Learning Tours

I’ve taken three food tours, so far, on this cruise+ trip. They’ve all been fine. I’m thinking of them as learning experiences for Drink•Eat•Walk, though, so no matter how good they are, I have some takeaways. Like what? Welp, let’s drink, eat, and walk our way through the one I took in Lisbon, Portugal to see my learningz.

One thing before I start: I don’t mean to be too critical of this tour. It was servicing cruise customers, in the hyper-touristic area of Lisbon, so was clearly offering a different product than I will be. As such, it was more like a tour with some food & drink rather than a food & drink tour.

Learning One → Big Groups Blow

There were 18 people in my group, meaning this was by far the biggest food tour I’ve ever taken. The size meant the guide had to use a microphone & we customers used an earbud. The electronics made it so impersonal, and the large size meant that we created a long line no matter where we went. I’ve known that big groups prevent creating the experience I want to offer, and this just proved it. I’d been thinking my max Drink•Eat•Walk group size will be eight and this just solidified that number for me.

Learning 2 → Personal = Engagement

The electronics had already somewhat removed the human connection I want to have in my tours, but the guide didn’t do much to improve things. All that she told us about herself at the start was her name, and she never asked any questions of us, nor fostered any type of group dynamics. As a result, nobody really interacted with her, nor with each other.

Finally, at the first food stop, someone started asking her questions about herself, and the response was instantaneous — everyone gathered around and started engaging with her, and then with each other. I’ve known that I want to kick off my tour by telling folks my story (but not too much at first — gotta leave them wanting 😉), but now realize how important it is to initiate the group bonding. In addition, a one-on-one interaction with each person, early on, will get them more invested in the tour, and in the group.

Learning 3 → Private Rooms Isolate

Another reason I want to keep my groups smaller is so I can bring them to intimate local neighborhood spots without changing the vibe of the place by inundating it with “outsiders”. I could bypass this by bringing them in to private rooms, but I’m choosing places for their local feel, and sequestering them into a private room means they’ll never be a part of that.

Ex: The one place we sat down in this tour had a great historical feel, and even seemed to have some locals in it (a seeming rarity in the main tourist section of Lisbon). Yet we were promptly led upstairs to a private room, and sat at a table as long as a crew boat. Vibe killed; experience lessoned; lesson learned: I will not D•E•W private rooms.

Learning 4 → Address the Icons

The food that Lisbon is arguably most known for is Pastéis de nata (egg custard tart), so I expected that would be one of the things we got on the tour. Nope. And the guide never even talked about them. Which just seemed weird. So, methinks if your city has an iconic food, you should at least talk about it (For DC, maybe: Half-smokes or Mumbo sauce or Jumbo slices?)