Active Trips

Food tours and tastings are a big part of all our tours, so how can you balance the eating you do on our cooking vacations with physical activity such as biking, hiking, and even other speciality sports? Choose one of our active trips, which are adventure vacations, for a greater degree of physical activity while you are on a cooking vacation with The International Kitchen.

Travel is actually good for you, even if you are being more indulgent in terms of food and wine, and most of our travelers will find they walk more and move more than they would during their day-to-day life at home. Europeans walk more than their American counterparts, and on a culinary tour of Italy, France, or elsewhere you will find it is part of the lifestyle. Quite simply, on a culinary vacation, you’ll explore on foot and walk off the delicious meals you’ve eaten. But that being said, we do offer what we term our “active trips,” which include more physical activity, be it a specialty activity like hiking or biking or simply more walking than the majority of our trips.

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Hiking and Biking Culinary Tours

Some of our most popular active vacations include a specific hiking or biking component. Our most popular hiking and cooking culinary vacations offer extended guided walks through the regions in question, whether the Monte Sibillini near Norcia, Umbria, the Amazon cloud forest in Peru, the Douro River Valley in Portugal or the amazing natural park of the Cinque Terre in Liguria, Italy. These hiking culinary vacations tend not to be advanced hiking, but they are not suitable for travelers who have mobility issues or difficulty getting around.

Biking and cooking culinary vacations combine just what you think! And although these are generally gentle bike rides such as among the chateaux of the Loire Valley, including Chambord, Blois, Amboise, Clos Luce, and Chenonceau, we can on request organize much more difficult rides, such is in the French Alps or on the Amalfi Coast. We also sometimes feature special weeks featuring yoga, water sports, or more, so if this interests you, contact us for details and recommendations.

Don’t forget, we can also customize almost any of our culinary vacations to include more physical activity, whether that means yoga on the Amalfi Coast and in the heart of Spain; hiking, horseback riding, or kayaking in Sicily; snorkeling in Greece; or mountain biking in France.

Some of our favorite active trips include:

Cooking and Walking in Umbria
Spend a week in Umbria, one of our favorite regions of Italy, and enjoy hikes through the Sibillini Mountains and more. This 6-night itinerary combines leisurely explorations of Italy’s most beautiful countryside with cooking classes with the chefs of a Michelin Star restaurant.

Zakynthos Island Adventure
Travel to the Greek Island of Zakynthos for an authentic cooking vacation in Greece featuring delectable Greek dishes prepared during your cooking classes and wonderful excursions. There is plenty to explore both by foot and by sea on this gorgeous island adventure.

Pesto, Pasta, and the Cinque Terre
Journey to Liguria and stay at an authentic agriturismo while exploring the famed coast. Spend a full day hiking the famed linked towns of the Cinque Terre while you look out over the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.