Connect & Eat With Locals Around the World
If you’re like me, you’re always searching out ways to connect more authentically with an area, when you travel. I don’t relish the types of vacations where I hole up in a fancy hotel on a strip next to other fancy hotels, and eat at touristy, low-quality, over-priced restaurants while checking off a ‘top 10 ‘ must-see sights list. Talking to and dining with locals is one of the absolute best way to connect with a culture, while also making new friends!
With so many more people online these days, we have a lot of options to connect directly with locals and to save money on things like transportation, ride-sharing, and accommodation.
The same is now true for finding unique dining experiences, shared with locals in locations all over the world.
Like the idea of eating Spanish tapas on a secret rooftop in Barcelona or Madrid?
Reveling in the exotic spices of a Moroccan feast of ‘forgotten dishes’ in gardens overlooking the Royal Palace in Marrakesh?
Head over to one of the below websites to check out the selection in whatever city or region you’re visiting this summer. The options will make your mouth water.
EatWith
Eatwith seems to have very high standards as far as the hosts and chefs they work with. Applicants are vetted and not only required to send photos of their food and their home but to interview and to provide a demo meal in order to be accepted as hosts. They also have a cool ‘EatWith Master Chef Exclusive’ option where you can book experiences with hot new up-and-coming Master Chefs. Their website is user-friendly, they get consistently high ratings from customers, and they offer dining-with-locals experiences in a lot of different locations around the world.
BonAppetour
From a vegan pasta class in Rome to a food tour of Singapore’s poshest food stalls or a Pad Thai workshop in Bangkok, BonAppetour offers some cool led-by-locals food and drink experiences. Though they don’t have the reach that some of the other sites do as far as the number of cities or countries, they are worth checking out if you are in a major city.
Withlocals
Unlike the above sites, Eat at a Local’s (Portugal) Launched by Portuguese food and hospitality professional and Lisbon local Joana Gloria, Eat at a Local’s is a Portugal-focused business that focuses on connecting travelers with passionate locals who love to share their cities and food traditions with others. Eat at Local´s emerged from Joana’s life experiences and her love for hosting people from around the world. Her platform aims to ‘connect hosts and guests from different cultures at the same table, in search of a real and unique experience centered around authentic Portuguese cuisine.’ You will find a wealth of different options on Traveling Spoon-from learning how to make authentic Bolognese pasta with Roberta and Aurelia in Modena to making chvishtari (Georgian cornbread with cheese) and other delish Georgian specialties with Tamari in Tbilisi. Not long ago, Airbnb started offering ‘experiences’ in order to compete with (or put out of business) the other companies that have cropped up over the last 10 years with sites and services connecting travelers with locals for food, drink, or other cultural experiences in their home regions. Though I’m a fan of supporting the companies who need our support to stay in business, I can’t ignore Airbnb as, due to the sheer mass of hosts that are already on their site, can offer a huge variety of experiences all over the world. When you arrive on Airbnb‘s home page simply go to ‘Experiences’ and check out what they have to offer. Locals offer experiences (much like the other sites I’ve listed below) from things like vineyard and winery tours, dinners, or meals in their homes or tours of their city with a unique twist
With Eat at a Local’s experiences, guests are given the chance to both eat with locals and learn how to cook local dishes, providing them with the best kind of souvenir: real-life experience and connection.Traveling Spoon
Airbnb Experiences
This is some great information with sites I had not previously known about – this is a must keep and also worth trying out for my next holiday. I would like to see what my city offers for tourists coming over here.
Great post! Sometimes I really want to find a good place to eat when I travel, and I always reach out for Lonely Planet :/ Good to know about this websites, I’ll surely use them next time I’ll do a foodie-tour around a new city 🙂
Okay, those are such amazing recommendations! I’ve bumped into Vizeat and I do find this as an amazing and extraordinary opportunity to enjoy more time with locals and be able to feel connected to real culture of a country!
http://tomboychronicle.com/
I also love eating at home or from locals coz it is more enjoyable, tasty, and I could eat more without worrying how much would I spend. I’m a big eater! Plus it is more fun to share with locals.
ahhahah I agree! I love food! And I would prefer to spend my budget, putting money in local’s pockets than big restaurants who might not need the $ as much! Plus a lot of restaurants cater to tourists, even if they are small, in big cities, because they know a lot of tourists visit and it’s cheaper to provide lower quality food and the type of food a tourist might recognize. I want to go straight to someone’s house and eat what THEY would eat for dinner! 🙂
thank you Liana! Let me know if you try one of the other sites! I’m planning on using bookalokal.com in Southern Spain this summer!
glad to hear Rea! Let me know how your experiences are, and if you come across a super good host or meal.. do share the details! 🙂
Sheri-thanks! What city are you in?
