Dec 6, 2024
Great way to learn about Huatulco - Ben was a great tour guide! Giving us some history of Huatulco while helping us explore the local cuisine was a great way for us to get introduced to this adorable town!
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Nov 28, 2024
How to eat like a Mexican in Huatulco................ - The whole tour was extremly well thought out and organized................ We sampled quite a large number of authentic Mexican foods - some of which we were familiar with, and some that were new to us...................
All of the Cafes and Restuants that we visited were very clean - including the Washrooms.
Our guide was very personable, knowledgeable about the local food scene, and only too pleased to answer questions.
On a morning when the temperature approached 30C, the fact that tour was accomplished in just one city block was really appreciated - we spent more time sitting and eating rather than walking..................
The only enhancement that we would suggest would be to have a printed crib sheet detailing our gastronomic adventure.............
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nov 26, 2024
Tasty and full of local food knowledge - This was really a fantastic tour Jane was super professional and took the group to many key authentic restaurants. Thanks!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nov 8, 2024
Must do in Huatulco! - Our food tour in Huatulco with Ben was spectacular. Ben was extremely knowledgeable - not only does he share our love of good food, but he shared so much knowledge about the culture, stories, and information about culture and cuisine in other locations as well. It was a pleasure spending a few hours with him and the locals we encountered during the trip. If you love food and trying new things, this is the tour for you! Highly recommend.
Review provided by Viator
Oct 31, 2024
Great Tour, Good food. - Ben was a very personable gentlemen and a very knowledgeable 'Foodie'. We had a great time walking around town, trying various foods, learning about the town, history, and food!
Very enjoyable. Would definitely recommend doing this..
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Oct 23, 2024
Recommend Food Walking tour - Learning about the history of this part of Mexico. Food was very good from local vendors. My only suggestion would be more clear on meeting point! Just say the church by the park on such street. Walked around and around trying to find host. Do the tour, very interesting.
Review provided by Viator
Oct 4, 2024
Wonderful evening with Jane. - We loved learning about the town of Huatulco. It is such a cute little town with a rich history. Jane has lived there for over 20 years and is fully embedded into the community and has learned everything about it. The food stops we made were delicious and interesting. Everything was tasty and fresh. We tried many of the local delights and even tried the dried crickets. They are not objectionable at all. Some people just don't like the idea of eating a bug. I would love to return and take Jane's cooking class to learn her secret to good fish tacos. Jane's personality made this tour interesting and fun, I highly recommend checking it out when in the area.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aug 13, 2024
A MUST DO IN HUATULCO!!! - My daughter and I were very pleasantly surprised in that this was not only a foodie’s food tour rather a cultural immersion on different levels. From tasting local street foods such as esquites, mango con chile y limon and horchatas y jugo de Jamaica, we were also encouraged to understand the almost sacred and essential significance behind why/what/when Huatulco is through its simple yet flavorful dishes such as pozoles, pollo con chile de arbol and tacos al pastor slowly cooked in trompos (spits). We also got to enjoy sampling Oaxacan chocolates, tobala mezcal and salted and spiced chapulines (grasshoppers). This experience was elevated and extra special due to the fact that our tour guide is a local Huatulco resident of 30-years, an entrepreneur and owner of Cafe Juanita (a must try at Huatulco) and chief editor and writer of Huatulco’s local magazine “The Eye”, JANE BAUER! Jane hands down ensured we got the most out of our 2.5 hours with her! Thank you Jane for the unforgettable moments and newly learned history of Huatulco! Your love for this city and your kindred spirit to help your people motivates us to keep returning to this oasis! #TlayudasArely#CafeJuanita#Raices#Chocolate&Cafe#PaleteriaZamora#IglesiadelaCrucesita#MercadoRelaquias#SuperSantaCruz
PROS: Tour was on time, reasonable walking distances between pit stops, care package tote containing water and local guide magazine provided per person, tour guide is fluently multilingual, able to use restroom during some pit stops and open to answering any questions without feeling rushed.
CONS: None on the side of the tour provider (Huatulco Food Tours) but on the side of VIATOR it was very difficult to reach customer service and didn’t receive a response from VIATOR customer service for questions. VIATOR customer service had a text message-only process and had no telephone number to call to speak to a live agent which is very inefficient and frustrating.
TIPS: Wear comfortable shoes, comfortable clothing a curious and open mindset and HAVE FUN!!!
