Love learning when you’re on vacation? Then a “skillcation” — a vacation focused on learning a new life skill — may be the trip you need to plan in 2026. And if there’s one skill you can practice just about anywhere in the world, it’s foraging. Foraging is the practice of gathering edible plants, fungi, and other wild foods, and it’s grown from a niche hobby to a major travel trend. Almost everywhere in the world has some kind of useful wild plant across its forest, coastlines, and meadows, whether you’re looking for plants to eat, seeking medicinal uses, or just want to take some amazing outdoor photographs.
Though often associated with summer berries or fall mushrooms, foraging isn’t limited to one season or place. It happens year-round around the world, whether you’re looking for winter truffles in Eastern Europe, finding desert greens in the summer in the American Southwest, mushroom hunting on a misty autumn morning in Oregon, or searching for spring finds along the coastlines of British Columbia. Each region and time of year offers its own abundance, even within the various corners of the US. And if you take a foraging class, local experts will teach you where and how to look for the best natural finds.
Photo: Mike Workman/Shutterstock
These nine foraging vacations combine elements of outdoor adventure, culinary exploration, and natural science, making them an excellent way to learn more about the places you go and the environment around you. You don’t have to have any experience foraging, and experiences range from quick guided workshops with professional mycologists to multi-day culinary retreats where wild ingredients become the centerpiece of each meal.
If one of your upcoming goals for the new year is to slow down, become more self-reliant, and reconnect with the natural world, these foraging skillcations below may be the push you need to see the world in a different way.
Multi-day foraging adventures
Foraging and Feasting Holiday
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- Location: Jokkmokk, Sweden
- Dates: Private/bespoke
- Length: 4 days
- Price: $4,056
The Foraging and Feasting Holiday is in Swedish Lapland, in the far north part of the country. It introduces travelers to regional food traditions via four days of guided foraging, cooking, outdoor skills, and Sámi cultural experiences. The small-group/private trips are available on request and led by Eva Gunnare, a well-known Swedish forager, chef, and public figure.
During the trip, you’ll be based in Jokkmokk, a small town in the Arctic Circle. The four-day trip will focus on looking for seasonal ingredients like wild mushrooms, berries, herbs, and edible plants, with an emphasis on sustainable harvesting. At the end of each day, you’ll cook meals as a group, introducing other ingredients like locally caught fish or reindeer (though vegan and vegetarian options are possible). Since the Arctic growing season is quite small, you’ll learn how to maximize your time outdoors.
You’ll stay in a rustic cabin or lodge with perks like a sauna and hot tub, and sit in on evening Sámi musical performances or cultural talks.
Blue Ridge Mountains Foraging Retreat
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- Location: Near Asheville, North Carolina
- Dates: Various throughout the year
- Length: 3 days
- Price: $1,111
This Forest and Foraging Retreat with Red Wolf Return takes place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, focused not just on finding food, but on gaining an understanding of the area’s ecology. You can choose from one to three days, but the three-day course is the most bang for your buck. It includes not just foraging for edible and medicinal mushrooms, but also activities like meditation and Qigong. With your small group and a skilled guide, you’ll learn as you go about everything from soil conditions to tree-mushroom partnerships.
When you’re not in the woods, you’ll spend your time in educational sessions, doing everything from preserving mushrooms to making group meals. It’s appropriate for both beginner and experienced foragers, or people who have never foraged at all, since activities like cold plunges and tea ceremonies are also part of the programming. You can tent- or car-camp on-site during the quick foraging vacation, or stay in a local lodge/hotel, as the cost of accommodations is not part of the program.
Plantas Sagradas Retreat
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- Location: Around Oaxaca, Mexico
- Dates: Twice each August
- Length: 7 days
- Price: $2,600 (+ $300 single supplement)
If you’re more interested in the medicinal uses of wild plants rather than the culinary, check out the Plantas Sagradas (Sacred Plants) retreats held in Oaxaca, Mexico. Unlike many foraging retreats that focus on identification and culinary use, this program centers on the relationships between people and plants. You’ll learn how foraged plants are used in ceremonies, healing, and everyday life across different traditions, including that of the local Zapotec people.
Classes are guided by a mix of herbalists, ethnobotanists, and community educators, so you’ll walk away with both scientific knowledge and Indigenous and ancestral knowledge, passed from people happy to share it. Depending on the exact retreat, workshops may include tincture-making, herbal prep, or conversations about sustainability and land stewardship. Plan on group meals with some reflection time in the evenings, making it an excellent balance between a social and personal getaway. The accommodations change throughout the retreat, ranging from a comfortable B&B to rustic jungle cabins.
Transylvania Truffle Hunting
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- Location: Cund, Romania
- Dates: September-February
- Length: Three days
- Price: 169 euros per person (about $197)
“Valea Verde” may mean green valley when translated, but for one weekend each fall, this Romanian boutique hotel in the small town of Cund becomes should probably be called “brown valley.” Because Valea Verde boutique hotel hosts an annual truffle hunting weekend, held in the heart of rural Romania. You can hunt for truffles year-round, and the hotel offers guided classes no matter what time of year you visit. But visit between September and February and you can book a truffle hunting weekend package, which includes a welcome drink, multi-course truffle tasting dinners on Friday and Saturday nights, guided truffle foraging, and even lunch and breakfast (truffle themed, naturally). It’s in addition to the room cost, so just ask about booking the truffle package when you mak your reservation.
In this region of Romania, available truffles range from burgundy truffles to black truffles to winter truffles, depending on the time of year. You’ll need to bundle up, as Valea Verde advises the “specific climatic conditions of Transylvania” can make winter “quite severe with temperatures of up to minus 25 degrees Celsius.” But it’s absolutely worth it if you want one of the most unique foraging experiences in the world, set in the stunning landscapes of rural Romania. And you’ll get to meet the talented truffle dogs, too.
