Will travel for food

For most people, the process of planning a vacay goes the same way: decide where to go, plot out an itinerary, book hotels, then try to snag restaurant reservations along the way. But for a growing number of food-obsessed travelers in our community, the meal is the motivation. Call it a foodcation. These people reverse engineered their vacations and planned a whole trip around a single reservation from our Travelers’ Choice restaurant list. After all, one of the easiest ways to get to know a place is through its food—especially when you’re eating at a restaurant winner, an honor awarded by millions of real travelers.

We caught up with our traveler community to find out about the one restaurant that inspired an absolutely unforgettable vacation.

During the pandemic, Boston-based social media manager Greg Lin-Murphy and his wife, Karina, decided to up their cooking game and bought a pair of cookbooks dedicated to their respective cultural backgrounds—a Chinese cookbook for her and The Irish Cookbook, from acclaimed chef Jp McMahon, for him.

Following McMahon’s recipes gave Lin-Murphy a whole new appreciation for the American-Irish comfort dishes he’d grown up with. “I learned that there’s so much more to Irish cuisine than Guinness stew and soda bread,” he says.

An invitation to a friend’s wedding in Bordeaux, France, was all Lin-Murphy and his wife needed to justify a detour to Galway, home to McMahon’s Michelin-starred restaurant, Aniar. “The destination had been decided—we would fly into Dublin because that’s where the planes land and go straight to Galway,” says Lin-Murphy, who found that sampling dishes like McMahon’s signature Galway Bay oyster with pickled seaweed, oyster emulsion, and sea herbs was a revelation. “It was really interesting to be able to try the aspirational things that we couldn’t quite replicate in our home kitchen.”

The meal also transformed their experience traveling around the country. They stayed at the Galmont Hotel & Spa and took a bus tour to see the sweeping vistas of the glacier-scraped Cliffs of Moher and rented bikes on the windswept Aran Island. In Dublin, they stayed at the Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin and ate at the vegan-friendly Fumbally as well as Lucky Duck, a cocktail lounge with an Indian tapas menu.

But it was eating at Aniar that truly gave them a bigger sense of just how much breadth there is, not only to Irish cuisine, but to Irish culture. “Having a meal that’s adventurous and expansive gives you a better sense of everything that the land around it has to offer and helps you pay a bit more attention to what’s around you, from the fishing communities to the sheep grazing in the pastoral countryside,” says Lin-Murphy.

As a manager at Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, Trish Barney has the enviable perk of being able to fly wherever she wants—for free. And the passion that drives her constant explorations is food. “For instance, whenever I go to Oahu, my first stop is Ani’s Bake Shop, which makes a Hawaiian sweet bread with guava ribboned through it,” she says.

One place Barney had always dreamed of going: Red’s Eats, a simple waterfront lobster shack in Wiscasset, Maine, that she had seen on the Food Network many years ago. It checks off all the boxes of what she loves—unassuming, off-the-beaten path, authentic—and serves legendary lobster rolls made with a pound of meat.

Barney and her husband flew into Chicago from Seattle and embarked on a 14-day road trip with very little on the agenda other than Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, a visit to Philadelphia to sample cheesesteaks at Pat’s and Geno’s, and—the centerpiece of the trip—a pilgrimage to Red’s. “My husband is a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants guy and I am a Wally-World-plan-every-minute traveler, so we compromised, planning a few stops like Red’s, but leaving most of it at whim,” says Barney. Did Red’s deliver?

“They give you serious chunks of lobster with absolutely no filler and either a side of mayonnaise or drawn butter to just pour over the top of it,” says Barney. “It’s no wonder there’s a line down the street—everyone knows how good it is.” The couple devoured their sweet-and-salty lobster rolls while looking out at the Sheepscot River.

The couple soaked in all the charms of Maine, from Wiscasset (“a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town”) to nearby Boothbay Harbor, where they stayed at the waterfront Linekin Bay Resort. “We loved taking in all the nature and beauty around us,” says Barney. “I definitely plan to go back.”

When a friend posted on social media that she had to cancel an upcoming hot-ticket booking to Osteria Francescana, Cheryl Overton jumped at the opportunity. “I’ve always wanted to go, but it can take a year to get a reservation,” says the New York-based strategic marketer. She invited her sister and brother, and two weeks later the siblings landed in Italy on a spontaneous, once-in-a-lifetime adventure centered around a single meal.

As they were arriving at Osteria Francescana, the superstar chef-owner, Massimo Bottura pulled up on a motorcycle. “We got a chance to chat with him, which kicked off an epic experience,” says Overton.

The chef changes the 12-course tasting menu daily. Overton’s favorite part of the meal: the Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano, which presents the cheese in numerous forms, including a soufflé and a foam. “The dish is famous, and I was hoping it would be on the menu,” she says. “It was molecular gastronomy but not obnoxiously so.”

Stretching over more than four hours, the family devoured dishes like Guinea Hen in Three Courses, as well as Bottura’s famously quirky dessert, Oops, I Dropped The Lemon Tart, which looks like it has crashed onto a plate. “Even the bread was amazing—books have been written about his bread!”

Overton and her family did other things besides eat, of course. They loved checking out Modena, a pedestrian-friendly town that is known for the Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari (a museum dedicated to the car company) and shops selling Emilia-Romagna’s coveted cheese, olive oil, and vinegars.

