Gourmand Breaks Wine, Food & Cultural Tours

Experiencia fantástica: We enjoyed an incredible 3 week vacation in France, Portugal and Spain all planned with Gourmand Breaks. Ursula and Caterina, who own this travel agency, planned an amazing experience for us in every city and village that we had the pleasure to visit. Their knowledge of the incredible historical sites, delicious foods and wines and best hotels in every area we travelled to is exceptional. Every hotel they chose was perfectly located, every meal scrumptious and every transfer from city to city was perfectly planned. Both Ursula and Caterina were available to us throughout our trip and were always in touch checking on us. Their active support throughout our trip was very important and appreciated throughout our time overseas. We highly, highly recommend traveling with Gourmand Breaks. Their attention to every detail and ongoing follow up during our trip was invaluable. We felt absolutely supported and knew that Ursula and Caterina were supporting our travel experience every step of the way. We will absolutely choose to travel with Gourmand Breaks when we visit Europe again. Thank you so much Ursula and Caterina for an amazing travel experience We wish you both ongoing success with your incredible travel agency.

Experiencia fantástica: Gourmand Breaks were fantastic to deal with, and as a consequence, our Europe trip ran like clockwork. Ursula and Caterina's depth of knowledge of key locations, as well as their deep connections with guides, drivers, restaurants and activity operators, meant that our experience felt special throughout our time with them. It was clear that Ursula and Caterina were keeping an eye on the logistics throughout our journey, so if we needed to make any adjustments along the way, we were easily able to converse and make those arrangements. As a smaller company, Gourmand Breaks are able to provide a genuine personal service.

Experiencia fantástica: My wife and I had a phenomenal experience on our recent customized wine tour of northern Spain and Portugal. Ursula and Caterina planned, organized and created an amazing itinerary that exceeded our expectations in every way. All of the touring and travel arrangements were flawless. The guides and drivers were all friendly and knowledgeable, the wines and meals were outstanding. We learned an enournous amount about both countries, their wine and their food. We hope to schedule our next trip to Burgundy with them in the future.

Experiencia fantástica: We highly recommend Gourmand Breaks! They developed a personalized itinerary for us and they do all the work…hotels, restaurants, tour guides, winery visits, and drivers were all arranged ahead of time and they were all top notch. They communicated with us each day to make sure everything was going smoothly and we were able to just enjoy the trip. It was a great mix of culture, wine, food and local culture…a trip we will always remember!

Experiencia fantástica: My son and I went on a 10 day wine tour starting in Porto following the Douro through Portugal and Spain to Rioja then via San Sebastian to Bordeaux organized by Ursula and Caterina at Gourmand Travel. They arranged transport, knowledgeable local tour guides, winery visits, hotels etc meeting and exceeding our every need, making this an exceptional travel experience for any lover of wine, fine food and luxury hotels. It was also great fun with the friendly drivers and guides.

Experiencia fantástica: I am a return client of Gourmand Breaks, recently returning from Spain in September 2023. The trip was last minute and Ursula and Caterina collaborated with me to make sure that I got the most from my experience and then some! The wineries and lunches were incredible and a Jamon tasting was one of the highlights. The drivers are professional and punctual and the accommodations are in excellent locations. Ursula and Caterina are available while in Europe and they even checked in to make sure everything was going smoothly. If you are looking for an amazing vacation that is hassle free, I highly recommend Gourmand Breaks and I’m looking forward to planning my next excursion with them.

Experiencia fantástica: Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic! We just returned from an incredible private (2 couples) 12 day wine and foodie tour from Porto to Barcelona and it was really worth the 2 year delay from the start of planning to the actual trip. Ursula was very, very helpful and made it easy to add Salamanca, Bilbao and San Sebastian to the itinerary. We traveled from Porto to the Douro River Valley (Pinhao), on to Salamanca, Ribera del Duero region (Penafiel), San Sebastian and Bilbao, La Rioja region (Laguardia), Priorat and finally to Barcelona. At every step of the trip we had recommendations for places to eat, activities to enjoy and history of each area. Ursula was always available when we had a question and was so flexible when we needed to make an unexpected change. Our guides were fantastic, our drivers were excellent and all had well maintained, comfortable minivans— in short, Ursula thought of everything. Most important, the wineries we went to were all interesting—some we liked more than others but each had something special to see and taste. Our tour in Priorat was outstanding and was not to be forgotten. The hotels were usually the best available in each location, the meals and wine pairings were superb and we felt totally pampered. We were so satisfied with our trip that we have recommended Ursula and Gourmand Breaks to multiple people in the past few weeks. We would travel again with Gourmand Breaks without question!

Experiencia fantástica: If you want a holiday where all you have to worry about is where to eat, then Gourmand Breaks is for you! Ursula and the team were great in planning our trip and even when in Europe would reach out to make sure everything is running smoothly. When train drivers were on strike in France, Gourmand Breaks had already organised another train ride, that had limited seats, before we had even found out about the strike! It was our honeymoon and everything was flexible and customisable, our focus was on wineries and the wineries selected were exactly what we were after. The local tour guides that were used were amazing, the one-on-one tours were intimate and it felt like you got to experience something else that you would not get on a group tour. Recommendations, and even help booking exclusive restaurants are part of the service, one of the highlights was the cooking class in Florence and the other meal and restaurant recommendations could not be faulted. We have so many great memories from our time in Europe, and if we were to ever go back we would definitely use them again. Highly recommended! Thanks Ursula and the team at Gourmand Breaks.

