My Airbnb host in Tanzania asked if I wanted to go to a party. I put on jeans, a T-shirt and a little makeup, and went along. It turned out to be a wedding with about 200 guests, and it was immediately obvious to the bride that I hadn’t been on the guest list. One of my best cultural travel experiences began with a spectacular misunderstanding about the dress code.

Then I found out that every table was expected to get up and dance with the bride. I have two left feet, which would have been less of an issue had there been anywhere to hide. There wasn’t. A cameraman was broadcasting the dancing to screens around the hall, so even the guests furthest from the dance floor got to see exactly how well I was getting on.

I loved it. I’m British and grew up in the Basque Country, so I know how it feels to belong somewhere and still occasionally miss a cue everyone else seems to have picked up. Since I started travelling more slowly in 2024, I’ve had more chances to join in, ask questions and find out what people make of the places they call home. The list below mixes experiences I’ve had myself with a few I’d happily build a trip around.

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Best Cultural Travel Experiences

The best cultural travel experiences put you side by side with people who live there. That might mean staying in someone’s home, joining a fiesta, taking a cooking class that starts at a market, or spending an afternoon with a local guide. Here are 15 experiences I’d make time for, from a two-stop pintxo crawl in San Sebastián to a summer stay with a herding family in Kyrgyzstan.

I chose these for how much you get to take part, who benefits when you spend your money, and whether you can realistically do them on a first visit. Some take an afternoon and the price of lunch. Others are worth building a holiday around. I’ve also included a couple of first-hand experiences that made me think harder about how I’d do them a second time.

Eat Your Way Through San Sebastian’s Pintxo Bars

First-hand · Basque Country, Spain

If I’m taking someone for just two pintxos in San Sebastián, we’re going to La Mejillonera for patatas bravas and Sirimiri Gastroleku for black squid-ink croquettes. At La Mejillonera, I’m there for the sauce. At Sirimiri, the croquettes look a little alarming if you’re expecting something beige, but they’re creamy and intensely savoury. Then we’re going to La Viña for cheesecake. I know perfectly well it isn’t a pintxo.

With a whole afternoon, I’d add the suckling pig at La Cuchara de San Telmo and a solomillo or txuleta at Bar Gandarias. My favourite way to do it is to order the house speciality, share if there are a few of us, then move on. The walk between bars is part of the evening. You can change your mind halfway through, follow a friend’s suggestion or go back for another plate of bravas.

In the Old Town, squeeze up to the counter, catch someone’s eye and order there. Ask which dishes come hot from the kitchen, and let the bartender tell you how that particular bar handles the food on display. Pay before you leave. Two or three bars are plenty for getting the hang of it, and I’ve put my longer route and ordering tips in my guide to the best pintxo bars in San Sebastian.

Take a Basque Cooking Class

First-hand · Basque Country, Spain

When friends come to see me, I usually take them to my mum’s house at some point, because meeting my stepdad Joaquín will tell you a fair bit about the Basque Country. For something you can actually book, I’d send you to the San Sebastián Cooking Class with Eneko, one of its founders. He moves between Euskera, Spanish and English with remarkable ease, sometimes in the space of a sentence.

We started at La Bretxa market in the Old Town. I was surprised by how many stalls stood empty, and talking about where Eneko shops and why made that part of the morning as interesting as the kitchen. The steak was a lesson in restraint. Eneko used the fat from the meat and salt, and that was all it needed. It’s a very good class if you want to understand the food you’ve been ordering all week.

Choose the class with the market visit if you’re interested in where the ingredients come from and how the menu follows what’s in season. If you’d rather spend longer at the stove, I’d compare it with Mimo’s longer format. I’ve written about the two approaches and what you actually get to do in my guide to cooking classes in San Sebastian.

Join a Traditional Spanish Fiesta

First-hand · Navarra, Spain

I grew up in Spain, but my way into San Fermín in Pamplona was through a peña formed by people who’d come from elsewhere. A peña is a social club, and having people to meet up with changed the festival for me. There’s a difference between wandering through a crowd looking for what’s happening and knowing where your friends will be when it’s time to sit down and eat.

If you’re going with friends, organise an almuerzo, a proper late-morning meal. Pick somewhere to meet, make time to sit down and let it be part of the day. I’d happily build my San Fermín around that, street music and the parades. The festival runs from 6 to 14 July, and there’s enough going on that I can enjoy it fully while skipping the bull events. Chck out Pamplona’s official parade information before you go.

Spain’s fiestas vary wildly from town to town. Buñol has its tomato fight, while in Castrillo de Murcia the Colacho jumps over mattresses on which babies have been laid. I’d also look at the programme for a smaller town’s fiesta and pick something you’d enjoy even if you lived there, whether that’s a public meal or dancing in the square. My guide to quirky Spanish festivals has more ideas.

