Forget Wine Tasting. The Hottest New Travel Trend Is All About Cheese
People used to plan entire trips around wine. They’d follow vineyard trails, sit through tastings, and talk about notes and aromas. Lately, though, a different kind of food is drawing travelers in. Cheese has become the stop people look forward to, not just as something to eat, but as a way into the culture of a place.
What’s changing is the way travelers think about food experiences. Instead of focusing only on fine dining or luxury, they’re looking at how everyday traditions shape what ends up on the table. Cheese offers that in a direct way—it shows how people live, farm, and share their history through something familiar and approachable.
France Turns Cheese into a Destination
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Many visitors arrive in France with Paris in mind, eager to stand beneath the Eiffel Tower or stroll along the Seine. Yet the country has taken cheese beyond market stalls and farm visits by turning it into a central attraction for visitors.
Paris hosts tasting tours in Montmartre, where cheese and drinks are combined for tourists who prefer a mixture of both. Beyond the capital, Routes de Fromage lead through regions famous for Comté, Camembert, Roquefort, and goat cheeses such as Chabichou du Poitou.
Further down the line, Maison du Comté, located in Poligny, demonstrates the process behind a wheel requiring 400 liters of milk and pastures with thirty plant species. Each stop reinforces how cheese tourism complements France’s growing food travel market.
Alpine Heritage in Switzerland
Marking the end of summer in the high pastures, the Swiss village of Charmey hosts La Désalpe each September. This festival places cheese at the heart of Alpine tradition. Farmers guide cows through the village adorned with bells and flower crowns, a ritual that reflects seasonal change and community pride.
Charmey, situated in the Gruyère district, sits at the gateway to alpine pastures where the milk for Gruyère AOP originates. Producers invite visitors to tour aging caves, sit down for a Bénichon lunch, and understand how the terrain shapes flavor.
This combination of spectacle, tasting, and direct contact reveals how Gruyère embodies both environment and craftsmanship. It also turns agriculture into a cultural event celebrated by locals and international guests alike.
Spanish Cheesemaking Revived
Image via iStockphoto/ABRAHAM GONZALEZ FERNANDEZ
What most people don’t know is that Spain’s artisanal cheeses nearly disappeared from common knowledge in the late twentieth century until dedicated producers restored their reputation. Figures such as Enric Canut and Mariano Sanz encouraged small makers to unite to preserve traditions and highlight regional diversity.
Their motto, “cada queso es un pueblo,” captures how cheese represents local identity as clearly as architecture or language. For this reason, Andalusia welcomes individuals to see goats feeding on natural grasses before tasting cheese made only with their milk. The visit further includes hikes through olive groves and courtyard lunches.
Italian Icons Across Regions
The interesting thing about the cheeses in Italy is that they differ by region, and visiting their places of origin explains why they taste so distinctive. Quattro Portoni, which sits in Lombardy, produces more than a dozen buffalo milk cheeses, all made on site with milk from their own herds.
Close by, Igor Gorgonzola, the world’s largest producer of the blue-veined cheese, organizes factory tours and serves entire meals based on its signature product. In Parma, Parmigiano Reggiano dairies show visitors how the famous wheels gain their texture and flavor, often followed by lunches arranged by the regional consortium.
Moving west, Piedmont’s Fiandino Farm uses thistle rennet to create cheeses with a unique profile, while Caseificio Rosso continues a four-generation family legacy in Pollone.