
Cooking Vacations & Culinary Tours in Italy, Portugal, Spain & Croatia
Small-Group Luxury Culinary & Experiential Vacations with the best hands-on cooking classes & cultural tours in Italy, Portugal, Spain & Croatia. For nearly two decades, our small-group tours in Tuscany, The Amalfi Coast, Sicily, Portugal, Spain and Croatia have connected travelers with local grandmothers and families in beautiful settings where other tours never go. Learn to cook traditional recipes passed down through generations in the welcoming kitchens of our extended family. As pioneers in authentic culinary travel, our all-inclusive experiences remain truly interactive—from market visits with locals to hands-on activities in family homes. Make wine in family-owned Tuscan vineyards, join real truffle hunters in Umbria's forests, craft limoncello in local Amalfi Coast kitchens, create cannoli in Sicilian family homes, and discover centuries-old recipes in Portugal, Spain and Croatia. You become Family in our kitchens, sharing our passion for food and culture on our culinary vacations in Italy, culinary vacations in Portugal, culinary vacations in Spain and experiential vacations in Croatia.
Pioneers in Authentic Culinary Travel Since 2006
For nearly two decades, we've been creating authentic luxury culinary & immersive experiences for thousands of guests that go beyond traditional tourism. As the original small-group experiential culinary tour operator in these regions, we've built lasting relationships with local families that provide our guests access to experiences no other tour company can offer.
Featured Vacations:
All of Our Culinary Vacations
Explore Our Complete Collection of Immersive Experiences
- Wine & Cooking Under the Tuscan & Umbrian Sun
- Cooking in Paradise on the Amalfi Coast
- Wine & Cooking in the Heart of Chianti and Florence, Tuscany
- Sicily, The Motherland - Wine, Cooking, Culture & Adventure
- Culinary Treasures of Bologna, Venice, Michelin Stars & Exotic Cars
- Wine, Cooking, & The Olive Oil Harvest - Soriano
- Medieval Chestnut Festival & Wine Harvest Season
- Portugal – Family, Culture, Wine & Cooking
- Authentic Croatia - Friends, Family & Flavors on the Dalmatian Coast
Our Culinary Vacations in Italy, Portugal, Spain & Croatia
We promise you will fall in love with each of our all-inclusive italy cooking vacations, as well as our culinary vacations in Portugal and our immersive vacations in Croatia. They about much more than just sightseeing, food, and cooking. We create an experience of a lifetime, immersing you into the culture while giving you the sense of having found your home away from home. You will truly feel like family with us. We don’t do the traditional tour thing. When we cook, we are a group of friends doing hands on cooking classes based on traditional Italian family recipes. When we are on excursions, we are a group of friends exploring the beautiful hamlets and countryside together. It is a unique experience like none other, and time again our guests tell us it was the best vacation they had ever taken, and we had completely changed the way they will travel forever. Have a look at our hundreds of Italy Cooking Vacations reviews, and learn more about our:
A Truly Authentic Family Experience
It all started with a simple idea that we wanted people to experience the real Italy. We had our own friends and family visit us regularly, and they always said they had the experience of their lifetimes visiting us. They said we had shown them the culture of food, family and friends in a way they could not imagine, and our parting was always in tears. They experienced olive oils from our trees, wine from our friends cellars, fresh ingredients from our farm, and we would even take them truffle hunting. So one day we thought that this simple idea was missing in tourism. We would do exactly what we do with our own friends and family… and it worked.
It starts with location. There is nothing quite like small town hospitality when you get away from the areas infected with mass tourism. The people are warm and welcoming, and the more you eat their food and drink their wine, the more they fill with joy. That sense of Italian hospitality is our number one priority with every guest on our culinary holidays. Our goal with each guest is not to simply show you the sights and offer culinary experiences. It is to bring you into our family. Everything we do revolves around that premise. It is all so relaxed and fun. Our guests quickly find that we don’t treat them like customers. We treat them like visiting relatives (The kind we enjoy having, that is!). Of course, this sounds like marketing mumbo jumbo, but it simply isn’t. It is one of the reasons our guests so regularly tell us we far exceeded their expectations.