Stay With a Local Family in a Homestay

First-hand · Egypt, Tanzania and the United States

I arrived in Cairo shaken by an encounter with an inappropriate airport transfer driver. Rami, a guide I’d booked for later in the trip, saw what I’d shared on Instagram and got in touch. His sister Rania came to collect me, and I spent the rest of my stay at their family’s Pyramids Temple Guest House in Giza. His mum welcomed me with an enormous toothless grin and proceeded to chat to me in Arabic as if I understood every word.

When the children came home from school, I sat on the floor with the family for lunch, using bread to scoop up the food. I helped with English homework and Rami’s mum taught me to cook some Egyptian dishes. I went to Saqqara with Rami too, and somehow found myself holding the key to the Tomb of Irukaptah for a completely private viewing. And yet when I think about staying with them, the first thing I picture is sitting on the floor at lunchtime. You can read more about my knight in shining armour and his family here.

Homestays can look completely different from one trip to another.

In Arusha, I love how easily I fit into the ordinary routine of the family I stay with. On a US road trip with a $50-a-night accommodation budget, I turned up at Eric’s place in Denver, took one look at the junkyard and briefly wondered whether I’d walked into the opening scene of a horror film. I ended up spending one of the most meaningful weeks of that trip with him.

When I book a homestay, I look for a host who actually lives there and mentions shared meals or time with guests in the listing. I’d give it a few nights if you can. It takes me a while to stop feeling like someone who ought to be out sightseeing and get comfortable hanging around the house. I’ve written more about that in why choose a homestay.

Go Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi and Meet the Communities Around the Park

First-hand · Uganda

On a visit to a Batwa community near Bwindi, I asked how to say hello. The guide brushed off the question. I asked again because I wanted to hear the answer from the people I’d come to meet. When the question finally reached an older man who’d looked thoroughly unimpressed up to that point, his face broke into a huge grin. It was the moment I remember most clearly from the visit.

I left uneasy about how much of the talking the guide had done. Later, walking around Bwindi independently, we stopped in an art gallery and got chatting to the artists, some of whom I’m still in touch with. Two doors further along we found a workshop making reusable sanitary pads for Batwa girls so they could keep going to school during their periods. Both conversations began simply because we had time to stop.

If you’re going gorilla tracking in Bwindi, I’d leave half a day free near your trekking base. The permit gets you into the forest, while the extra time gives you a chance to meet people whose lives are tied to the area in different ways. If you book a Batwa cultural visit, ask who leads it, who receives the fee and whether you’ll have time to talk directly with your hosts.

Explore the Cu Chi Tunnels

First-hand · Near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The moment I remember most clearly from Cu Chi happened above ground. I was visiting with a Vietnamese veteran, and every time a shot rang out from the firing range, I saw his face change. We were there to hear about a war he had actually lived through. Hearing the gunfire while he talked, and seeing what it did to him, made me feel quite strongly that the shooting range had no place there.

I noticed that the story he told while an official was nearby differed from the one he told once we were on our own. What stayed with me was his account of how weak some fighters became in the tunnels and how abandoned he felt Viet Cong fighters had been after the war. I went to understand how the tunnels worked. I came away thinking much more about the people who had to live in them.

I’d go with a Vietnamese guide who leaves time for questions about wartime life and what came afterwards. You can see the site without crawling through a tunnel or going to the range. My guide to the Cu Chi Tunnels covers the visit in more detail if you’re deciding how to fit it into your time in Ho Chi Minh City.

Shop the Jimbaran Fish Market in Bali

First-hand · Bali, Indonesia

I went to the fish market at Kedonganan, by Jimbaran, as part of a cooking class. We followed the cook through the market while they chose the fish. It gave me something to pay attention to besides the sheer amount of seafood on display. Somebody who knew what they wanted was doing their shopping, and I got to follow the decision from the stall back to the kitchen.

I’d choose a class that includes the market if you’re interested in how people cook in Bali. If you mainly want lunch, go in the morning, bring cash and buy something you’d like to eat. Nearby grilling stalls can cook it for you for a separate fee. Either way, it’s a worthwhile morning away from the version of Bali you see on Instagram. Here’s my guide to the Jimbaran fish market.

Eat Like a Local in Cairo

First-hand · Egypt

I met Khaled through Facebook. He offered to show me around Cairo, which in practice meant walking the streets, stopping at his favourite places to eat, sitting in a café and answering my hundred and one questions. I’m sure a few went beyond what you’d normally ask someone you’d just met. He was game for the conversation, which was as much a part of the afternoon as anything we ate.