Experiencia fantástica: We became aware of Gourmand Breaks through friends of ours who had used them previously and were very happy with them. We got in touch with Gourmand Breaks before the Pandemic and together we planned a lovely trip in France and Spain which was unfortunately cancelled due to the Pandemic. Fast forward 2023 we planned our trip to Italy, France and Spain “at the last minute” and enlisted Gourmand Breaks for help with places to visit and the transport to get there. We don’t drive in Europe so needed good private transfers and local transport to scenic places and restaurants. We don’t like bus tours and the constraints they bring. The email communication with Gourmand Breaks was fantastic, and there was much backward and forward suggestions and alterations with our itinerary with them. We had definite ideas of our own but were open to suggestions for Spain in particular. It is useful to note that we prefer long stays of about 2 weeks in each location and use that as a base to explore. Which is where Gourmand Breaks comes to the fore. They suggest and organise interesting places and definitely not the tourist places which we prefer to avoid. We started in Bordeaux using Sarlat as our base for 2 weeks and saw some beautiful places which we would not have seen without a local English speaking guide / chauffeur. After Sarlat we were driven to Girona, a lovely town, but make sure to get accommodation in the old town only. From Girona we were taken to lovely villages like Besalu, the Costa Brava and a guided tour of Girona itself. Of course we chose plenty of free time to explore our base towns on foot. In conclusion we can thoroughly recommend Gourmand Breaks for a great personalised itinerary with quality vehicles and personable English speaking drivers. Suggestions of restaurants, places to visit, any assistance during our stay were invaluable. GB is a small independent company with flexiblity and personalised service. You’re always in communication with the same person and that’s so helpful particularly when we had questions before and during the trip. So in rounding it up, I’d have no hesitation in booking a highly personal itinerary of Spain and France with Gourmand Breaks.

Experiencia fantástica: I can only echo the comments from the previous reviewer. We started our planning toward a trip meant for 2020. One month after the other, we thought that we could just back things up a bit, but it was not to be. Jamaica was my main contact, and she kept me informed on the situation in Spain and Portugal. Finally, we were able to travel in May of 2022. It is the very best trip we have ever had, and that is saying a lot, as we have been traveling the US and Europe for nearly 30 years. We started in Barcelona, one of our favorite cities (hoping to get back sometime so that we can stop by the office and say hello in person), and traveled through the Priorat region, staying at exquisite hotels and visiting several of the wineries. The visit to Clos Mogador and the jeep tour of the vineyards with Josep was especially memorable for the personalized experience of smelling the wild herbs and flowers in and around the vineyards and understanding their impact on wine flavor. None of our tours were the typical 'tourist' experiences, rather, they were very highly personalized and were great learning experiences. Next was La Rioja, and our stay at Hospederia de Los Parajes in the medieval town of Laguardia. This is where we first experienced THE POWER OF URSULA. Let me explain. Gourmand Breaks knows your hosts personally. There is incredible power in these connections. I texted Ursula about a very small issue at the hotel, and 10 minutes later I had a return text that she had spoken with the hotel owner and straightened things out. In the Rioja region, we visited Finca Valpiedra, where we enjoyed a lovely and very private picnic lunch in the vineyard after our tour, and had our first experience with the wine cellars and tunnels common to this region when we were hosted by Elena at Casa Primicia. In Portugal, our chauffer and guide for the most part was Miguel. Our experience with him was first class all the way. Everyone we met in Portugal was so incredibly friendly, gracious, and hospitable. There were some last minute changes in our itinerary due to one or two of our original locations not meeting Ursula's high standards. Our meal and tasting at Quinta Nova was outstanding - when we started asking about some of the wines during the meal, the servers began bringing more bottles for us to taste. (No, this was not usual - the other diners were watching us and later commented about our special treatment. Just call it the POWER OF URSULA.) One of our last visits was at Quinta de Ventozelo. This was a last minute substitution and a definite upgrade. However, there seemed to be a bit of confusion (probably due to the last minute) on some of the arrangements for the tour and the meal. When our lunch server finally understood that we were 'with' Gourmand Breaks, his comment Oh, you are with URSULA, as if we were royalty. Finally, we were returning to the US while covid testing was still required. This was the most stressful part of the entire trip - what if you get stuck in Europe for several days beyond your plans? However, Ursula and Jamaica explained everything very clearly and made all the arrangements. We had (negative) test results within 20 minutes, and at a very reasonable cost. Let me finish by saying that this was a luxury tour in every way, we did not have an unlimited budget. Jamaica worked with us from the beginning to understand what we were looking for, and to help make it work. I would recommend Gourmand Breaks to anyone for this type of trip, and am trying to decide if we will visit France or Italy next!