09: Gastro-Tourism: How We Plan Travel via Tastebuds
"How do you plan your trips?" Well, we'll tell you...
We have this annoying knack of sleepily stumbling upon our favourite district on the last day of every single trip. Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, beguiled as we turn corners and traverse squares that we had been missing all along, lamenting what could have been, given more time. Generally, we’re more annoyed at ourselves for missing it, but also relieved for a short whip ‘round at least, resigning ourselves to drop a pin here for the next trip. We’re thinking Marseille’s effortlessly cool hipster quarter Cours Julien; Glasgow’s West End, where Dumbarton and Byres roads meet merging the neighbourhoods of Partick, Kelvinhall, Hillhead and Kelvinbridge; Paris’ Canal Saint-Martin which feels like a bit of Amsterdam or Copenhagen in the French capital with its boutiques, bars and cafes with waterfront façades. In Brussels on one of our first trips it was the general spread of two districts, Saint-Gilles and Ixelles, but more recently that’s been zoomed in, coordinates pin-pointed to two little areas: Rue Lesbroussart with its eclectic, international line-up of neighbourhood restaurants, cheese shops and wine bars pointing towards Place Flagey, and - the opposite side of Avenue Louise - the well-heeled Châtelain-Bailli district, complete with concept stores, art nouveau details, parks, lunch spots and bijou bars.
Often, these discoveries are caused by aimlessly wandering without much of an itinerary, having ticked off much of our hit list in the preceding days. Almost always on the final day of a trip, when that sinking feeling of imminent departure swells and we soak up the last few hours, we walk. We walk a lot. Sure, understanding and availing of the public transport is a great way to both get to know and get around a city in particular, but so often it’s when we walk around without too much of a plan and use our eyes, ears and nose to find our way we hit gold. So often that’s in the final few hours. So, in a way, preparing endlessly and researching is worth its weight in gold, but never discount just picking an area and getting a little lost in its streets.
Gastro tourism or food-led tourism is increasingly on the rise and becoming one of the sole reasons for exploring. Like many, this is absolutely our bag — and something we wrote about five years ago for The Irish Times when this trend began to properly boom. Being led by our tastebuds, eating our way around a destination and getting to know its unique flavour solely by taste is what we do and how we operate, and we go all-in. We’ve found our feet by taking food walking tours in San Sebastián and Lisbon (Devour Tours are the best). We’ve donned chef whites and aprons, rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck into cooking classes in Jura, London and Taipei. We break bread with locals at their very own dinner tables, while away afternoons swilling wines in vast vineyards and spend so much of our time being captivated in food markets with heaving displays of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. Not to mention scanning shelves and Google Translating labels in supermarket and remarking on the make-up of dairy fridges in supermarkets everywhere we go. [most of the time what you think is milk is actually drinking yoghurt; we’ve learned that the hard way]
We love nothing more than delving into the provenance and particularities of products, ingredients and dishes to get an insight into the identity of a destination and what makes it tick or what makes it so remarkable. Of course, greed plays a part, but actually the appetite we have is not so much hunger and sating an empty stomach but rather to get an education in a cuisine. Anywhere we go we want to learn about why this particular place is different from another place, and another place, and any other place. We want to learn what the food can tell us about the culture and the history. From street food right up to fine dining, we want to taste it all –– and we know so many others do, too.
It’s a bit of a peculiar existence, having been able to turn this into a sort-of career. When we moved home from London to Ireland in 2017 we said “let’s make a go of this and see where we land”, and somehow we did it –– and still do. We’ve learned a thing or two throughout the years about how to travel well and squeeze as much as physically possible in, and quite often we get asked “how do you plan your trips?” because we’ve, in a way, become known for destination guides. Not really for our travel writing in the likes of Lonely Planet, Irish Independent, RTÉ Lifestyle or Irish Times, but more for our gastro tourism content on our owned channels, like our website or social media. We think people seem to get a great grasp of a destination, and sometimes appear flummoxed at our command of a city or our surmising of what’s good and great. In our opinion, there’s a way to travel so that you get the most out of your trip away, from the moment you book to the moment you return home… So, when asked, usually we brush it off in our tediously bashful brand of modesty but lately it’s got us thinking we should maybe elaborate and put it into words.
