Not Your Average Tour

Just last weekend, my parents, uncle and his girlfriend, came to visit me in Chicago. For my parents, it was an opportunity to see their daughter and spend some quality family time together. While it was also that for my uncle and his girlfriend, it was also a chance to see a new city, since neither had been here before. Of course, they asked me what they should see and do, and I ran off the usual list of attractions. They decided to do the Architecture Tour along the river, which I think is one of the better tours offered in Chicago. Not only is it a great way to see a lot of the downtown area, but it provides great backround on Chicago's history.

While I will always recommend this tour to first time visitors, I cannot guarantee that everyone will appreciate it, since each person has different tastes, opinions, and interests that could be fulfilled through other options. There's walking tours, bus tours, mob tours, ghost tours, museum tours, the list goes on and on. But even with all these, some people may still be looking for something different, unusual, off-kilter.

Enter the internet and its vast array of travel-sharing websites touting specialty tours, unique experiences and some pretty odd activities not generally listed on a tourism site. I learned about these through a New York Times article, which discusses a few of the platforms.

Tequila Adventure Rapel

What makes these sites work is the artists, chefs, students, writers, hobbyists, and musicians, who offer their services to those looking for a truly novel experience. Some websites are better than others about making sure guides can deliver on their promises, while other rely on peer reviews.

CanaryHop.com was co-founded by "Saturday Night Live" star Andy Samberg and launched in March. It is a searchable list of about 2,500 guides and service providers, which are referred to on the site as "canaries," while travelers are called "hoppers." Some examples of experiences are a circus training in Las Vegas; a fire engine tour in San Francisco; camping in the Mojave Desert with a botanist; New York City makeup and accessories tour; and home cooking and eating with a family in Delhi.

Gidsy.com is another option that has grown popular in the last year. With the tagline "do something different," the website certainly lives up to that mentality with its options. It features offerings in nine cities, with activities like a chocolate and grappa tasting in Hasselt, Belgium; a tango lesson in London; a street photography workshop with a professional photographer in Istanbul; and a challah braiding and baking class in New York.

East London Street Food Tour

The idea behind Vayable.com is to give travelers a deeper look into at a local culture through experts. The site has 1,500 guides on almost every continent--it hasn't quite made it to Antartica. Travelers can search ac tivities by city and then book their own experience or join a pre-arranged tour. Some of the options include a hookah and tea tour in Istanbul, fly fishing in Alaska with the may of Kenai, a tour of East London street food, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle tour of Versailles and Rambouillet.

Another option if you are just looking for unique experiences in New York is SideTour. The founder, Vipin Goyal, said there are plans to expand, but New York certainly offers a plethora of exciting and intriguing opportunities. Most of the listings are updated weekly and sell out weeks in advance, so book early! Popular offerings include a street art tour and graffiti demonstration, urban beekeeping in Brooklyn, and creaft beer brewing.

As someone who is often looking for something different to do in my own city, perhaps I should see if there are any special activities/tours in Chicago. That way the next time someone asks me about what they should do here, I can offer something that's a little bit off the beaten path. And for my future travels, I will certainly give these sites a quick run through to see if there is anything I would like to take part in during my visit. Because what could be better than finding a hidden art gallery that isn't featured in every travel guide? Or tasting street food from the vendor that doesn't have a line around the block but is just as good--if not better--as that guy that was featured on the food network? Or having an in depth conversation with a local author while sipping regionally-made wine at an underground jazz club? It's these kinds of odd experiences and locations that make a city what it is, so why not take the opportunity to peel back the artificial layers and see the roots.

Culinary Excursions

A large part of travel is, of course, food. And it makes sense, because most of the time, the places we visit have cuisine that is completely different from our home town, especially if you venture to a different country. Personally, I don't feel I have truly experienced a place until I've eaten one of its local specialities. If you can find a trip that not only offers unique delicacies, but also an opportunity to learn about the culinary process of making it, then you've really got something special.

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I have had the privilege of partaking in some of these activities, and I highly recommend them. If you happen to go to Sienna, Italy, I suggest signing up for a personal cooking class. I, along with my family and friends, got the chance to cook with a Tuscan-style chef right in the comfort of her own kitchen. We chopped, sliced, seasoned, sipped and tasted our way through the afternoon, enjoying classic dishes like bruschetta, chickpea soup a four herb pasta. We ate each dish as it was prepared, heading back into the kitchen after each one to dive into the next, all the while drinking glass after glass of Italian wine.

Being from Colorado, I know a number of quality brewery tours that give you a first-hand glance at the beer-makign process...but these can usually be found in any city nowadays, especially with the popularity of craft beers in our culture. However, I recently stumbled upon a new business in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood called Brew & Grow, where home brewers can buy all the supplies they need to make beer on their own. Not only that, but it offers beer making classes, where you can make your own stout or ale, learn about flavors and consistency, as well as what food is best to pair with it. It's a great way to learn about a local activity while experiencing a city that is becoming a big player in the craft brew arena.

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that covers a couple more food getaways for the upcoming harvest season. One in particular that caught my interest--and this should be no surprise to my readers--was the Grape Education at Blackberry Farm in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. In mid-November, the farm hosts its Wine Geek 101 event, where guests learn all about wine tasting, selection and pairing. You can also partake in cooking demonstrations and tours of the farm. It's relatively pricey ($1,200 per person) but if you have the time and funds, I think it would be a magical trip.

http://www.seriouseats.com/

Of the other suggestions, I think the next one I would pick is the bread making in Bath, England. Not exactly the easiest location to get to, but for fresh Italian and French bread, I think it's worth it. The five day course costs $300 a day, with one- and three-day courses available, too. An award-winning chef leads the class, where you learn how to make a vast array of different breads, and at the end, I'm pretty sure you get to eat some, too.

For the autumn season, when cooking and comfort food reign supreme (how many days until Thanksgiving?), it seems appropriate to indulge in a culinary excursions. The best part about them is that they can usually be squeezed into a quick weekend trip, making it super easy to enjoy another location on short notice.