Why Food Is the Fastest Way to Feel at Home When You Travel
There’s a moment that happens when you travel, usually quietly, where a place starts to feel familiar. Not because you’ve seen the landmarks or ticked off the highlights, but because you’ve sat at a table, shared a meal, and felt yourself soften.
In my experience, food is the fastest way to feel at home when you travel. Faster than language. Faster than orientation. Faster than time.
A Table Is an Invitation
Food has a way of inviting you in. You don’t need to know the language perfectly. You don’t need to understand every custom. When you’re seated at a table, whether it’s a tiny taverna in Southern Italy or an outdoor kitchen on a Greek island, you’re no longer just passing through. You’re participating. Meals slow us down. They ask us to sit, to stay, to pay attention. And in cultures like Italy and Greece, that invitation is generous and genuine.
Food Before Conversation
Some of the most meaningful connections I’ve witnessed on my travels haven’t started with deep conversations. They’ve started with food. Bread being torn and passed. Plates placed in the middle of the table. Someone explaining how something is made, or why it’s eaten that way. Conversation follows naturally, but it’s never forced. Food does the heavy lifting.
Why Food Feels Different When You Travel
At home, food is often rushed. Functional. Something we fit in between responsibilities. When you travel slowly, food becomes the anchor of the day.
It’s no longer about what looks good, it’s about what tastes good, what’s in season, and what’s been made the same way for generations. Meals stretch longer. Stories emerge. Time loosens. And somewhere between the first bite and the last, a place begins to feel familiar.
Food as a Bridge to Locals
You can visit a place for weeks and still feel like an outsider. Or you can be invited into someone’s kitchen and feel a sense of belonging almost instantly. Food is often the bridge. When you cook with locals, eat what they eat, and learn why it matters, you’re no longer consuming a destination, you’re connecting with it. This is where travel shifts from observation to participation.
Why Food Sits at the Heart of How I Travel
This is one of the reasons food is central to every retreat I host. Not as a feature, but as a foundation. Shared meals remove hierarchy. They soften edges. They create space for connection without pressure. You don’t need to perform, explain yourself, or arrive with anything prepared. You just arrive hungry. And that’s enough.
Feeling at Home Isn’t About Comfort, It’s About Belonging
The places that stay with us aren’t always the most luxurious or polished. They’re the ones where we felt welcomed. Where we were fed well. Where time slowed just enough for us to notice. A chipped plate. A simple dish. A long lunch with no plan afterward. That’s often where belonging begins.
A Different Way to Experience a Place
If you’ve ever travelled and returned home feeling like you saw somewhere but didn’t really feel it, food might be the missing piece. When you travel through food, you don’t just remember what a place looked like, you remember how it felt to be there.
And that feeling tends to stay.
This is the way I’ve come to travel and the way I invite others to experience Italy and Greece through Savour the Slow.
Not through rushing. Not through ticking boxes.
But through tables, kitchens, and the quiet moments in between.
Explore upcoming retreats
Join the waitlist
Thanks for reading.
May your next meal, wherever you are, feel like a small kind of home.
xx Jacqui
Written by Jacqui Toumbas, food and travel creator and founder of Savour the Slow, hosting women’s retreats in Italy and Greece.