"Be" The View
People often talk about what they “saw” on their vacations. Our guests talk about what they “experienced”. While tourists are busy taking pictures of the beautiful sights they see, our guests are travelers. They are the sights. That is because we integrate into the lifestyle as we fully immerse ourselves into local living.. We are doing... not just seeing. So as every opportunity presents itself, we are right there. During the wine harvest, while others are wine tasting, we are harvesting grapes and making wine. During the olive harvest, while others are buying new oil, we are making extra virgin olive oil from olives we picked together. While others are just buying and eating fresh Italian cheese, we are making fresh ricotta cheese with a local shepherd. The same goes with our Portugal vacations and Croatia vacations, in which we always do what the locals do, and live like locals. Every trip with us is a new and unique life experience that our guests cherish for the rest of their lives.
Small & Intimate Groups
We need to get to know one another and all become friends and family, so our cooking holidays in italy, Portugal and Croatia are all about small groups. How do we transform a group of guests from customers to family? One way is to limit the size of our groups. They are big enough to ensure we have compatible personalities, but small enough that people never feel like cattle. Like-minded people with a sense of fun and adventure, not to mention a love of good food and wine, become your extended family too. We eat in small town farm-to-table restaurants that don't handle large groups, and we want to always make sure we have the best of the best. Add to that the fact that the cooking classes should be big enough to feel like a fun party, but small enough to get one on one learning. All said, we bring you a wonderful balance of hands-on cooking experiences, culinary outings, excursions to major sightseeing destinations, as well as some of Italy's most wonderful hidden treasures. More importantly, for many of our guests, .
All-Inclusive Vacations
The family feel of our tours and vacations in italy, as well as our Portugal tours and Croatia tours would go away quickly if you suddenly found us asking you to pay extra for something, so we don’t... never. Unlike most other tour companies, we won’t offer any optional add-ons... it is all just included on all of our culinary vacations. From the moment we meet, we take care of all transportation, all classes, all excursions, all meals, etc. Because of this, we also make sure our schedule has something going on all day, from morning to night. Of course, you don’t have to do everything. If you prefer, you can always stay back and take it easy until you want to rejoin us, but you will always know we have something going on... and it is always included in the base price. In other words, if you were visiting friends and family, they would show you the time of your life... they wouldn't start hitting you up for money at every turn
The CDV Difference
The Authentic Difference
See how our small-group, family-centered approach compares to traditional luxury tour operators:
Traditional Luxury Tours
Culture Discovery Experience
Guest Reviews & Testimonials
Letters & Reviews From Our Guests...
Read Full TestimonialThe tour was a perfect mix of cooking classes and visits to the surrounding sights of Tuscany and Umbria. Some tours took us off the beaten path and others to more familiar sights of the region.
Read Full TestimonialThis was not just a great tour, it was one of the best EXPERIENCES i have ever had.
Read Full TestimonialAmazing time! Amusing group of people.
Read Full Testimonialif you go on one of their tours it will probably be the greatest trip of your life, because it was for me.
Read Full TestimonialIf you want to experience the best of Italy then you must choose CDV. Only by getting to know the Italian people can you truly appreciate this amazing country.
Read Full TestimonialI can't wait to go home and try out all my new recipes
Read Full TestimonialFrom our arrival in Palermo to our tearful departure in Catania, every day was a new adventure
Read Full TestimonialTreated like royalty Left with a whole new "family" Can't wait to go again with CDV
Read Full TestimonialThe food was fantastic, the wine was divine and the song Volare will always stick in our minds
Read Full TestimonialThe hosts, guides (Danielle and Rocky) were excellent tour guides. They exceeded my expectations and more. They have such great sense of humor. I felt treated like a guest and not a tourist.
Read Full TestimonialI love to cook and love wine! You get to do both and as much as you want of both, plus learn of the people and history of the area