every foodie fantasy.

I spent three, blissful, food-filled days in Japan with the Tokyo Fixer. I enjoyed a wild night of izakaya-hopping and traveled to the city's edge for the world's best ramen. Every moment was an adventure. With Shinji's help, I visited the culinary side of Tokyo few foreigners have the opportunity to see.

New York City: Famous Fat Dave's Five Borough Eating Tour on the Wheels of Steel

Famous Fat Dave bills himself as "a pickle man/ cheesemonger/ hot dog vendor/ bread truck driver/ food writer/ licensed tour guide/ cabbie who has eaten it all." He'll spin you and your guests around NYC's best eats in his OWN checkered cab.

NYC is my hometown and I love taking my out-of-town friends to my favorite haunts. Here, culinary tours give visitors an inside look at our famous neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Chinatown, as well as lesser known food havens in the outer boroughs. For affordable alternatives to Fat Dave, check out sidewalksofny.com and noshwalks.com.

Rome, Italy: Eating Italy Food Tours

This guided 4-hour food and cultural city walking tour combines nine fabulous tastings of the best food in Rome with intriguing stories and insights into Rome’s culture, history, and architecture.

Gelato, pastries, cheese, pizza, espresso, pasta, pasta, pasta, wine. Not only are these a few of my favorite things, they're the reason to take a culinary walk through the cobblestoned streets of Rome. This tour will take you off the beaten path to explore Testaccio, one of the city's historic neighborhoods. When in Rome, do as the Romans do: eat!

New Orleans, LA: New Orleans Culinary History Tours

Discover the rich culinary history of New Orleans while exploring the French Quarter. Learn about the differences between Creole and Cajun cuisine and visit some the city's oldest restaurants.

New Orleans offers one of the most unique cuisines in the United States. This tour covers some of the most delicious dishes to come out of the Crescent City, from pralines and muffuletta, to seafood gumbo and turtle soup.

Beirut, Lebanon: Taste Lebanon

This 7-day journey across Lebanon takes culinary tourism to the next level with a well-rounded taste of Lebanon’s cuisine, culture, and people.

Acclaimed guide, Bethany Kehdy leads you through six regions, savoring each local specialty and engaging with food producers in hands-on demonstrations, learning the process and techniques involved in Middle Eastern cuisine.

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