Getting There: Shop Around, Airline to Airline, or be SUPER loyal
Fully aware we could be teaching you how to suck eggs (shuddering at turning a phrase we hate so much), but two options: either be loyal to none, or very loyal to one. Loyalty will pay off in the long run if you rack up points and ascend tiers of frequent flyer and hospitality programmes. But if you’re lucky to live in/near a hub city with an international airport full of connections (Heathrow/Gatwick, Schipol, Dublin, Rome FCO, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Istanbul…) you’re shooting fish in a barrel in terms of combinations of airlines and connections. It can be straightforward, streamlined and even slightly cheaper to book both legs of a trip in one neat booking (some airlines actually penalise you price-wise for booking separate legs, rather than a two-way trip), but don’t do yourself a disservice and discount switching up airlines entirely for different legs. Skyscanner or Google Flights are great for this, particularly for zoning in on times of day and length of connections, as well as tracking cheapest fares with alerts so if you really want to go to Capetown, Bangkok, Sydney or Rio sometime in the next year it’s worth mapping the prices and swooping when a deal is in the short grass. God Save The Points and ThePointsGuy are good for deals and advice, too. Same goes for ferry travel too - check our supermarket loyalty schemes for vouchers to help shield the cost of a trip.
Last Minute Flights vs. Last Minute Tables and Beds
Ah the ‘ol last minute “deal” on a destination. Think about it: just because you’ve gotten flights for a steal for a trip this weekend doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to find the best hotel at a rock bottom price and slink into every table you want in your restaurant hit-list. There’s always going to be a pay-off if you’ve gotten a cheap, last minute deal because the other costs may well discount any savings and in fact cost more. We find “last minute” as a concept is always a compromise.
If you know far in advance that you’re visiting a city, once you book your flights, start booking everything else early – from hotel to airport transfers, tours to restaurants. Lots of hotels will offer advance purchase rates, some even reward you for booking numerous nights in advance with them. Don’t wait around with restaurants, cafés and bars too. There’s nothing worse than arriving to one which is closed, on holiday or fully-booked (it’s happened us LOADS). If you like somewhere or you’ve been recommended it, book a spot to avoid disappointment!
Mini Hack: Codeshare airlines!
Same airlines selling seats on the same route and even the same plane, but why is there two prices? Airlines often enter agreements with one another to ‘share’ a route, in that they will jointly operate a route under an agreement and therefore will likely sell seats from both sides. What you might not be aware of is that sometimes the prices can be quite different. We found this when booking long-haul flights in particular, like recent travels to Hong Kong and Seoul, but even within Europe on short-haul flights too. We travelled to Stockholm in April of this year via Amsterdam (still no affordable/budget direct route from Dublin which is insane!), and Air France was cheaper than KLM even though the two airlines are within the same group (Air France-KLM) and also codesharing the route, one was cheaper than the other.
Be Clever with Luggage
If you’re planning on going on a shopping holiday (read: if you’re like us and plan to return home with all manner of edibles and drinkables) here’s a neat way to approach a trip: book outbound via a low-fare (read: budget) airline (Ryanair, EasyJet etc.) using hand luggage only and then return with a national airline, as sometimes these higher-priced airlines can include heavier/bulkier luggage checked as part of the fare/ticket price. Therefore, in some situations, you’re not paying for baggage either way.
Keep Sceptical of Transfer Solutions
Express trains will whizz you into a major station close to the heart of a city in several minutes, but it will almost always be at a premium price point. There’s nothing worse than being conned into buying premium tickets by loud, attractive advertising landside. Budget airlines sometimes even sell you combo tickets on-board, too, before you even hit the tarmac. Be wary of transfer transport services that are marketed as “Express” as most often they are indeed quick and comfortable but very expensive, like the Heathrow Express in London and Stockholm’s Arlanda Express –– both delivering you to the city in 15-20 minutes. Mostly the target for these services is busy business people who need to get to the destination fast, and cost is of no bearing. However, for the average, everyday traveller these Express services are not essential or worth the cost for the speed. Do you *need* to get to the city in 15 minutes? Or can you spend an hour on a slower service for a fraction of the price? Does the slower service actually go closer to your final destination? Sometimes, even the marketing of these as “Express” is total nonsense as in Italy recently we ambled on one similarly-marketed service for 45 minutes before getting to the city centre station. Hardly express.
Even the ‘airport taxi’ rank directly outside the airport – consider whether using an app to request a ride is actually far cheaper. It’s worth doing a little homework: Check train/bus operator websites online in advance, as online fares are often cheaper than on-board or at-station prices. Sometimes two travelling together will get you discounted tickets too and look out for off-peak service deals, as well as booking options as early in advance as possible as some operators give bigger discounts the more in advance you book, like 30 or even up to 90 days.
Be Real: You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything
If you ever went on a university trip abroad, usually themed around one or two particular activities, you’ll know exactly how difficult it is to slot that into your schedule of drinking and socialising. These trips involve to-the-minute planning and the same should go for any trip you undertake – cram as much in as you can, but be real about it and be honest with yourself about what you can or can’t achieve.