He took me to Abou Tarek for koshary. If you’ve never had it, it’s rice, pasta, lentils and chickpeas with tomato sauce and crispy onions. The ingredient list reads like an attempt to clear out a kitchen cupboard, and it works brilliantly. Abou Tarek is an easy lunch stop in Downtown Cairo. I’d make a separate breakfast of ful, slow-cooked fava beans, or ta’amiya, Egyptian falafel made with fava beans.

If you book a food walk, ask the guide to take you somewhere they eat themselves and leave time to sit down for a drink along the way. I’d have learned far less about Cairo if Khaled had rushed me from one dish to the next. I’ve included more neighbourhood stops and what to order in my guide to food in Cairo.

Follow Your Appetite in Dakar

First-hand · Senegal

I ate a lot of chicken yassa and rice in Senegal, very happily. So I was surprised that the bite I kept thinking about afterwards was a baguette from a hole-in-the-wall in Dakar. It was filled with meat from skewers, onion and spice, and it reminded me a little of bánh mì. I love a good bocadillo anyway, so the baguette was probably always going to have an unfair advantage.

I’d give yourself a lunch in Dakar without a restaurant reservation. Ask someone where they go for a quick bite, or spend a few hours with a Dakar guide and ask them to work in a stop they’d make on their own lunch break. If you want something to start with, try chicken yassa, with its onion and lemon sauce, and leave room for whatever is coming off the grill.

Stay Long Enough to Talk With Maasai Hosts in Tanzania

First-hand · Tanzania

I spent a week at a Osiligilai Maasai Lodge in Tanzania with no other guests. The staff went about their day, and my favourite part of being there was hanging out with Gabriel, who was happy to answer my questions. The longer I stayed, the more the conversations moved beyond the things I knew to ask on day one. I had time to think about what he’d said and come back with another question.

That stay is what I think of when someone asks me what slow travel looks like in practice. I’d choose a couple of nights at a place where the people who live and work nearby are involved in hosting, and leave part of a day free. If you’re arranging a visit through a safari operator, ask who you’ll spend time with and what the hosts themselves want to share.

Celebrate Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca

Wish list · Mexico

Oaxaca is on my bucket list because I’d like to see how people make room for remembering the dead in the middle of ordinary life. Families build ofrendas with photos, candles, marigolds and things the person they’re remembering enjoyed. There’s something I find especially moving about putting out someone’s favourite food. The most significant dates are 1 and 2 November, with public festivities also taking place around them.

I’d base myself in Oaxaca City and start with public altars, markets and any neighbourhood procession that’s open to visitors. If I wanted to understand a cemetery tradition, I’d ask a local guide what’s appropriate in that particular community. A family gathered at a grave is having a private moment even if you can see it from the path. I’d keep my camera away unless invited to take a photo.

Attend a Coffee Ceremony in Ethiopia

Wish list · Ethiopia

One of the things that draws me to Ethiopia is the chance to spend time with people and learn about their everyday customs. A coffee ceremony is a good example. The beans are roasted and ground before being brewed in a clay pot called a jebena, and the coffee is often served in three rounds. The time it takes is part of the hospitality. You’ve been invited to sit, talk and stay a while.

If I were building this into a trip, I’d start in Addis Ababa and ask a local host or guide about a coffee house that offers the full ceremony. I’d leave the afternoon free. The part I’m most curious about is what happens between the cups, when there’s enough time for a conversation to go somewhere neither person expected.

Stay in a Ryokan and Join a Tea Ceremony in Japan

Wish list · Japan

Japan is high on my list because so much of what I’d do there would be unfamiliar to me. I’d start with one night in a ryokan, a traditional inn, and choose a room with tatami and a meal included. Taking your shoes off before stepping onto the mats is one of the small customs you get to learn simply by staying there.

I’d also book a beginner-friendly tea ceremony in Kyoto. I want to understand why the host handles the bowl and utensils in a particular way, and what the guest does in return. A session with time to ask questions and try whisking the matcha is the one I’d pick. The ryokan and the tea ceremony can be booked separately, so I’d choose each on its own merits.

Get Lost in the Souks of Morocco

Wish list for a return trip · Morocco

My first trip to Morocco, in 2013, was a difficult one. I witnessed someone being stabbed and had encounters that left me uncomfortable. I came away knowing I hadn’t enjoyed the trip, and I’ve thought since about how differently I might experience it with more years of travel behind me. I’d like to go back and give myself the time to get to know one city properly.

I’d start in Fez, where there are woodworking workshops around Nejjarine and a long tradition of ceramics. And I’d book a medina walk with a local guide who can introduce me to artisans who welcome visitors. I’d love to watch someone make a piece, hear how they learned their trade and sit for mint tea if it’s offered. Then I’d leave myself time to go back on my own.

