Food used to be an afterthought.
It was something you figured out once you arrived at a destination. You’d land, Google the top rated restaurants and hope for the best.
These days things are looking a bit different.
According to TravelBoom’s 2026 Leisure Travel Study, nearly 80% of travelers say a destination’s food culture influences their trip. Putting local cuisine on par with price, location and reviews as a core booking factor.
Here are my tips for building a food-focused itinerary, what to ask your concierge to discover local gems, and the best food destinations to add to your bucket list before year end.
How to Build Your Dream Foodie Itinerary
Here are some of my tips for planning a food-focused trip for my concierge clients.
Step 1: Find Your Anchor Food Experience
Pick one thing, one experience that’s on your travel bucket list and use it as your “anchor” for the trip. It could be a food festival, a specific Michellin restaurants, or a chef’s table.
Then, build the rest of the around it.
Another trick I like to do is to end an itinerary with this anchor. It builds aniticipation and ends your trip on a high. Plus, if anything else was subpar, it’s overshadowed by finally ticking off your bucket list item.
Some food experiences to inspire your trip can be:
- Cooking classes with local chefs
- Food market tours
- Winery, distillery or brewery visits
- Local food festivals or harvest events
- A reservation at a bucket list restaurant
Step 2: Research The Local Food Culture
To really discover a destination’s food culture, you need to dig a bit deeper than the top 10 rated restaurants on Google Maps. Some of the best spots to grab a bite to eat are street food vendors and farmers market stalls.
Knowing where to go, and what dishes to try shapes your entire trip and helps you figure out where to stay, how to pace your days, and even what shoes you need to pack.
Step 3: Book Your Reservations ASAP
The best culinary experiences, a coveted chef’s table, a seat at a harvest dinner, or a spot on a small group food tour, fill up fast.
Sometimes far faster than hotel rooms or flights.
A good example is Cape Town’s food scene in the summer season. From December to February, reservations at the city’s top restaurants are booked up weeks, sometimes even in months in advance. If one of the fine dining spots is on your bucket list, planning is essential to avoid disappointment.
If a meal is the anchor of your trip, treat it like one, and book it first. From there, build the travel dates around it, and then book all the logistics.
The Best Food Destinations Around The World
Not sure where to go? Add one of these spots to your itinerary for a delicious end of year adventure!
Brazil
Brazil is heating up as a travel hot spot in 2026. Named Travel + Leisure‘s Destination of the Year, the country’s food scene is one of the reasons why it’s topping bucket lists. Belém’s indigenous Amazon-influenced cuisine, São Paulo’s restaurant culture and Brazil’s street food like acarajé are all incentives to book a flight and build an entire itienrary around what’s on your plate.
What makes Brazil’s food so interesting is it’s melting pot of cultures around around the world. Starting with the Portuguese influence in the 1500s, then the influx of African, Middle Eastern, European, it’s created a smorgasboard of flavours.
Some of the must-try dishes are Feijoada (Brazil’s national dish,a hearty stew), Moqueca (a West African influenced fish stew) and Pato No Tucupi (a traditional Amazonian dish).
Japan
Another food destination going viral at the moment is Japan. Ramen culture in Fukuoka, sushi omakase in Tokyp, and vending machines full of of delicious snacks that go well beyond a packet of chips. If hunger strikes you at 2am, you can walk around the corner from your hotel and grab some soba noodles, fried rice and curry. You can even find vintage 1980s vending machine units serving hamburgers in arcadeds around Gunma.
And of course, no foodie trip to Japan is complete without filling up sweet treats. Wagashi are tradiitional Japanese sweets usually served with a cup of green tea. Daifuku also known as mochi are some of the most popular and come in a variety of flavours.
With Japan’s cuisine changing from region to region, it’s more than enough reason to plan multiple trips to explore the food scene.
Nashville, USA
Hungry in the United States? One of the best local destinations to base an entire food trip around is Nashville.
From Vietnamese comfort food to late-night loaded fries, there’s more to the city’s food scene than hot chicken and country music bars. Nashville is home to a diversity of cuisines that’ll keep your itinerary full.
If you’re someone who wants to try a bit of everything, head to King Market. Order a bunch of different dishes from the vendors and nibble your way through the city. For something different, try Nashville’s “Sound Bites” initiative. It paris chefs and musicians to create dishes and songs guests are meant to experience together.
What to Ask Your Concierge to Unlock The Local Food Scene
To avoid falling into the “best of” lists everyone already knows about, chat to your hotel’s concierge. That’s where you’ll find a destinations real food scene.
At check-in, ask the following questions:
- Where do chefs eat on their night off?
- What food market is worth visiting?
- Which new restaurants would you recommend that no one is talking about yet?
And if your heart is really set on a restaurant that has no available reservations, that’s where your concierge can help! Always ask if it’s possible to get into the impossible spot.
You never know the magic your concierge can work!
If you’d rather have someone help handle building your itinerary, making reservations, and finding bucket list foodie experiences, I can help! Contact me to find out more about my trip planning services for my private clients.