From Travel Blogger to Culinary Tour Leader

Lia Garcia
Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to start your food tour company? Was there a specific moment or experience that sparked your journey in the tourism and culinary industry?
My journey to the tourism industry began back in 2016 when my husband and I decided to quit our steady jobs and embark on a year-long honeymoon adventure around the world. We started a travel blog, Practical Wanderlust, as a way to document our travels, share hilarious mishaps, and offer practical advice to help other travelers. To our surprise, it grew into something much larger—a community of readers who resonated with our down-to-earth approach to exploring the world. By 2019, Practical Wanderlust was one of the largest travel blogs in the world, and I’d found my true calling as a travel writer and digital marketer. Telling stories about places, it turns out, is my passion.
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As I traveled the world seeking to understand the beating heart of each place I wrote about, food became one of the central ways I connected with the places I visited. From bustling markets to family-owned restaurants, I realized that the story of a destination is often told best through its cuisine. In 2020, along with the rest of the tourism industry, I experienced the pain of the pandemic as the world screeched to a sudden halt. My husband and I returned to my hometown of Louisville, where we embraced a new chapter.
I launched a new travel blog, Let’s Go Louisville, and with a baby on the way and dreams for her future in this city, we channeled our energy into creating Louisville Food Tours, which officially launched at the end of 2022. The pivotal moments for us were taking food tours in other cities and realizing how transformative they were for our experience in each place —not just tasting delicious dishes, but learning the stories behind them and how they reflected the city’s complex history. I thought, “Louisville needs this.” That spark grew into a passion project and eventually a business. Today, Louisville Food Tours is about celebrating the culinary creativity of our city while giving visitors and locals alike a deeper connection to Louisville’s rich history.
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Beyond the Barrel Bourbon Food Tour
What makes your food tour unique? Are there any signature dishes, local stories, or hidden gems you are particularly proud to showcase to your guests?
What sets our food tours apart is our deep focus on storytelling. We combine my background in travel writing and digital storytelling with my husband’s decade of experience teaching creative writing to craft immersive tours that connect history, culture, and cuisine. To ensure every guest is able to hear those stories, we include earpieces on all of our public tours, so that every guest can hear their guide – even if they’re a block behind or in a crowded, noisy restaurant.
Each dish on our tours is thoughtfully chosen to tell a part of Louisville’s story, showcasing food and drinks rooted in local traditions and history. Our flagship tour, the Secrets of Louisville Food & History Tour, offers a mouthwatering introduction to the quintessential flavors of Louisville and Kentucky. Each stop is tied together through a carefully researched and engaging narrative that weaves the story of Louisville into every bite.
What impact have your tours had on the local community? What’s something you hope to achieve in the future for the area?
Ethical tourism has always been a passion of mine throughout my career in the travel industry. Tourism has the power to significantly impact local economies, and in Louisville, that impact can be uniquely transformative. Louisville stands apart as an outlier in many ways here in Kentucky, and local tourism dollars help protect and support the needs of our city’s citizens in ways that aren’t always guaranteed at the state level. Our tours contribute to the community in several key ways. First, we reinvest in the local economy by partnering with and supporting locally owned businesses. As locals, we understand the importance of keeping money within the community, and small businesses are vital to that effort. We also prioritize fair wages—paying our staff well, tipping front-of-house restaurant workers generously, and paying our partners fairly. Additionally, we give back by donating to local charities.
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Lia and Jeremy Garcia, founders of Louisville Food Tours.
What trends or opportunities do you see in food tourism right now? How is your company adapting to or leveraging these trends to enhance the traveler’s experience?
Here are some of the key trends we’re seeing and how we’re adapting to meet the evolving needs of our guests:
- Immersive Experiences: Travelers are seeking deeper connections with local cultures and stories, not just food. At Louisville Food Tours, we weave historical narratives into each stop, connecting guests with the heritage behind the food and the cultural significance of the dishes and drinks on our tour menu.
- Sustainability and Ethical Tourism: Guests are more conscious of their impact on local communities. We support locally owned businesses, pay fair wages, and partner with restaurants that prioritize sustainability, aligning with the demand for responsible tourism.
- Specialized and Niche Tours: Travelers want unique, themed experiences. We offer specialized tours such as our bourbon food tour and Prohibition history tour, as well as tours that highlight underrepresented stories and communities, such as our queer history food tour.
- Exclusive, Location-Specific Experiences: Travelers are seeking experiences tied to a specific place—things you can’t find anywhere else. Our tours showcase Louisville’s unique identity through food, history, and traditions that originated here in Kentucky and tell a deeply local story.
What tips or best practices can you share for effectively organizing food tours for group travelers? What impressions or stories are you trying to leave behind for guests after the tour is over?
Here are some best practices for group travelers that we’ve learned over the years:
- Divide large groups into smaller parties: It’s essential to cap group sizes to around 20 people to ensure a comfortable pace and allow all guests to fully engage with the experience.
- Coordinate meeting points and timelines in advance: Effective communication is key to a successful tour. Make sure all guests are aware of where to meet and when, so there are no surprises or delays.
- Collect dietary restrictions ahead of time: Encourage guests to share dietary needs in advance to make adjustments and ensure everyone has an enjoyable experience, even if full accommodations aren’t always possible.
- Involve and inform restaurant partners: Make sure your restaurant partners are fully informed about the tour in advance. This ensures everything runs smoothly on the day of the tour.
- Cultivate a menu that tells a story: Focus on dishes that reflect the uniqueness of the place you’re visiting. Consider what can only be eaten in that area and what was invented or perfected locally.
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What is one of the biggest challenges and rewards you’ve experienced while running your business? How did you navigate through these and how did it shape the way you approach future tours?
One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced while running Louisville Food Tours was navigating the rapid growth of the business, especially in our first year. When we launched our flagship tour, we started with just one guide (my husband!) and expected to run maybe a tour a week. But within months, demand exploded – we were running 45 tours a week by the end of our first year. Scaling up quickly while maintaining the quality of the experience for our guests was a challenge. We had to recruit and train a larger team of talented tour guides, improve our logistics, strengthen relationships with our restaurant partners, and streamline our operations to ensure everything ran smoothly.
The reward, however, was seeing how our tours were connecting people to Louisville’s culture and history, how guests were leaving with an emotional connection to the city, and to see the positive impact we were having on the local economy. We’re proud of the recognition we’ve received, including winning the TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice award and accumulating over 2,500 5-star reviews from guests in just two years. Navigating these challenges taught us the importance of balance and flexibility. In order to continue to prioritize high-quality experiences, we invest significant time and resources into training our tour guides to ensure they excel in every aspect of their role as storytellers, problem solvers, entertainers, customer service representatives, and subject matter experts.
While our guides are already exceptional, as an organization, we’re committed to identifying knowledge gaps and opportunities for growth to keep raising the bar at all levels. Looking ahead, we’ve learned to approach each tour with a focus on sustaining that balance as we continue to grow, ensuring that every guest feels connected to the stories of Louisville and the people who make it special.
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Lia Garcia
- Phone – (502) 591-6155
- Email – contact@louisvillefoodtours.com
- Website