As the year wraps up, the holiday season calls for both planned and unplanned travel and vacations. We're taking a moment to look back at all the food and travel moments in the Godrej Food Trends Report 2025.

Culinary tourism is really stepping up its game, moving far beyond just simple food tours and city fine dining. Across India, farm stay owners and home chefs are creating specialised food and drink experiences that perfectly show off the incredible food diversity and culture of their areas.

These hands-on experiences give you a much richer sense of local traditions and flavours, and they're also doing good by helping out the local communities economically and socially.

Indian travellers are more and more looking for real deep dives into local life and culture. They're all about food-focused activities like culinary trails, cooking classes, agri-tourism and checking out heritage conservation projects.

To kick off this review, we're going to dive into some popular nature trails the GFTR highlighted, including who's running them and the best time to check them out!

Mango harvest trails (Konkan Coast, Maharashtra): Lots of farm stays and resorts let you get your hands dirty with harvesting and processing at mango orchards.

When: April - June

Check out: Amrayog in Dapoli (they do the harvesting and processing) or join RamblersIndia for their "Ratnagiri Mango Special Trips."

Saffron trails (Pampore, Kashmir): In autumn, the saffron crocus flowers bloom, giving farmers only a short window of a few weeks to harvest the flowers by hand at dawn before the sun's heat causes them to wilt.

When: September to November

Check out: Kashmir Nirvana and Haniefa Tour and Travels offer dedicated trips.

Coffee trails (Western Ghats, all over India): A standard offering at plantations where you can join the harvesting fun.

When: November to February

Check out: Chikmagalur Coffee Heritage Walk – Karnataka and Araku Valley Coffee Trail – Andhra Pradesh

Cacao trails (South India): This "bean-to-bar" process trail is really starting to take off.

Check out: Craft Chocolate India for "The Origin Trail" tour in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it includes a cacao harvesting and fermentation walkthrough.

Traditional brew trails - Feni (Goa): A classic tourist experience focused on the local spirit.

Check out: Make It Happen ("Feni and Tapas Food Trail") or visit Cazulo Premium Feni for the "world's first Feni cellar" tour, complete with distillery visits and tastings.

Rhododendron trail (Tons Valley, Uttarakhand): Exists specifically to harvest this beautiful flower and turn it into juice and preserves.

Check out: Tons Trails ("Rhododendron Holi Trail") and Foliage Outdoors (similar treks in Kumaon).

Kokum trails (Angadibail, Karnataka): A very specific, hands-on experience focused on processing wild kokum the traditional way.

Check out: BuDa Folklore for their multi-day "Kokum Harvest Festival" and get involved!

Wild Greens Foraging (Maharashtra): This is a new thing, mostly championed by emerging culinary groups.

Check out: The Locavore and OOO Farms have put on guided "Wild Food Walks" (like in Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park) as part of their "Wild Food Project."

Stay tuned for some exciting region-specific culinary insights across India.

Have you been to any of these food trails before? Share your experiences in the comment section below.