As demand for food and culture-led travel has surged in recent years, Kensington — the leader in private-guided luxury travel — has responded by creating more itineraries designed to take travelers off the well-worn tourist path and into the kitchens, vineyards, and markets that define a destination. Built around firsthand experience from the company's global network of Destination Experts, the journeys span Greece, Croatia, Portugal, Morocco, Peru, Italy, and Japan.
"Food is one of the most authentic ways to understand a place because it reflects history, geography, traditions, and community all at once," notes Helen Giontsis, President, Kensington. “The experiences travelers remember most are often the ones they didn't know to look for and often revolve around food and culture; a neighborhood cafe where locals gather, or a family-owned winery. It helps travelers move beyond simply seeing a place and begin to truly understand its history, culture and people."
The sample journeys below from Kensington’s Food & Wine Collection offer a taste of what is possible based on local expertise and are built around each destination’s local food, traditions and lifestyles.
Greece: A Taste of Island Life – Sifnos & Paros
While Santorini dominates the Instagram feed, Sifnos and Paros offer something harder to photograph but far more lasting: a genuine sense of Greek island life. This itinerary opens in Athens with a private Acropolis visit, neighborhood markets, family-run tavernas before heading to Sifnos, widely considered Greece's culinary capital, where travelers cook traditional recipes in a local home. Paros follows, with the harbor village of Naoussa, a multi-generational family winery, and a traditional kaiki cruise around Antiparos.
Croatia: Croatia Island Hopping Adventure
While Croatia's coastline draws visitors from around the world, its vineyards, farms, and island communities offer an equally compelling window into local life. This itinerary takes travelers from Dubrovnik through Korcula, Hvar, Solta Island, and Split, featuring traditional farm-to-table dining experiences, visits to family-run vineyards, tastings of rare indigenous wines, and encounters with local producers preserving generations-old traditions. Private island-hopping excursions reveal secluded coves and authentic island communities, while olive oil, honey, and wine tastings provide a deeper understanding of the region's agricultural roots.
Portugal & Morocco: Lisbon, Marrakech and Atlas Mountains
Two countries, centuries of shared history, one itinerary. Travelers explore Lisbon's iconic bairros and Fado traditions before crossing to Morocco for spice-market wandering, mint tea ceremonies, and dinners in Berber villages high in the Atlas Mountains.
Destination Expert Sepideh Mohseni's local tip: "As much as I love Lisbon's iconic neighborhoods, one of my favorite recommendations is LX Factory, a former industrial complex turned creative hub. Independent shops, great food, local artists. It's where Lisbon actually lives."
Peru: Taste of Peru – Icons & Culinary Immersion
Machu Picchu might be its most famous attraction, but Peru's culinary culture from its markets, kitchens, and ancient food traditions is just as extraordinary. This itinerary moves from Lima's celebrated food scene to colonial Arequipa and the Sacred Valley, with stops to learn regional cooking over wood stoves, mix pisco sours with local bartenders, and share a traditional Pachamanca feast before a private guided visit to Machu Picchu itself.
Italy: La Dolce Sardinia – Unwind in Style
Tuscany often gets a lot of attention when it comes to food and wine, but Sardinia has a culinary identity entirely its own shaped by seafaring history, pastoral life, and island isolation. Travelers here make traditional Sardinian ravioli with local hosts at a family-run winery, explore ancient nuraghi ruins, sail the La Maddalena Archipelago, and settle into the unhurried rhythm of the Emerald Coast.
Japan: Flavors of Northern Japan – Tokyo to Hokkaido
Most first-time Japan itineraries follow the same southern arc. This one goes north. From Tokyo's back-alley food culture to the coastal flavors of Sendai and Matsushima Bay, travelers continue on to Hokkaido renowned across Japan for its seafood, dairy, and agricultural heritage with sake tastings, fresh fish markets, and a visit to a family winery in Yoichi along the way.
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