About Me: Claudia Royston

I started Global Gourmands in 2018 with a simple belief: that luxury travel should be more than a five-star bubble. Comfort matters, but being immersed in a culture, connecting with people, made travel much more enriching.

I also wanted to share my passion for food and wine as a gateway to culture, history and people. Guided by cultural respect and curiosity, I work with in-country partners to create tours that let travelers see a place through the eyes of locals.

As a child of immigrants, food and travel have been integral to my life. I spent my youth living in the US and visiting family in Europe in the summers. A Junior Year Abroad in Munich grew into three years. During that time, I hitchhiked, “train-ed” and flew all over Europe – from the East Berlin to Greece and from the Black Sea to Scotland. Latterly, I escorted other Junior Year Abroad students to East Germany where we met dissidents and poets and Communist party members. On October 7, 1989, I was invited by our official minder to sneak off with three students to the demonstrations on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin (we were staying in Potsdam at the time). We managed to evade the Stasi that night, but it was an exciting excursion, with history being made.

I moved from Germany to England in 1991 and began a steady career progression in the travel industry: first with EF Language Journeys booking ferries for students, then as a hotel manager in central London for two years. I returned to the US in 1998 and worked on United’s MileagePlus Asia program for two years, until September 2001. In 2005, I joined luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent. It was there I first imagined a company that offered the same level of comfort, but with a more intentional approach — immersive experiences alongside sightseeing, and boutique, locally-owned properties instead of international chains. In 2018, I launched Global Gourmands. What started as a single tour to Peru & Bolivia has grown into a roster of destinations across four continents

In April 2021, I became a member of the Chicago Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.

Email or call to find out how Global Gourmands can enrich your next vacation.

Have you Ever come back home

from a vacation

…feeling like you could have seen more, experienced more, been more inspired?

I started Global Gourmands because the most enriching parts of every trip I've taken have been the experiences — and very often, the culinary ones. The experiences that connect you with the day-to-day life and deep cultural traditions of the places you visit. At a time when we all seem connected and remote at the same time, experiential travel offers something increasingly rare: genuine connection with people and place.

Culinary travel matters too because it benefits rural economies and helps keep traditions alive (more about this here). Whether it's dining with a local family, joining a village in a celebration of its winemakers, or watching a master Maori carver at work, experiential travel makes you a participant in your story rather than an observer.

Global Gourmands tours are small and intimate — groups of 10 to 16, never large buses. The focus is on local people, traditions and culture, but important sites are never overlooked. Visit a shepherd in the Basque Country and you'll also tour the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Go truffle hunting in Corrèze in February and the caves of Lascaux are on the itinerary too.

Accommodations are an important part of every journey. We use family-owned boutique properties wherever available — no compromise on comfort, and more resources stay within the communities we visit.

Finally, besides amazing memories, you will return home with new friendships as well.