There are lots of travel companies out there that charge big bucks for “customized” culinary or wine tours of a specific region.

A consummate foodie who usually travels on a budget, I frequently drool over the descriptions of these tours while simultaneously starting woefully at my bank account balance. While many of these culinary tours are wonderful experiences, they are, without a doubt, hard on the budget. One day it dawned on me that, with a little planning and foresight, I could plan my own culinary trip. In this post, I give you some tips for designing your own culinary tour on a budget. Besides the obvious financial benefits of designing your own tour, you can truly customize the experience because, well, you’re the tour guide.

• Choose a destination with a rich culinary culture. This may seem like an obvious piece of advice, but it’s important that you do a bit of preliminary research on various places to determine whether or not the culinary or wine culture is rich and varied enough to base an entire trip on. Of course, places like New York, France, Italy or Napa Valley jump to mind, but there are loads of other options. For example, Spain’s Basque region is home to unique culinary traditions, and many places throughout the U.S. (such as Minneapolis) have become havens for chef-owned restaurants. So, you don’t necessarily need to stray that far from home (which can be easier on the budget).
• Determine your priorities. What do you want to experience? Are you most interested in where food/wine comes from (the agricultural aspects)? Perhaps you’d like to visit some farms or vineyards. Is restaurant dining your passion? Then you’ll most likely want to spend most of your time eating out. Is cooking your passion? You should concentrate on identifying opportunities for meeting chefs or taking a cooking class or two. Do you like to shop and prepare your own food while traveling? Then you’ll no doubt be visiting local specialty food shops and markets.
• Ask like-minded travelers to share in the adventure. Culinary travel is more fun (and more budget-friendly) when you can share the experience with a travel partner or a group. Ask some of your fellow foodies to come along with you. Some of the more obvious benefits include being able to share appetizers and a variety of dishes at restaurants (being able to try a lot of different things without breaking the bank) and having someone who can help you remember the name of that delicious wine you tried during your vineyard tour.
  

  Touring a vineyard and attending a wine tasting can be a fun, educational part of a custom culinary tour on a budget.

• Research opportunities at your location based on your foodie priorities. Now that you’ve established your priorities, the real research begins. Search for farms or vineyards that offer tastings and private tours. Scour the Internet for restaurant reviews, locations and menus. Identify chefs you’d like to meet (if possible) or cooking schools in the area. Find out what types of specialty food shops or outdoor markets are at your destination. I think it’s helpful to organize this information in an Excel file or some other document. Make note of the opening hours of restaurants and markets and contact information for all of the places you’re interested in visiting.
• Make reservations far in advance. It’s best to secure reservations for restaurants, tours and classes as far in advance as you possibly can, especially for popular destinations.
• Be ready to roll with the punches. In addition to bringing your appetite you should also bring patience and a sense of humor. As with any trip, the best laid plans don’t necessarily guarantee 100% success. However, if you look at mishaps/miscommunications as opportunities instead of disappointments, you’ll get a lot more out of the experience. If a restaurant loses your lunch reservations, just think of it as a great excuse to try some of the excellent street food the area is known for.

There are many tours designed to introduce tourists to South Australia’s wine regions, but few have the relaxed, personalized service of Alfie’s Wine Tours.

Alfie leads tours to the state's premiere wine regions: the Clare and Barossa Valleys, Adelaide Hills, and the McLaren Vale. The latter tour sets off every Thursday, whether there's only one keen wine taster or a bus full.

My husband and I were lucky enough to enjoy one of those private tours on a recent Adelaide vacation. There was no missing Alfie's bright yellow bus parked outside our hotel bright and early. The 45-minute drive to the McLaren Vale passed quickly as Alfie told us all about himself and encouraged us to do the same. Alfie is a debt collector by trade, but runs the wine tours as a hobby. Clearly he loves his work, meeting people from all over the country and the world and sharing his passion for a good drop.

A Barossa Valley vineyard

His tour takes in some of the smaller wineries in the McLaren Vale, which gives wine enthusiasts the chance to taste vintages not available in their local liquor store. Penny's Hill Wines was our first stop, a friendly winery with an extensive range of whites, reds, and dessert wines. After a little early morning tasting some tucker was in order, and Alfie obliged with an antipasto platter.

After some cheese and European sausages we were ready to take on Woodstock, a small family owned winery with beautiful leafy grounds and knowledgeable, bubbly staff. We couldn’t resist taking home a bottle of their very pricey, but delicious Stocks Shiraz, along with a few other drops.

Australian Boutique Premium Wines was the next stop along the tour. The name sounds fancy, but this is a back-to-basics operation set inside a rustic metal shed. Owner Bob Harrison looks to support the little guy by gathering the best boutique wines from around the country to add to his range.  The simple surrounds mattered not as we treated ourselves to bubbles, stunning whites and red, and some interesting varietals.

So much wine quickly took its toll, so it was great to see lunch was next on the agenda. While we busied ourselves with more tasting at Parri Estate, Alfie cooked up a two-course lunch in the winery's parklands.

With bellies full it was off to Oxenberry Farm and dessert. There was the liquid kind available, including the beautiful Right Nut Liqueur Muscat, and a fruit platter and chocolate fondue served by Alfie. Needless to say, after all that indulgence we couldn't help but doze on the way back to our hotel!

There are many luxury wine tours offering private experiences and limousine travel, but if you simply want to see South Australia's wineries a trip with Alfie is much more economical, and every bit as fun. Tours start from $70 per person, including lunch.

