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Via Tours Croatia, a specialist in Croatian travel, offers immersive food and wine experiences designed to showcase the country’s landscape and culinary traditions. Operated April through October, the Food & Wine Croatia Tour begins in Zagreb and concludes in Dubrovnik, combining hands-on classes, tastings and regional discoveries. Highlights include a cooking class, visits to four wineries for guided tastings, a tour of a cheese-making facility, meals at traditional taverns, meetings with local olive oil producers and a private boat charter to explore islands off Dubrovnik and Split. The tour culminates with a truffle dinner hosted by locals in Croatia’s truffle region. Prices for this itinerary start at $2,850.
Additional culinary-focused options from the same operator include the Gastro Tour of Venice and Croatia, available April through October from $2,500, and the Best of Croatia and Albania itinerary, available April through October from $3,250. Each tour is fully customizable to suit traveler preferences, and guests can request special additions such as a visit to Edivo Wines, an acclaimed underwater winery in Croatia.
Edivo Wines uses a unique sea-aging process that takes advantage of the stable pressure and temperature found below the surface. Bottles are sealed in clay amphorae, secured in wire mesh cages and submerged about 65 feet beneath the waters near the Pelješac peninsula. Over time, the amphorae become encrusted with mollusks, shells and algae, so each bottle develops a distinctive natural patina. This collection of sea-aged wines is marketed under the name Navis Mysterium, which means “secrets of the sea.”