If you’re wanting to experience a destination’s nightlife, don’t be under any illusion that you’ll be bright, chipper and fresh for a fancy breakfast early the next morning. If you’re exploring a city’s coffee scene, understand that you probably can’t visit 10 cafes in one day, chugging espresso-based drinks ’til 10pm. If you’re going hiking out of town don’t try and schedule in a trip to the theatre that evening or if you’re doing a boat tour the next morning a heavy dinner and a wild night beforehand probably isn’t the best to ensure your sea legs stand up. Being realistic with your time and expectations will reduce the stress of running around a city, we suggest a priority list of things you want to see or do, and if you miss ‘em, bump them up to the top of the list for the next time you visit – a perfect excuse for a return tip, no?
Dropping Pins: Map It Out
One of the best ways we’ve found to understand a city is mapping out where you want to go, what you want to see and do and where you’re eating and staying. We create a personalised Google Map for every trip we take, which we then add to/revise/update before and after every subsequent trip. Particularly pinpointing your accommodation is important because it demonstrates where every other pin is in context to where you’re based. Even before you touch down it gives you some kind of knowledge of the lay of the land and how the city is structured, plus the more restaurants you appoint on the map the clearer it usually becomes the area you will likely find yourself in most because of the concentration.
How Do We Find Restaurants?
The question we probably get asked most about travel, and there’s several answers and endless combinations. A bit old school, but travel guides can often be our first port of call, however we by-no-means rely on them. Particularly journalists and writers who we trust and have provided a great steer in the past (Nicola Brady, Pól O’Conghaile, Nadia El Ferdaoussi, Corinna Hardgrave, Farida Zeynalova, Simon Calder, Lucy White all instantly come to mind) we’ll seek out their work and see if they’ve covered an upcoming destination. In the past this has delivered us some tried-and-tested recommendations as a bit of a blueprint. Even though newspapers more often than not have a travel section in their weekend offering, we find newspaper travel features to go one of two ways: very, very broad overviews of a destination (“what to see and do in…”); or very, very narrow features on a particular draw or niche aspect of a destination (i.e. surfing trips, snowboarding, budget family travel). Nothing wrong with either approach, usually we find the former to be a fine basis but generally doesn’t tend to cover much more beyond the main sights and one or two suggested spots to eat, drink and stay. Great for a vague steer but usually not specific enough - for us - to use as an itinerary.
Then, we’ll continue racking up the research and tap into the likes of more up-to-date or niche guides and articles from the likes of Wallpaper*, Lonely Planet, Monocle, food magazines with a travel section (Olive, BBC Good Food etc., websites like The Culture Trip or TimeOut, and also websites/newsletters like Midnight Trains). Then we delve into some of the best blogs from that particular area and read their recommendations, giving us a good ear-to-the-ground indication of what is hot at the moment. Often you’ll find that several guides or features will recommend the same place, which is usually a definitive thumbs up. A combination of everything above and you’ll be well equipped to explore, plus one recommendation might even lead you to stumbling onto a little gem you might have never come across on your own.
Note: depending on how old guides are you’ll need to cross-reference the suggestions, particularly of restaurants, bars, cafes and clubs, with a quick Google to check their opening times and whether they are still in existence. There’s no need to be disappointed by having somewhere high on your list and you arrive to its door to find they don’t open the days you’re in town, they’re on holiday or just plain not in business anymore. Do yourself a favour with a quick bit of research beforehand. From the perspective of the writers of such guides, it can be very difficult to keep up with the movers and shakers from everywhere.
On social media, we’re lucky we have an active audience of like-minded gastro tourists so usually we’ll throw out a question box if anyone has been to a destination and will get lots of responses back, though more often than not people just use this to say “haven’t been but PLEASE share the responses/your guide”. Speaking of social media, we’ll definitely trawl through Instagram trying to find local highlights as well as throwing an eye over food/travel guides on TikTok.
How To Find Similar “Vibe” Restaurants
What we’ve begun to do in recent years is actually secretly spy on restaurants’ Instagram accounts. Hear us out: if you’ve found a restaurant that’s right up your street, fits your vibe and you want to fill your boots with it, (and already have a booking or maybe missed out on one) look at who THEY are following on Instagram. More often than not they’ll be following some of their own favourite restaurants, bars, cafes and chefs in that same destination. Now, sometimes this doesn’t work as they may be too cool for school and follow no one as an act of social media defiance, but usually you’ll find lots of gems, particularly newly-opened spots so fresh that guides and writers haven’t quite included yet. One up on the competition and a direct ear to the ground.