Review provided by Viator
Apr 23, 2024
Awesome Food Experience - The food tour was fascinating! Well worth taking. I learned a lot about the local dishes, the history of corn, the way foods have changed around the world as a result of colonization and the history/culture of the Huatulco area. We enjoyed sampling the many tasty dishes and seeing all the different small vendors and restaurants.
With Jane as a trusted food expert, we could try places and foods we never would have felt comfortable to on our own and mark them down for return visits. So many tasty treats. Thanks, Jane! It was awesome!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nov 3, 2024
La Crucecita is a wonderful town, but this tour is overpriced and unsanitary - We saw this tour advertised in the local "The Eye" magazine that was in our hotel. While $65USD per person did seem like a lot, we expected the food on the tour to make it worth it. We asked Jane ahead of time if there would be good options for a vegetarian, and she simply said "there are many options."
Stop #1 - freshly fried street vendor potato chips with sauce - tasty, but she had all eight of us on the tour pass around two buckets of chips.
Stop #2 - yummy grilled chicken - again each person pulled a piece off of a communal plate. No vegetarian option. Good portion size.
Stop #3 - Family style Pazole soup with pork and chicken and various toppings. Vegetarian option was a very simple tostada with Oaxacan string cheese, cabbage and beans. Very cool restaurant making tyludas on site and with beautiful murals depicting stories of Oaxacan culture and history.
On the way to the next stop, we stopped by a traditional fruit market, meat vendor and chicken vendor and Jane explained how they operated. She also gave one small Dominco banana to each person. They were tasty.
Stop #4 - "Street food" tacos al pastor. Veggie option was a piece of charred cheese that got passed around the table and another very basic cheese, bean, and onion taco. This stop did include your choice of a cerveza, horchata, or hibiscus drink. The hibiscus drink was tasty but very sweet. Didn't try the horchata but it looked like the kind you can get at almost any Mexican restaurant in the US.
Stop #5 - Street vendor making Elote corn bowls with mayo and other sauces. Probably the tastiest thing served all night and a decent portion size, but it was one portion per couple, not per person. Jane also had us pick piece of Huitlacoche (corn fungus) and a piece of a relatively dry tamale, again everyone's fingers touching the same food, as we sat on a park bench in the town's central park.
Stop #6 - Ice cream - tasty - good portion size. As we finished our ice cream she had us pick a dried fish snack a cricket snack out of small containers. Again, each person's fingers in the same place. Several folks declined these options but I tried them both and they were OK. She also had us pick a roasted cacao bean in the same manner.
Stop #7 - Mezcal tasting - three very small pours. We both love Mezcal, but only one of the three we tried was good IMO. Beautiful painted bottles and lots of different types of Mezcal in the store.
Biggest thing that turned us off was the unsanitary nature of the tour. To be clear, none of the restaurants or vendors seemed unsanitary at all. We would have been happy to eat a meal at any one of these places. But the manner in which Jane insisted on communal group food touching plus reuse of dishes goes against basic rules of food hygiene.
First, Jane handed out bowls and spoons at the beginning of the tour and told everyone we needed to reuse them at each stop. While this is environmentally conscious, it is not acceptable from a health standpoint, and ridiculous for an expensive food tour.
This resulted in a group of adults led around with a half dirty bowl and spoon in the provided tote bag for the whole tour. The expectation was that each participant could run into restaurant bathrooms to rinse the cup and spoon out between uses. It seemed a lot to ask of these businesses, and not at all sanitary.
Also worth mentioning was the number of foods that were expected to be shared communally. We have no problem with family dining with proper utensils for dishing food onto ones own plates. But from the first stop, we were all expected to eat from the same plate, with all eight strangers sticking their fingers into the same foods over and over. The manner in which dishes were passed around from person to person had us hoping that no one in the group was sick. If food were served in this manner on a cruise ship, it would be fined and shut down immediately.
Jane is incredibly knowledgable about Oaxacan food and culture, having lived in a small village in the area for 30 years. But her tour style is more like leading an elementary school field trip rather than a fun evening with adult friends. Some people might enjoy this, but we found it to be off putting.
Summary - good way to see multiple food places and offerings in La Crucecita, but too expensive for the food offered and simply unsanitary. The total value of the food we ate was probably about $15 USD, less than $10 for the vegetarian options. Our recommendation would be that the tour guide provide compostable bowls and spoons/sporks at each stop, or allow the vendors to provide their own dishes and silverware. Also, don't have people communally pull food off of the same plate or out of the same container with their fingers. Last but not least, the vegetarian options weren't all that great, certainly not special, and not enough for a meal. Offer a reduced rate for vegetarians, please.
Review provided by Tripadvisor