Feast in the Andean foothills

Asados – traditional Argentinian get-togethers – are the country’s ‘culinary soul’. Simple, joyful scenes of wine, steak and gauchos. The hot parilla grills of local gauchos smouldering as they turn their meats; as friends and family gather. As steaks and socials go, this is truly the way to do it.

High in the Andean foothills, you’ll arrive at a remote estancia for a truly unforgettable asado. Sky-grazing peaks rise in the distance, and it’s warm. Rhythmic folk music floats above the conversation; with laughter, stories, and song. In the day, there’s time to hike, mountain bike, and ride, accompanied by a deliriously complex menu of Argentine plates, dishes, and bottles; cooked up – by a crew of local gauchos – on the workhorse grills that embody the true essence of Argentine life, heading home – 4×4, across the rolling sunset meadows of Mendoza – to your waiting beds.

Eat your hearts out, Apulian style

Puglia – the ‘spur’ of Italy – plunges into the waters of the Adriatic, its landscapes bristling with olive and vine. But for all its calmness, Puglia has been a battleground; raided by Barbary pirates, colonized by Greeks, and brought under the rule of Naples.

They came for its agriculture, where the real ‘gold’ of Puglia is served on a plate. Wheat, almonds, olives, oranges, and grapes have made it the ‘breadbasket of Italy’. The towns – Ostuni, Otranto – are like armaments; shimmering and white-washed on craggy coves and dramatic hills. The air sizzles.

Arriving from the white walls of Borgo Egnazia, you’ll journey to a 1,000-year-old olive grove where we’ve put on an ecstatic Apulian meal: tables laden with dishes and heaped with wines. Feted with music, you’ll join grandmothers pressing pasta into ears (orecchiette). There’ll be dancing, food, and feasting; light filtering through pale leaves. Arrive in a fleet of vintage cars, and cycle home – through the breathless twilight – to your own private masseria. The party continues.

A feast fit for Valhalla

Humans first came to the Lofoten Islands 11,000 years ago. We can only guess what drew them to this shattered, wild place; where settlers built their homesteads and soothsayers daubed caves with paint and ash. For Edgar Allen Poe, this was the heart of the ‘maelstrom’; of snow-crazed mountains and curling mist.

Travelling by RIB boat, you’ll crest these wild waters together; seeking a retreat above the Arctic Circle. Ridge-backed and spear-tipped, the islands will be your playground, where we’ve brought together opportunities to kayak, fish, practice woodcarving and fire the forges of metal-work on a sprawling multi-day adventure. And on your last night, a crescendo; where we’ll host, on a far and deserted sore, a feast fit for Valhalla – with a barbecue orchestrated by some of our favourite Nordic chefs, drawing on the ‘native’ tastes and ingredients of Lofoten – of coalfish, halibut, seaweed, snow hare, grouse, and mushroom. Elbow to elbow, goblets raised high, you will feast like the old gods themselves.

Head deep into the desert for an enchanting night beneath the stars

In the summer of 1917, American novelist Edith Wharton sought the honey-scented deserts of Morocco. For her, it was reminiscent of an ‘illuminated Persian manuscript’ – the subtle rolling of sand dunes, the ochre folds of the earth. Breathless and undiscovered.

And this is precisely where your ‘road’ will lead; deep into the desert, together. Waiting for you – beneath the desert’s great and ‘sheltering’ sky – will be nomadic dancers, traditional music, star-pointed telescopes, fire-eating, and feasting, where the spirit of hospitality is embedded deep into Moroccan culture; oriented around mechoui, the spiced roasting of a lamb. On this long, winding night, the stories – the memories – will flow; cosied up by the light of the fire. And at sunrise, cresting the sands, you’ll practice meditation and yoga in this, the deepest and most enchanted heart of the wilds.

Sharing plates and place with the legendary pastoralists of the Mara

For the Maasai, feasting is a big deal. Cattle blood is mixed with milk to heal the sick. A Maasai man is not measured by his wealth, but by the number of cattle he owns. Blessings, offerings. Living almost exclusively off the land, cattle is seen as sacred among the Maasai people. It’s their essence.

You’ll arrive at a remote, traditional manyatta (a traditional homestead) at dusk – just as everyone begins to gather for this unforgettable evening feast. Goat meat sizzles over an open flame, campfires crackle, and nightjars chur. Children return home from the bush with their goat herds. Elders settle in around the campfire, telling tales of their ancestors. It’s a family affair. The stories. The dancing. The songs. You’ll discover a whole new meaning to your mealtimes, far beyond the menu.

Fuel the fires of your friendship – far beneath the crater’s edge

May – October

Going out to eat is great. But you know how it goes. You arrive at the restaurant, you’re shown to your table, you order something delicious from the menu – the usual drill. But some special occasions – some special people – call for a different kind of reservation. Look to your feet.

Together, you’ll fly – by helicopter – to the crater of Thríhnjúkagígur volcano. Here, you’ll descend four-hundred feet, by elevator, into one of three jaw-dropping chambers; shadows cast across its jagged walls – three times the height of the Statue of Liberty. Warm lights, dazzling colours, lava formations. Your table at its centre.

Between a series of pinch-me, ‘we’re having dinner inside an actual, real volcano’ moments, you’ll have a gourmand’s feast prepared – the scent of arctic char, chimichurri, lamb, mint, and wild mushroom filling the cavern as it rebounds with live Icelandic song, the popping of corks, and the echo of the earth as it grinds and groans around you. Walk-ins aren’t welcome. You’ll need an industrial miner’s elevator for that.

BEST FOR: Smaller groups, with a maximum of 14 people

Into the wild wild west

In her study of change along the Colorado River, naturalist Ann Zwinger described the Grand Canyon as ‘animate: it moves, transposes, builds, proceeds, shifts, always going on, never coming back’. Miles on miles, shadow and light. The vermilion hues of endless carved-out cliffs. Lake Powell and the Grand Staircase-Escalante. Strangely familiar, yet wildly unknown.

Your moment will begin by helicopters – soaring above the iconic swerve of Horseshoe Bend. From on high, you’ll be dropped at your exclusive set up at the eye-popping and dramatic North Rim for an unforgettable backcountry feast. There’ll be ranch-raised meats, wine bottles and flickering fire-pits. Stargazing and sharing stories. Just you and your people in this great outdoors. All the scale and spectacle of the iconic American West. It truly doesn’t get much better.

Share an unforgettable evening in the ‘company’ of Gaudí

Between 1904 and 1906, Antoni Gaudí – Spain’s most celebrated architect – transformed a grand, imposing house on the Passeig de Gracia into what locals came to call the casa dels ossos: the house of bones. With its irregular oval windows and flowing sculptural stone, and a rippling façade of broken ceramic tiles, Casa Batlló – its proper name – has since become one of the most iconic houses on earth.

But most people will only glimpse it from the street – or will spend a guided hour walking through its rooms. Not for you. When this long, languorous night is over, and you step out onto the streets of the Mansana de la Discòrdia, you – your friends, your closest circle – will count yourself among that lucky set who’ve dined, and made merry, within this most legendary of buildings. And that’s putting too fine a word on it: by ‘dine’, we mean a powerhouse twelve-course tasting menu curated by a group of chefs with seven Michelin stars between them. Stamped, played, and sung, you’ll be feted by the sound of music and dancing lifting over the tables. This is what makes Barcelona – Picasso’s heartland, Dalí’s domain – one of the most spirited and creative cities in the world. We can think of few better places in which to raise the rafters of friendship.

BEST FOR: Larger groups of all ages.