Avoid Tourist Traps
If at the end of the day you’ve done all this fantastic research, don’t ruin it by walking into a restaurant after being coaxed by a chatty Maitre D’ over-selling a laminated menu of glossy pictured dishes featuring everything from pizza to vindaloo. Rule of thumb: if they’re coaxing you in, run a mile! No place worth its salt is begging for customers. Every city has these tourist traps, and while there might sometimes be a hidden gem or two nestled away (e.g. Temple Bar in Dublin), these areas will bring little to your authentic experience whilst the savvy travellers swim amongst the locals experiencing amazing and authentic cuisine. It’s been said time and time again in terms of gastro-tourism but “go where the locals go” is great advice. Easier said than done, but seek out neighbourhood joints and use your senses to ascertain whether or not locals are appointing places because this is usually a good sign.
Two exceptions: families with young children for sheer, low stress ease, and for especially fussy eaters who don’t have exotic palettes or steel-coated stomachs. If you want dinner to be simple and stress-free or you want to dine on what you know you like, we’ll turn a reluctant blind eye… Also, sometimes the photos are handy where your mother tongue is very different from theirs.
Bothering Bloggers
Something that happens us all the time is we get cold queried in our DMs by people requesting restaurant recommendations or destination guides. To be honest, this is something that would never cross our own minds to cold DM a food/travel writer or on the ground expert in the destination we’re planning a trip to and expect them to send back a tailored itinerary. It’s just not something we do ourselves, so we’re not going to recommend it here but it happens a lot. Look, social media is our shop window, and potential ‘customers’ dropping by to check our wares are welcome but so often these are people who haven’t bothered to follow and bark requests at us without so much as a please or thank you. So whilst we honour more requests than not with our best customer service charm and a list of recommendations or our published content (or failing that taking the time to point to other content that might suit) it’s not something we particularly enjoy doing or encourage, and we’d imagine most other writers/bloggers are similar. Take the time to have a look around first…
Take a Food Tour
Gastro-tourism is so much more than just eating out, though of course that’s a key part. It’s all about getting to know the intricacies of a destination and its cuisine, and when you arrive it can be a bit overwhelming and daunting understanding how and where to start. One of the things we tend to do when we arrive in a new city is take the city sightseeing tour bus (different operators in different cities) which offers you a snappy overview of the city, in fact it’s usually the first things we do. Once you know the ropes of a city, you can begin to zone in on specifics. Similarly, book in on a food walking tour early on your trip. An expert local will take you around in small groups (sometimes even privately!) and offer you an understanding of the city’s food with lots of tastings and insights. This is particularly good if you’re short on time, as you’ll tick off so many places in 2-4 hours, so it’s an economical use of your time. However, a caveat: do your research on the different tour operators, as not all are created equal. We love Devour Tours (and have nothing to gain monetarily by recommending them) but loads of others are great too: Belfast Food Tours and Galway Food Tours are of note, especially.
Combat the Come-Down
The rest and relaxation of a fabulous few days away can often lead to anxiety and dread when the trip teeters to its end. Normal life’s resumption is impending and fairly inescapable, so instead of fighting it try to make your return home as seamless as possible. No one likes returning to a messy house or apartment with a fridge full of festering stuff far past its best and a loaf of bread now growing bacterial colonies in various shades, styles and levels of hairiness. So combat it by investing in your post-trip self pre-trip. Head to the shop the morning you leave and buy the freshest milk you can find, some eggs, butter, whatever your version of the essentials are, and - depending on how long you’ll be away for - a loaf of bread. But if you’re going for more than a couple of days, why not bring some bread home from a bakery of wherever you’ve been? We’ve been known to stow focaccia in our hand luggage or walk through airports armed with baguettes. If caught out with nothing else in stock , you’ll always have the makings of a meal with eggs, milk, bread and butter. Maybe add Tayto to the shopping list, too. Just in case.
If you’re taking self care really seriously, have a couple of beers or a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge in anticipation of your arrival (who says the trip ends when you touch down and walk back in the door?) and also take some time pre-trip to give your space a spruce. Change your sheets, empty all the bins, set up a nice new diffuser, have your pyjamas clean, fresh and soft. Yes, it’s a little bit of effort and might be annoying whilst you pack your bag and ensure you’ve got the essentials, but you’ll thank yourself when you arrive home once again. If sad to be home after an exceptional sojourn, at least you can have that walk-into-a-hotel-room feeling when you get home, rather than a wave of dread.
The way we travel hasn’t changed that much over time, it’s just been streamlined through experience. It forms part of our job, so we take it very seriously, but pick ‘n’ choose and pull out different facets of the above tips and advice to inform your own approach going forward.