I agree, these are very cool ways to eat in a city,but also a cool way to make some extra income and play the ultimate hostess in your own city, if you like entertaining (which I do! I hope to be able to do this when I go back to California)
We completely love the idea of travelling and exploring like locals and your post has some great tips. We had never heard of these sites before we would definitely check them out.
Very Informative blog on local food. Thanks ! A great way to connect with locals and a reason to travel ! Another passionate food travel blogger is Marc Wiens at migrationology.com
thanks! hope you get to try out some of these hosts-I know I’m looking forward to trying them in Spain and Morocco 🙂
Thanks for sharing this! I will definitely save this and use it in the future! I didn’t know there were websites for that!
A place is deeply connected with its history and culture through its local cuisinge This post is a valuable resource for looking out for a authentic culinary experience while travelling.
Thanks for sharing the tips. I did EatWith when I was in Barcelona and had a wonderful time. I’m actually using it again in Paris this summer. But I didn’t know about the other companies!
Stella-cool! let me know how your experience is in Paris! I’m such a foodie, I wish I could do these things more often, but have to make the $ to spend it! 🙂
Linda-glad you liked it! Where are you traveling this summer?
What a cool idea! This sounds right up my alley – I LOVE trying new and authentic food everywhere I visit. I had no idea this was even a thing. I’ll have to check it out soon!
How interesting! I knew some of the apps and sites you mention, but not all of them, and as a travelling foodie, this is a really informative post for me, thanks so much for sharing! Karen
This is such an interesting concept. A great way to meet new people and get to experience some good times with the locals
thanks Karen! glad you liked it. I love any experience that gives me another unique way to experience a place, and these days there are more and more of these opportunities popping up every day!
Danielle- great 🙂 let me know if you try one of these and how your experience is! I’m looking forward to noshing on some good stuff this summer in Spain….:)
We’re really similar style travelers – I also like the authentic experiences over touristy (and usually overpriced ones). I’ve yet to try one of these companies, but I’d be keen to give EatWith and WithLocals a go sometime soon 🙂
Hey! I didn’t even know apps like this existed. Totally changing my game! Wahoo! Thanks for sharing.
I recently wrote that it is okay for us to be a tourist at times. But more often than not, I prefer going around on my own and enjoy everything. And yeah,it is awesome to listen to the local’s perspectives on their own surrounding. And yes, eating local food is one of the ways of knowing a place. 🙂
Hi Tae- thanks! 🙂 I hope you get to do so. Where are you traveling this summer?
Lauren- you’re most welcome! I get that feeling too, when I stumble across new and awesome ways to connect with locals or have new experiences. Happy travels!
Jona-agreed! And it doesn’t hurt to make some new friends and eat well for less than a restaurant 🙂 Where are you traveling this summer?
Ooh I love finding out about these kind of websites! So far I’ve only ever done food tours and cooking classes but these would be an interesting twist! I’ll have to check some out when I’m in Madrid 🙂
This is so cool! I’ve never heard of these websites and of this trend before. It will surely change the whole experience of the trip on a higher level. Thanks Brooke!
Hey Brooke thanks for the update ! I’m Antoine the CEO of Mamaz. Here more informations about Mamaz Social Food, we took back on Voulez Vous Diner before they close the website and decided to re-brand it in order to be more international in the name. Today we have hosts in more than 70 countries with more than 2000 experiences bookable ! We (the 3 founders) have vetted 100% of our hosts by having a meal with them, which allows us to know all of them personally, so if you want infos about any of them HMU ! Feel free to include a discount code of 10% for your readers : DIFKINDOFTRAVEL
Hi Antoine thank you for the comment and information! 🙂 That is great