We at Zephyr Adventures are entering our 18th season of running active vacations around the world and these years have been full of change. We started as the world’s first inline skating tour company; expanded to multisport tours that include skating; branched off into other activities as we lived through the decline of Rollerblading; and then added active wine and subsequently beer and food tours.
Our focus on running tours in wine areas took shape around 2006 and last year 43% of our travelers participated in a tour that focused on wine, beer, or the local culinary scene. Each of these tours also included physical activity such as biking, hiking, horseback riding, or simply walks through vineyards.
In 2014 we are expanding our food, wine, and beer vacations by, for the first time in our history, adding tours that do not include physical activity. Don’t get us wrong – we at Zephyr still love to be active on vacation. But we also recognize the focus of a vacation need not be a workout and that visiting local wineries, trying the newest creations of brewmasters, or engaging in cooking classes can be the main event.
So for 2014, we are adding four new “Taste Vacations” – tours focused on beer, wine, and food that do not have a physical component:
- A Beer Tour in Belgium, considered the number one beer tourism destination in the world
- A Wine Tour in Chile & Argentina where we visit wineries in some of the most beautiful high-altitude wine regions in the world, crossing the Andes by private coach to do it
- A Food Tour in Peru, the source of the hottest food trends coming out of Latin America and host to the Mistura, the #1 food festival on the continent
- A Wine & Food Tour in Spain, visiting the Rioja wine region – an undiscovered gem – and the Basque region around San Sebastián, which reputedly has more chefs per capita than anywhere else in the world
We at Zephyr Adventures have become immersed in beer, wine, and food over the last years. We run five conferences per year focused on these lifestyle niches, put on the annual Great American Wine Festival, and organize the annual Wine Tourism Day for North America. Heck, I personally even manage a multi-contributor food and drink blog where I live (Eat Drink Boulder) and run the largest wine-tasting group in Boulder.
Because of these events, we have connections all over the culinary and drinks world. And it is these connections that allow us to create fantastic wine, beer, and food tours that allow you to have unique experiences, meet key insiders, and taste the best of the best – all while traveling within the care of a tour operator in its 18th season of travel. Consider these fun things you can do on our tours: cooking classes, cooking demonstrations, winery or brewery tours, olive oil tours, cheese farm tours, wine or beer pairing dinners, vineyard walks, meetings with chefs or winemakers, barrel tastings, farmers market visits, festivals, and much more!
All our tours are fixed-date group tours, which we love and think you will too. Simply check out our long list of vacations, join a tour, and experience a great region of the world with others who share the same interests as you.
Remember you do not need to be an expert to enjoy our food, wine, and beer Taste Vacations. You just need to enjoy the subject, be open to trying new things, and eager to learn. And if you wish to be active on vacation, we still have plenty of those tours as well!