Private Food & Drink Sampling Tours

Our tours work best for groups of a maximum 6-8 people per guide. This is partly because we work with businesses who have limited space. Though it’s also because we’ve found that 6-8 people allows for a more intimate and personable atmosphere. So 6-8 people allows us to create the best environment for the group to enjoy the tour. We can push this capacity to 10 per guide (weekdays only), but it restricts which suppliers your tour can visit.

If you have a group of larger than 8-10, we will split the group and provide multiple guides. This offers a number of different options for itineraries. It can work especially well for groups who have a mix of differing dietary needs/preferences.

For example:

Let’s say a group has 12 people. 3 are vegetarian, 4 really like meat, and 5 are indifferent. We’ll split the group into 2 groups of 6, between 2 different guides. One group will follow an entirely meat free itinerary. The other will follow an itinerary with 1 or more meat samples.

In some cases when groups are split, both groups can start and finish together at the same venues. This requires plenty of notice in order that we can ensure space with our suppliers.

We have compiled health & safety protocols to ensure the best environment for everyone involved in our tours, without compromising the quality of what we provide.

Also, our operational procedures have been independently assessed by Quality in Tourism and accredited to Safe, Clean & Legal™ requirements. We impose a maximum capacity on group sizes and each of our suppliers is regularly checked by us for health & safety compliance. For further information on how seriously we take the health & safety of everyone involved in our tours please read our Health & Safety Guide.

Absolutely, yes!

We love to welcome families including children of any age on private tours. Within the boundaries of your itinerary, our tour guides are equipped to adjust their delivery to suit the needs of your group. So if you’d like us to cater for your children’s preferences, just tell us in advance and we’ll do all we can to accommodate.

Strollers/Pushchairs:

Many of our suppliers have limited access and space. So if you wish to bring a child in a stroller/pushchair, please let us know so we can plan accordingly.

A word of advice:

While we will always acknowledge that you know your child far better than we could, we’ve regularly found that young children don’t respond well to some foods, or to engagement, discussion, and commentary. This can reduce value for them and for other tour participants. So we’ve set an age limit of 8+ for our scheduled tours, but we are happy to accommodate children of any age on privately booked tours if we are informed in advance.

Children under the age of 8:

We provide the same service for everyone on the tour, regardless of age, and we provide the same food & drink samples for every ticket holder. In order to ensure the best value, it’s wise that everyone joining the tour brings a broad palette and an adventurous culinary spirit! However, if you wish to bring a child under the age of 8 on a private tour with you, we are happy to accommodate them free of charge. Though we will not include samples for them and you must inform us that they will be joining you, because we need to reserve space for them too. Although if you would like them to be offered samples, please purchase a ticket at our standard price.

Yes! The shortest private tour duration we can provide is 2 hours.

2 hour tours move at a faster pace than our standard tours, and have less stops/visits, less commentary, and rarely include any seated tastings. We create curated itineraries for quality rather than quantity, so we’ll always aim to provide the best experience within your time frame. However, as our production costs are the same, 2 hour tours are only available for a minimum of 6 people to ensure we cover our costs and provide the best range of samples we can offer.

Please provide detailed information when requesting a short tour, so we can create a tour of the best value for you.

Sadly not. This is because each of our tours takes a large amount of production work. We do all of this work in advance to ensure your tour can operate, and runs smoothly. This is normally a minimum of 2 days work, but can take over a week, and to produce a bespoke itinerary, this period can be longer.

In order to get the best value, please get in touch with a minimum of 2 weeks notice to book your private tour.

This depends on the nature of your requirements. So be as specific as you can when making your enquiry, and we’ll be honest about what we can offer. If you request a large variation of requirements for multiple tour participants, then it’s less likely we’ll be able to accommodate everyone’s needs. But it’s just as possible that there may be less compromises than you expect! So just let us know, and we’ll be honest about what we can provide, always putting value for money first.

Please note that for our “Gin Spa” and “Tea Spa” we are unable to accommodate any special dietary requirements.

When submitting information regarding Special Dietary Requirements, please do not use this as an opportunity to advise us about likes/dislikes.  This can devalue the experience for anyone in your group who suffers genuine medical allergies or intolerances. In fact we’ll ask you separately about any preferences you might have. You can find more information about this in our Dietary Requirements Policy.

We are regularly told by tour participants that the element of surprise is one of the most fun parts of our tours! So if you need this level of detail, please get in touch with us to discuss… but it’s unlikely we’ll give everything away in advance of your tour!!