They stayed at Aethos hotel in Milan for a few days and went shopping for Italian beauty products at Farmacia Solferino, toured the Duomo, checked out the contemporary art at Fondazione Prada, dined on the market-based dishes at La Latteria, and sampled Negronis at Bar Basso. Then they headed to Lake Como for some “Clooney hunting.” In the gorgeous lake area, they stayed at a private villa and spent a day at Il Sereno, where they kicked back at the spa.

Things might have been different if she had met the Oscar-winning actor, but for Overton, the highlight was the meal at Osteria Francescana: “It was one of the best bucket-list experiences you could have in your life.”

Diana Edelman is the founder of a food tour company called Vegans, Baby, so her whole career is built around finding amazing vegan restaurants around the globe. “I travel to eat,” she says.

While Edelman was researching a dream trip to South Africa, she discovered La Colombe, a restaurant in the Winelands serving multi-course vegan tasting menus. “When it comes to the top fifty restaurants in the world, vegan menus like this are far more unique than they should be,” she says. “So I built the trip around it.”

The entrance to the restaurant alone was a showstopper, set on a mountainside along a long candle-lined path. The food was similarly dramatic. “I’ve been to a lot of amazing restaurants, but this was in a class all of its own,” says Edelman. “Every dish was truly a work of art, from sipping juice from a ceramic egg to a piece of passion fruit filled with soup.”

During her visit to the Winelands, Edelman explored the area’s charming towns and did a tasting at the vegan winery Haute Cabrière. She also spent time in Cape Town (“a magical city with a history that everyone needs to know about”). In Cape Town, she stayed at the Vineyard Hotel set on the Eastern Slope of Table Mountain and visited other vegan-friendly spots like the Kelp Shack, a private reservation-only beachside shack where the chef makes all the dishes with kelp. But her meal at La Colombe was, of course, the icing on the (vegan) cake.

A trained chef who manages social media for international food and beauty brands, Marie Chalita grew up in Mexico—and she returns whenever she has a chance. Her destination of choice: the Puerto Vallarta area. “It is one of my favorite places,” says Chalita. “It was my childhood getaway.”

So when it came time to celebrate her 50th birthday earlier this year, there was no question where Chalita would go. But for this milestone visit, she decided to make it a foodie trip and center the vacation around a restaurant she had been hearing a lot of buzz about: La Negra, located in a small town called Bucerias, just 15 minutes away from Puerto Vallarta.

“The first time I visited La Negra was a Monday,” says Chalita. “I came back every single night until Friday and tried every possible dish on their menu.”

Some of the culinary stand-outs included octopus carpaccio and shrimps stewed in a spicy adobo. “The owners designed their menu around the ingredients and flavors they know and love, using pure passion and instinct to reinvent simple dishes like tacos and ceviche in a sophisticated and tasteful way,” says Chalita, who was also wild for the Pata Salada, a basil-based cocktail with raicilla.

Chalita loved getting to know tiny, uncrowded Bucerias (“it maintains the cuteness of a Mexican pueblito with an authentic cultural vibe”) and going on a whale-watching tour with Whale Watchers Vallarta, which is run by oceanographers who are dedicated to protecting their habitat. Another highlight: visiting the Mercado de la Cruz, a Sunday market on the outskirts of Bucerias with local artisans offering handmade crafts and food vendors from all over the world. “They sell Spanish paella, Chilean delicacies, traditional Argentinian empanadas, and even Lebanese sweets,” says Chalita, who is of Lebanese descent.

“It was the most delicious birthday ever,” says Chalita.

After seeing a picture of Michelle and Barack Obama dining at Havana’s La Guarida restaurant, writer Jenn Barthole was inspired to plan a trip there herself. “It really caught my eye—the backdrop was so extravagant and historical… it looked like it was trapped in time,” she says.

Next thing you know, Barthole was on a flight to Cuba with a group of seven friends who share her enthusiasm for a good food adventure. “I sent them information about the restaurant and within a week we had booked our flights and snagged a dinner reservation that we planned the rest of our trip around,” says Barthole.

Hidden away in a grand building on a quiet street, La Guarida was worth the journey. “You truly feel like you’re in a time capsule,” says Barthole. “Everywhere you look, there are eye-catching details—beautiful floor tiles, beveled edges, and ornate chandeliers.”

The group started the evening with craft cocktails on the rooftop deck, then dined on dishes like chicken asado with a honey and lemon sauce and melon gazpacho. “It was simple, authentic, and absolutely delicious—and it definitely lived up to the hype,” she says.

During their weeklong trip, the group stayed in a spacious Airbnb overlooking El Malecon (“a popular waterfront street that seems to go on forever,” says Barthole), took a ride in classic cars with the company Havana Vintage Car Tours, and visited restaurants and nightlife attractions like El Cocinero (“a multi-story restaurant with rooftop views and delicious tuna tartare, lamb chops, and gazpacho”), Fabrica de Arte (“a modern art gallery meets nightclub”), and 1830 (“an open-air salsa club where chances are a local will grab your hand and teach you some moves”).

“The vibrant culture was so exciting to be a part of,” says Barthole. “Between the classic cars, colorful buildings, soulful music, and exciting nightlife, it was a never-ending dopamine rush.”