Sell a food-themed cruise to clients with a taste for fine dining, says Russell Higham
For Francophiles – The Rhône
Avalon Waterways offers 18 culinary themed cruises in France, Hungary, Austria and Germany. Its 15-day river cruise on board Avalon Poetry II showcases the cuisine of France through Burgundy and Provence along the Rhône and the Seine rivers, discovering everything from haute cuisine to family recipes.
Highlights include cheese tasting, pastry demonstrations, a unique dinner with a menu created in the tradition of famous chef Paul Bocuse and the services of a master of wine while aboard.
The itinerary along the Rhône includes a visit to the city of Tournon and its vineyards, as well as a guided walk through Lyon, France’s gastronomic capital.
Book it: A Culinary Experience In Grand France costs from £5,328 per person, based on an April 1, 2025, departure, with all-inclusive dining.
avalonwaterways.co.uk
For celebrity chef followers – The Mediterranean
Princess Cruises’ 3,660-passenger Sky Princess will be transformed this November into a floating version of the BBC’s Good Food Show. Cookery author, presenter and winner of Celebrity MasterChef, Lisa Faulkner, will join fellow chef, presenter and husband John Torode, as well as Gennaro Contaldo (known as the man who taught Jamie Oliver about Italian cuisine) for this 14-night gastronomic voyage.
The luxury Mediterranean cruise will include a range of onboard cookery demonstrations by celebrity chefs, tutored tastings, cocktail classes, hands-on workshops and live Q&A sessions. On the gourmet itinerary, the ship will also be calling at a host of foodie destinations where guests can experience even more culinary delights, from the pintxos bars of Bilbao to pastel de nata tastings in Lisbon.
Book it: The Good Food Show at Sea sailing costs from £1,099 per person. Departs from Southampton on November 2, calling at Lisbon, Cadiz (for Seville), Gibraltar, Cartagena, Barcelona, Malaga and Bilbao.
princess.com
For cheese lovers – the Rhine and Switzerland
This eight-day river cruise from Riviera Travel starts in Switzerland, where passengers will get to try one of the regional dishes – älplermagronen, the Swiss alpine version of macaroni cheese – at a revolving mountain-top restaurant.
After visiting the Black Forest for a slice or three of its eponymous gateau, the cruise continues to the ancient city of Strasbourg for kugelhopf (Alsatian yeasted cake) and Münster cheese.
The ship will then moor in pretty Rüdesheim, with its crooked houses surrounded by wooded hills and terraced vineyards, which have been producing the riesling sold in the local shops and taverns for centuries.
The route takes passengers through the dramatic Rhine Gorge to medieval Koblenz, before a final stop in historic Cologne and a visit to its Schokoladenmuseum, where they can learn about the 5,000-year history of cocoa.
Book it: An eight-day Gastronomy of Switzerland and the Rhine cruise, starting in Basel, costs from £2,299 per person, departing from May to October 2025. Ports of call also include Lucerne and Breisach.
rivieratravel.co.uk
4 of the best… food-themed shore excursions
1. Passengers on small-ship line Windstar Cruises can choose from nearly 150 food-focused shore excursions, from exclusive wine tastings at local wineries to private dinners in family homes. Experiences also include cooking classes in Greece, foraging workshops in Malta and cheese farm tours in the Netherlands.
windstarcruises.com
2. Oceania Cruises’ Culinary Discovery Tours delve deeper into local cuisine with the help of those who know it best, from local fruit and veg or fish markets to family-run cooking schools. Learn to make green fig and salt fish in Saint Lucia, perfect the art of filleting fish in Estonia or watch one of France’s leading female chefs at work in Aix-en-Provence.
oceaniacruises.com
3. SeaDream Yacht Club offers a number of culinary excursions from its ultra-luxury craft, including a Moroccan tagine cookery class, Slovenian cooking class with fresh herbs, Martinique heritage and cooking class plus a private Greek cookery lesson. Guests can also accompany the chef to the local market to buy fresh fish and other produce.
seadream.co.uk
4. Passengers on Celebrity Cruises’ 12-night Best of Japan cruise aboard Celebrity Millennium can relish Japan’s centuries-old traditions. On an excursion to Aomori, they will get the chance to gather around an irori – a traditional sunken charcol-fuelled hearth – and enjoy a delicious lunch of sashimi and fresh vegetables.
celebritycruises.com
