When you think about gourmet food and travel you probably aren't thinking of the reheated frozen food you were served on the plane. There are many choices available to those whose love of travel is equaled by their love of gourmet food. You can travel to an exotic (or romantic) location and take gourmet food cooking courses taught by well-trained chefs in top culinary programs (some are even offered on cruise ships.) You can also take a tour that allows you to visit a region and sample some of the area's best cuisine-without doing any of the gourmet food cooking or preparation yourself. Before you buy that ticket, here is some basic information to get you started on your search:

If you love to cook gourmet food at home, you should definitely think about taking a trip to visit a culinary program abroad. There are all-inclusive travel packages which include your airfare, your accommodations and your courses all in one price. These tour groups are usually fairly small, so you get more personalized instruction. The courses can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. You may be able to set up courses through contacting a gourmet food cooking school directly, but you may not be able to get the deals on the airfare and accommodations. Some of the packages also include tours of the local area as well.

On the other hand, if you want to leave the gourmet food cooking to the experts, you can find tours which simply visit different areas, focusing on the local cuisine-with local sites of interest thrown in as well for good measure. Some of the more popular tours are the wine tours, the cheese tours and the chocolate tours. You can see how the food is made and you can sample it as well.

Those who want a more flexible and independent experience can simply look up traveler reviews of restaurants in the areas they plan to visit and chart their course based on the food they want to eat.

Make your next vacation not only a delight for your eyes and ears, but for your taste as well.