What is culinary travel?

Culinary travel is travel where food is the main reason for the trip, not an afterthought. The itinerary bends around eating — regional specialties, local markets, a specific chef, a wine region, a street stall someone flew for. It overlaps with cultural travel, since a place’s food is its culture on a plate. The trend has matured from bucket-list restaurants into deeper experiences: cooking with a fisherman’s family, foraging, tasting a single ingredient at its source. For luxury travelers, food has become a way to actually meet a destination rather than just photograph it. The best versions are personal and hard to replicate. See the year’s travel trends.