Australians are wine pioneers, inventing the wine cask or wine-in-a-box and the innovative screw-cap lid. While the land Down Under has many wine regions to explore, few have the allure of South Australia’s Barossa Valley. The Barossa is located around 60 kilometers northeast of the South Australian capital of Adelaide.

A vineyard in the Barossa Valley, South Australia

The region is famous for shiraz, or syrah as it’s called in many parts of Europe and The United States. Here the red wine is bold and earthy, full of flavor yet surprisingly elegant and complex. Wine buffs may come for the shiraz, but they shouldn’t dismiss the region’s other wines. The area also produces excellent grenache and cabernet sauvignon, white varieties including riesling and semillon, and even some fortified dessert wines.

The Barossa Valley is home to around 50 wineries, so it’s ambitious for tourists to see them all.

Big names like Jacob’s Creek, Penfolds, Wolf Blass, and Yalumba entice tourists, but the smaller boutiques are often more enticing. They’re less crowded, so guests generally enjoy a more personalized wine tasting experience. While they often have a smaller range of wines to taste, these wines tend to be perfected by the winemakers. Jenke Vineyards, Rockford, Vine Crest, and Rosenvale Wines have some of the area’s best.

Most Barossa Valley wineries encourage travelers to stop by and sample wines at their cellar door. Complimentary wine tastings are conducted by vineyard staff or the wine makers themselves who are eager to share their knowledge of the wine varieties. Feel free to ask any questions you have to make the most of your wine tasting experience.

The best way to see the Barossa Valley’s wineries is to join an organized wine tour. Groups including Groovy Grape Getaways, For Wine or Reason, and Alfie’s Wine Tours will take care of the transport, leaving you to enjoy the day’s tasting. Many tours will collect you from your accommodation and return you to your hotel at the end of the day. Wine tours typically include stops at four or five of the region’s wineries, some of the area’s other attractions, and a restaurant or winery for lunch.

If you do hope to take a self-guided tour, ensure you are mindful of Australian drink driving laws. It is illegal for drivers to have a blood alcohol level above 0.05, which is equivalent to two standard alcohol drinks. You may be fined and have your license revoked if you exceed this limit. For that reason, it’s smart to leave the car at home if you hope to enjoy some of Barossa Valley’s finest wines.

Argentina is famous for its meat, wine, tango, sports, and of course, their beautiful women. For any one of these reasons, coupled with the country’s gorgeous scenery, vacationers will find a wealth of travel opportunities in Argentina’s South American backyard.

City lovers find they can spend months in Buenos Aires and still not see it all. Others travel to the north and see the gorgeous Iguazu waterfalls or venture south and enjoy the glaciers of Patagonia and hiking near Torres del Paine. Any of these Argentine vacations is worth the ten or so hours you spend on a plane getting there, and with the favorable exchange rate (nearly four to one) budget travelers can enjoy doing as much as they like, but end up spending very little. If you have the opportunity to visit Argentina, each of these vacations is well worth the trip and, if you can somehow fit each of them in, all the better.

FrugalMonkey’s destination guide for Argentina lists each of these destinations with a full a complete profile on each of these incredible locations. Find out when and where to go, where to stay, and some background and historical information on each.

There is one very special place we think all travelers should visit and it lies to the northeast of Buenos Aires in Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza wine country is famous around the world for turning out some of South America’s best red wines. One grape in particular, the Malbec, grows in abundance in Mendoza and is now a top favorite among wine experts globally. It is now currently being exported around the world as one of the top wine producing regions. Along with an incredible wine country in Mendoza you will also find a great deal of adventure. Mendoza is known for its white water rafting, hiking, and rock climbing excursions located just outside the city borders.

To find out more about Mendoza wine tours available from this top class wine producing city, see our pages on Argentina travel and Mendoza. One of our favorite bottles it the Los Alamos Malbec, an export you can now find in local grocery stores around the US. Find out more about Mendoza and the wine tours available for travelers once you get there with FrugalMonkey’s comprehensive section on Mendoza and Argentine wine.

Salud!

For wine lovers there is nothing better than combining your love of wine with your love for travel. It’s the perfect reason to see the world and indulge in one of your favorite hobbies. Imagine sitting back after a day beachside with a bottle of wine it would cost hundreds to obtain in the states.

Or you could be viewing the beautiful countryside of Australia, Chile or Argentina while touring some of the most famous wine countries in the world. FrugalMonkey understands that an interest in wine fuels travel plans, so check out some of these wine specific areas that are perfect for vacationing.

Australia Wine Tours

Adelaide, Australia, located in Southern Australia is one of the most famous wine regions in the country. Tours of this beautiful countryside include tasting a variety of Adelaide wines, meeting winery owners and even making some of your own wines. While Australia is known for its geographic beauty and being a popular travel location, wine lovers are flocking to this popular travel location to indulge in wines not found anywhere else in the world. Check out FrugalMonkey’s entire section on Australia travel. It is fully equipped with not only wine information but travel in and around this spectacular country.

South America Wine Tours

South America has been a favorite tourist location and has lately been making quite a name for itself in terms of wine production. Chile and Argentina are some of the two largest exporters of wine in the world so it makes sense that wine and travel lovers alike are flocking to these two neighboring countries to see some of the world’s most geographically diverse countries and to sip some of the greatest wines being produced worldwide. Argentina specifically has a very travel friendly wine country, with Mendoza offering hundreds of miles of wineries available for tasting along with a wine fair that takes place each year in March. Check out FrugalMonkey’s section on Mendoza wine for details!