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This is it! It’s time to ramp up our food tour season across Alberta. Here are the top five things we’re looking forward to sharing with you this year. We’ve got three new world-class chefs to work with – Robert Ash, Ashley Cawdle and Dwayne Ennest. Murietta’s Mountain Grill has joined our newest tasting experience on our Canmore Tasting Trail. Our Inglewood tour in Calgary is designated as a Canadian Signature Experience by Destination Canada. We are going to host our first ever #EatAlbertaFirst dinner in partnership with Rouge Restaurant and ABC bees in July. It’ll feature a multi-course honey-themed dinner in honour of the two beehives we keep at Rouge. Soon, we’ll announce a four night, five-day #EatAlbertaFirst trip to discover the secret gems of Southern Alberta. It’ll be October 3 – 7. Subscribing to our newsletter will get…

There is no offseason The nicest thing has happened. We don’t really have an off-season anymore. In the photos above, you see our guide Nora Comerford-Seto with Santa on our last tour of 2018 at the Fairmont Banff Springs on December 21. The photo beside it is a private tour we did for ATB in Canmore on January 6. Hallelujah! It was great to only have three weeks as our offseason. Quiet activities Overall, November to April are quieter than May through October when we are in full swing. That’s important for me as a business owner and serial entrepreneur. I also have a writing and publishing company and a spice box importing company and am currently working on a new South Indian cookbook. I need some balancing time to pursue these other passions and to take care of myself….

THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN SIGNATURE EXPERIENCE – YOU’VE GOT TO START SOMEWHERE When I started Alberta Food Tours in 2006, I focused on tours that showcased the breadth and depth of Calgary’s diverse food scene. I’d hire a van and driver to transport guests to all four corners of the city. We captured tastes…

Tantalizing Tastes of Thailand – January 12 -26, 2020 – NOW SOLD OUT!   ATTENTION: this tour is now sold out. Watch for other tours coming soon. Join Alberta Food Tours’ guide and Edmonton Journal writer, Liane Faulder for this sumptuous taste of the food and culture of Northern Thailand. Thirteen nights of luxurious accommodation, 38 meals and all transportation in-country are included on this fully guided tour. Our president Karen Anderson has designed this trip in partnership with Indus Travels and Liane is thrilled to be leading it. Liane Faulder is an award-winning journalist, book author and playwright who has previously led an edible escape trip to Chicago for Alberta Food Tours. She’s led other culinary trips to Portland, Oregon, Spain, New York City and New Orleans and has traveled extensively in South Asia on her own. Liane’s bubbly personality…

Thought for the year – “There is only success.”  Sadhguru Summary AFT conducted 373 tours in 2018. We served close to 2000 guests. We employed 20 guides. Corporate tour clients included: DIRTT, ATB, Bennett-Jones, Restaurants Canada, Focus on the Family, Pinnacle Renewable Energy, Crystal Dental, Pensak Houghton Dental, Caldwell, Enbridge, and Backstreet Creative January AFT became a member of Banff Lake Louise Tourism. There is lots of travel throughout Alberta meeting with all our vendor partners to review the previous year, scout new partners as needed, and plan for the new year. February Launched both our Craving Kensington tour and the Calgary Farmers’ Market tour for the year this month. Our operations manager Callandra Caufield attended a Travel Alberta tourism development conference called “SHiFT” to help us develop a new culinary experience in Banff. March AFT featured in The New…

Travel is the theme of this year’s Christmas Gift list for Alberta Food Lovers I’ve got travel on the brain. It’s always there and it’s usually fighting for attention with my other great love – FOOD!  I’ve brokered a peace between these two great passions by calling myself a food traveller. Are you with me? A food traveller is defined as someone who would travel across town or around the globe to experience food and/or drink. It’s a pretty inclusive definition and I’ll bet since you are reading this, you are like me, a food traveller. Here’s some great ideas to whet your whistle and inspire you to keep on exploring Alberta and the world. 1 – Make the vegan on your list happy In Calgary, you can drive across town to stock up on vegan goodies from the freezer at…

  What’s your business model, cash flow projection, break even point and profitability targets? Questions like this used to make my head spin. If I’m honest, they still do. But now, I just take a deep gulp of fresh air and dive in and figure it out – with the help of the wonderful team I now work with. You see, for the first few decades of my working life I was a Nurse Practitioner. I never needed to think about the bottom line let alone marketing or advertising. In the health care biz, people were always lined up out the door. It was gratifying career caring for people and helping them manage their diseases. Until the day it wasn’t. Something changed in me. I developed a deep desire to work with healthy people and help them stay that way….

Today, we want to gift you with these holiday party ideas for your favourite small group. Whether you are celebrating with a small group of friends, family or your work team, these ideas are a sure way to factor in some festive fun and keep your bank account jolly at the same time. The list is mostly nice, not too naughty, definitely novel and filled with affordable party ideas.   1. Beer and Bowling Breweries like National on 10th in Calgary have a bowling alley and, they take bookings in advance.  High Rollers in Banff features both beer and pizza – yum. And in Edmonton, try third generation owned Plaza Bowling for their Pints and Pins lanes. Go all out and have team bowling shirts made. Who knows, this could be your new brainstorming centre. 2. Nosh a Neighbourhood  Our Craving Kensington or Savour 17 SW…

  A food tour is a great way to get to know a place, its people and their way of life – especially what foods they enjoy. In this post we’ll not only look at what is a food tour but also the who, what, when, where and why of our company. The Who We’re Alberta Food Tours and we’ve been in business since 2006. Our president, Karen Anderson, is an award-winning cookbook author and co-author of Food Artisans of Alberta- Your Trail Guide to the Best of Our Locally Crafted Fare. We have over 20 members on our team and operate in four cities in our province. We have 90 plus partners and together we support about 150 farms. When you support us, we pay all our partners and team members and we all create a great food culture….

Summer has arrived in the Canadian Rockies and summer in Canmore, the gateway to the rockies, means picnics for us. A picnic is the best way to celebrate the long nights and warm temperatures. Canmore is teeming with idyllic picnic spots and foodie stops to fill up your picnic basket. Picnic Spots Riverside Park Just…

Helping plan private and corporate events has created wonderful connections in our community. DIRTT is a great example from Caglary’s corporate community. The client relations team at DIRTT calls on Alberta Food Tours to provide an experience of Calgary’s culture to the many returning and prospective clients they host each year. We are flexible in creating the product they desire and at times they need it. Their guests are happy, after their very intense time at the DIRTT training facility, to have a break to experience our local culture and vibrant city with our team. We, in turn, love that we get to learn about DIRTT’s state of the art environmental design manufacturing. We also show our appreciation of their business by contributing to the fundraising efforts they undertake for Calgary charities, with gift certificate donations. Today, we got a…