What To Expect on Your Taste Vacation
We created Taste Vacations to celebrate the food, wine, beer, and spirits in premier vacation destinations around the globe. The unique food and drink experiences we instill into each tour ensures your vacation is interesting, educational, inspiring, and fun. Our vacations focus on one or more of the following categories and each area comes with its own set of experiences:
- Food Tours: cooking classes, cooking demonstrations, shopping at farmer’s markets, and visits to local artisan producers such as olive oil mills, cheese farms, honey bee farms, and more
- Wine Tours: winery visits, vineyard walks, food and wine pairing dinners, blind wine tastings, conversations with vintners, and more
- Beer Tours: brewery visits, brew pub visits, blind tastings, beer pairing dinners, educational sessions with brewers, and more
- Spirits Tours: distillery visits, educational tours, discussions with distillery staff, and more
We have both Classic Tours and Deluxe Tours. All our public, scheduled tours are Classic Tours. Private tours can be either Classic or Deluxe.
- Classic Tours include double-occupancy lodging at upscale four-star hotels, all meals unless otherwise noted in the tour itinerary, local transportation, all organized culinary and drink experiences, and the professional services of a Taste Vacations host and, sometimes, a local guide. Alcoholic beverages at meals are not included in the cost of the tour, allowing you to choose your own wines, beers, or other beverages.
- Deluxe Tours include everything contained in a Classic Tour plus an upgrade to what we consider the best five-star lodging in the tour area or, when that is not available, an upgrade to a suite or equivalent room style. Wines or other beverages suitable to each tour are included with meals and carefully chosen to enhance your dining experience by your Taste Vacations host and restaurant staff. Some Deluxe Tours include special experiences not available on Classic Tours.
Our Hosts
Our hosts are fun, outgoing, and friendly professionals. Their primary goal is to make your vacation as hassle-free and fun as possible. They are with you from breakfast through dinner, introduce you to the food and drink experiences in your tour location, and serve as your advisor, guide, and often friend.
Some of our hosts are based in the tour location itself and others travel from the United States (or elsewhere) to your tour location. All our hosts are experienced in both the regions in which they guide and the food or drink of that tour. However, we hire them as much or more for their personality as we do for their credentials.
Accommodations and Meals
We select hotels that provide the best in luxury accommodations while also being conveniently located and providing a casual atmosphere. We believe the best hotels are those that walk the walk by providing outstanding in-room comfort, excellent staff, and complete amenities. We are not impressed by hotels trying to impress. Keep in mind that hotels differ in different countries. We might stay in a modern, upscale hotel in the United States but choose a historical gem upgraded with modern comforts in Europe.
All accommodations are double occupancy and if you are traveling solo we will pair you with a roommate of the same gender. If you are a light sleeper, you might consider paying the optional single supplement to get your own room. At the same time, if you are aware of a condition (snoring, for instance) that might make sharing a room with you unpleasant, you should do the same, in consideration of your roommate.
We eat our meals in a variety of locations ranging from a private dinner at an estate winery to a beer pairing dinner with a brewmaster to a formal dinner at a city’s finest restaurant. Some meals are more casual and some more formal – we like the variety and think you will too. All of our restaurants pride themselves on serving top-quality meals in keeping with the local culture. When you complete your Information Form please note any special dietary restrictions – be specific, please. If you are a vegetarian, it is helpful to know if you eat fish and dairy, for instance. We can accommodate almost all special diets if we know ahead of time.
Have more questions about being an affiliate for Taste Vacations or to get more details about one of our tours? Contact Beth Peluse at beth at tastevacations dot com.