Spend Time With a Herding Family in Kyrgyzstan

Wish list · Kyrgyzstan

Of all the places where I’d like to learn more about life with horses, Kyrgyzstan comes first for me, followed by Mongolia and Kazakhstan. What draws me is finding out how horses fit into a working day for a herding family. I’d love to know how people learn to ride, what makes a good horse for their work and how they decide when it’s time to move to a different pasture.

I’d look at a summer trip to Song-Köl with a yurt stay and a ride arranged through Community Based Tourism in Kochkor. They offer multi-day routes to the lake, and I’d pick one with enough time at the camp to get to know the hosts. I’d describe my riding experience when booking and ask how they match horses to riders and manage the horses’ workload.

What Is Cultural Immersion Travel

Cultural immersion means spending enough time alongside people to get a sense of how life works where they live. You can learn a great deal at a museum or archaeological site, then understand a different part of the place over lunch with somebody who lives nearby. That’s the appeal of experiential travel for me. I like being able to ask the question that occurred to me halfway through and see where the answer takes us.

Immersive travel experiences can be as ordinary as spending a morning with someone who shops at the same market every week. Paying a local cook for a class, buying a piece directly from the person who made it or staying with a family also gives you a clearer idea of where your money goes. The local experiences that stay with me tend to be the ones where the host had as much say in what we did as I did.

How To Find Authentic Cultural Experiences

One of my favourite encounters began with a walk by Lake Manyara. I met a fisherman called Hassan and we managed a conversation between his English and my Swahili. He offered to take me out in his dugout canoe. When I spotted a vervet monkey in a tree surrounded by floodwater, he told me they sometimes put a canoe beneath the tree in the hope a stranded monkey will get in and make it back to land. I’d gone out for a walk and ended up learning how somebody was responding to a flooded lake.

If you’re looking for authentic travel experiences, the first thing I’d do is take something out of the itinerary. Pick a neighbourhood you like and go back for breakfast. Learn how to say hello and thank you. Ask where somebody would take a friend for lunch. Local guides can help you understand a festival or a market, and an afternoon on your own afterwards gives you time to follow up on something that caught your attention.

Festivals can give you an easy way to join in, especially when there’s a public meal, a parade or music. I’d look at what’s happening in the towns around your destination as well as the main city. And if you’re coming to Spain, I’ve written about meal times, greetings and some of the little things that help in my guide to how to blend in as a local in Spain.

How To Make Cultural Travel Ethical

For me, responsible travel starts with who gets to decide what happens during a visit. I’ve been invited into places in a writing capacity, including visits with charities. In Freetown, I met people at Eat One Teach One, a project helping women in the Susan’s Bay community build skills and earn a living. What I took from that visit was the importance of the work and of letting the people involved decide how their stories are shared.

I’ve written separately about visiting Kibera. If you’re considering a visit there, I’d start by asking whether residents designed the walk, who leads it and where the fee goes. The same questions are worth asking anywhere. Ask permission before photographing someone, especially at work or at home. I leave orphanage visits off my itineraries, and I’d choose an experience where people can decide how much they want to share with visitors.

I apply that same scrutiny to experiences involving animals. If you are going to Egypt, and if you are weighing up a camel ride, I’ve covered what I saw and the questions I’d ask in is it ok to ride a camel in Egypt. I’ve also written a broader guide to how to travel ethically.

Cultural Immersion Trips With a Small Group

Going independently gives you the freedom to stay longer when you find somewhere you like. I’d do San Sebastián that way, with a cooking class booked and the rest of the day free. A community-based tour makes sense when you need a host to arrange a stay, interpret or connect you with people who’ve chosen to receive visitors. You’ll have less flexibility on the day, but you’ll know who’s expecting you and what they want to share.

A small group works well when you want someone else to join up the logistics, particularly somewhere you’ll be travelling between several towns or rural areas. It’s worth reading the itinerary for how much time you’ll have with people. A market stop is one thing. Shopping with the cook and sitting down to eat what you’ve made is a whole morning. I’d choose a trip that has room for the second sort of experience.

I run my own Bea Adventurous small-group tours, and that’s how I try to design them. In Tanzania, for instance, we make time to meet women who harvest honey from hives that help farmers keep elephants out of their crops. It’s a chance to ask what living alongside elephants is like for the people growing the food. For me, that’s as much a part of a Tanzania trip as seeing an elephant in the first place.

You can go off the beaten path with a group, and you can have a remarkable afternoon in the middle of a city everyone’s heard of. I’d pick one thing you’re genuinely curious about and give it more time than you think it needs. Some of my favourite stories began with a walk, a meal or an invitation to a party. Admittedly, I now ask what sort of party.