Single-day foraging adventures
Fall Forage: Columbia River Gorge
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- Location: Mosier, Oregon
- Dates: October 26, 2025
- Length: 1 day
- Price: $175
Hosted by Wildcraft Studio School, a well-known community-based learning center out of Portland. Its “Fall Forage: Gorge” is a one-day field workshop where you’ll learn about the edible flora of the Columbia River Gorge, about an hour from Portland. It’s taught by a local forager and naturalist that will teach attendees about not just mushrooms, but also the seasonal plants and berries that thrive in the damp area forests in the fall.
In the class, you’ll learn not just how to find plants, but how to safely forage in the area and make sure you don’t overdo the harvesting. After a few hours out in the woods, you’ll gather with the group to learn about what you found and prepare a meal together inspired by the haul. The Pacific Northwest is known for an abundance of wild foods, so this is an excellent introduction to the area if you’re not familiar with foraging around Oregon.
Sea Foraging in British Columbia
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- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Dates: Various
- Length: 2 hours
- Price: $100
In 2023, British Columbia accounted for about 67 percent of Canada’s mushroom export value, and is an industry worth about $226.5 million CAD in the province. And sure, SwallowTail Culinary Adventures offers plenty of options for finding seasonal mushrooms along the Sea to Sky corridor (between Vancouver and Whistler). But it also offers an unexpected two-hour adventure: Sea Foraging. You’ll learn to forage for “seaweed, fish, crab, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, clams, scallops, oysters, geoduck, mussels and lots more,” and actually cast a crabbing net in the sea to see what comes up. It also includes a beach walk to look for edible plants and shellfish, followed by a seafood lunch and tasting. Classes take place a few times a year around Vancouver, BC, with the location changing based on seasonality and what the chef thinks participants may be able to find.
Texas Foraging Classes
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- Location: Around Houston, Texas
- Dates: Various and frequent
- Length: 2-4 hours
- Price: $145+
Merriwether’s Foraging Texas runs foraging classes as frequently as once or twice a week, with topics that change based on the season (and the presenter’s creativity, apparently). Upcoming classes and events include everything from foraging walkabouts to cooking classes to lectures on ‘”landscaping for the zombie apocalypse.” Most classes are held around central Texas and are taught by the company founder, who holds a master’s degree in medicinal chemistry and a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry. Classes are long, with some running about four hours, though most cost no more than $150.
Texas may not be known as the most bountiful state in the Union when it comes to agriculture, but these classes will show you that there’s much more to the Houston area than just beaches and oil. Depending on the class, you’ll learn to see the beauty of the region’s unique ecology, learning how to live with the land and recognize all manner of usable plants.
Foraging Certification Classes for Professionals
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- Location: Easley, South Carolina
- Dates: Various
- Length: 1-2 days
- Price: $150
No matter what type of mushroom-related skill you want to learn, you’ll probably find it offered through Mushroom Mountain in South Carolina. It offers everything from culinary certifications to mini-clinics, all suited to different ability levels. However, among the most important classes on offer are those offering certification in harvesting wild mushrooms for sale, in case you’re keen on turning your mycology hobby into an actual business. The class length varies depending on the state, but the South Carolina classes from 9 AM to 5 PM for two days.
If you’re new to the world of foraging, you may instead want to sign up for a mini-clinic on topics like cooking with mushrooms, making your own medicinal mushroom extracts, or identifying wild mushrooms. Some clinics are even available as online classes, ideal for those who don’t live in an area where mushrooms thrive. And if you love mushrooms but aren’t able to find them near your home, you may want to spring for a full-day cultivation workshop, where you can learn the complicated science of growing mushrooms at home (something far more difficult than growing a houseplant).
Mushroom Mountain is a farm dedicated to growing mushrooms, educating visitors on their value, and selling mushroom-cultivating supplies. Fortunately, that means you can also just pop in for farm tours if you happen to be in the northwestern part of South Carolina. Farm tours include a quick introduction to mushrooms, a visit to the Mushroom Mountain lab, a walk through the packed mushroom greenhouse, and a stroll along the farm’s mushroom trail. Afterward, you can stay and further explore the trail if you want to put your newfound mushrooming skills into practice. Tours are $15 and bookable online.
Eastern Canada Foraging Day Trips
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- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Dates: Various
- Length: 12 hours
- Price: $179 CAD (about $128)
Who says foraging is only for people who live in the wilderness? Toronto may be the biggest city in Canada, but it’s also home to Toronto EcoAdventures, which occasionally hosts Introduction to Wild Foraging hikes. The all-day events include an early-morning departure from the city to reach the home of Stephan Lukacic, an ex-music producer turned wild forager who now lives in Ontario. He’ll lead a three-hour class in which you’ll spend half the time learning how to find and identify mushrooms, and the other half putting your knowledge to the test in the woods.
After the class with Stephan, groups will head to a nearby park like Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park for a guided hike. It’s usually rated on the easier side, giving participants plenty of time to move slowly, searching the ground for mushrooms — and other useful wild plants — along the way. The group then stops for a shared dinner before returning to the city around 8 PM.
As of now, no new dates for 2026 have been announced. However, you can plan similar private trips through Toronto EcoAdventures if you’re not willing to wait. Stephan also leads shorter excursions with Deep Roots Adventure, based north of Toronto in Halliburton. Those trips run between two to three hours and are focused not just on edible plants, but also medicinal wild foraging and general forest ecology.
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