One of my favourite ways to discover a city: by booking a food tour.
One thing I almost always do when I visit a city is book a food tour. When I say this to some friends, they seem surprised: food tours? What is that? Well, it is not a new concept, but I find it a brilliant way to discover a city.
The results? A great day out, negative calories (because you walk—trust me on this!), and an excellent way to get to know little hidden gems. My only real advice is to skip the meal before it begins. The times I did not follow my own advice, I deeply regretted it.
Here are 6 food tour options I absolutely loved – they all happen to be in Europe, but worry not, I plan to continue to eat my way around the world.
Lisbon, Portugal
I chose this one first because it is ever so slightly ironic that I went on a food tour in my hometown. Why ironic? Because one would think one would know the main places to try x and y. Turns out one is very wrong.
We joined a group organised by Eat Portugal. They run premium tours of up to 8 people, and I have actually done this specific tour three times now. I keep going back because it is always completely different, and it is a great way for me to find out what is new with Célia.
Of course I knew the food, but I loved finding so many old-fashioned places I didn’t know still existed—and discovering new ones. Also, watching other people discover new foods and flavours can be very rewarding.
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The Luxury Option: Book a private tour. It allows you to set your own pace and includes access to some very special historic wine cellars.
Malaga & Marbella, Spain
On a trip to the South of Spain—a part of the world I know very well as we spent many summers there during my childhood—we spent two fantastic half days with Manni from Toma & Coe (formerly Toma Tours). I can’t quite believe it, but it has actually been 15 years since my very first tour with Manni.
We have done many more tours together since that first encounter. The concept behind his company, which offers completely bespoke experiences, is to help you discover “the real Spain”—and as it turns out, the real Morocco, too! Manni has actually planned some fantastic short trips for us and our family across the water in Tangier, Morocco.
Back in Malaga, Manni took us everywhere—from the top of the Cathedral to the Museum Picasso, with plenty of nourishing stops along the way. Highlights included The Farm, a local pioneer of the Slow Food movement serving locally sourced, organic fayre, and D’oliva, a fantastic olive oil boutique.
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The Luxury Option: You can contact his team directly to design a completely custom, multi-day culinary road trip with a private driver across Andalusia, or arrange a private day crossing to Tangier.
Prague, Czech Republic
A food tour in Prague? Well, we visited recently and this specific experience with Eating Europe practically made our entire weekend. Literally.
Central European food is so often dismissed as just heavy meat and potatoes, but this itinerary completely changes your perspective. We had about six stops, and each one was as unique as the next. My absolute favourite was the butcher’s shop, which was entirely different to anything I expected. I learned a bit more about the nation’s obsession with meatloaf and tried some incredible local meats. It completely changed my perception of Czech culinary culture—and there is absolutely no way I would have tried half of these local delicacies on my own.
Seville, Spain
I visited Seville and obviously we wanted to explore some tapas bars. But where to begin? Well, we followed Shawn from Sevilla Tapas Tours around town. It was supposed to be for 4 hours at night, but let’s say we just hit it off and went to bed slightly later.
In fact, every time we go to Seville now, we see Shawn. I have now done 10 evenings with her. It has honestly gotten to a stage where I am so lazy, she even curates whole weekends for us. She literally texts us as we sit down at place x and tells us exactly what to order. To me, that is pure luxury.
This tour was quite special because it was private (us and some friends) and we also got recommendations for the rest of our stay. And believe me, we went to places we would never ever find on our own.
Madrid, Spain
Madrid’s food scene was a particularly interesting one for me to tackle, as I actually lived on and off in Madrid for four years. Yet, despite that history, I still managed to discover some entirely new places on this tour.
We had three couples—all good friends of ours—joining us on the walk with Devour Tours, and we had an absolute blast. Things started exceptionally well at one of Madrid’s oldest traditional taverns, where we sampled the finest ibéricoham (complete with a little crash course for my non-Spanish friends), local olives, and sweet Spanish vermouth.
This tour actually added sweet vermouth onto my regular drink repertoire! It was all so brilliant that, let’s just say, we couldn’t quite honour our actual dinner reservation at 9:30pm as planned. Yes, in true Spanish style, we had to push our dinner back to 11pm instead.
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The Luxury Option: If you are traveling with a group of friends, book their private evening walk. It includes an exclusive, private vermouth tasting session and a premium selection of top-tier Iberian hams.
Rome, Italy
I completely blame Eating Europe (formerly Eating Italy) for my ongoing obsession with food tours. They helped me discover Rome in a whole new light, and quite frankly, life was never the same again.
My sister and I booked their Testaccio tour—a neighborhood we had never explored before—and adored every single minute. Testaccio is really where authentic Roman food culture began, away from the tourist traps by the Colosseum. The daytime walk introduces you to multi-generational local vendors, from legendary cheese mongers to historic bakeries making proper Roman pizza al taglio. You finish with a sit-down lunch of perfectly executed Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara in a traditional trattoria.
San Sebastian, Spain
I am starting to think that Spain actually invented the food tour concept, as there is a definitive trend here for me! This final recommendation is incredibly special to me for one reason: Mr. O recently whisked me away on a secret weekend to San Sebastian, and he organised the entire itinerary himself with a little help from our hotel’s concierge team.
The very first thing he put on our list was a tapas crawl with Mimo Bite the Experience (formerly San Sebastian Food), and it was phenomenal. San Sebastian has more Michelin stars than almost anywhere else, but the real fun is eating pintxos in the crowded bars of the Old Town. Our guide was incredible, and let’s just say we did not stick to the scheduled four hours—which is a true testament that the concept works beautifully when handled by experts.
Paris, France
You cannot write a guide about European food without including Paris, but it is a city where it is incredibly easy to get overwhelmed by choice. While everyone knows about the cheese and the wine, for me, the real magic of Paris is found in its patisseries and chocolatiers.
We did a brilliant afternoon chocolate and pastry walk through Saint-Germain with Context Travel. They are widely considered the gold standard for deep-dive cultural walks, capping their groups at an ultra-small number so you can actually fit inside the tiny, historic boutiques.
Our guide was a proper culinary professional who walked us through an absolute masterclass of French sweets. We sampled everything from prize-winning, buttery croissants to intricate macarons and artisanal chocolates that are treated like fine art. It completely changed how I look at French baking—and there is absolutely no way I would have found these discrete, high-end shops on my own. My only tip? Do not book a heavy dinner for that evening—you will not need it!
So next time you head somewhere, I challenge you to try a food tour. You get what you pay for by the way – incredibly high quality food and drink, and someone’s valuable time and knowledge.
Have you ever been on a food tour? What did you think?
xo
Mrs. O
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