Growing trend: Agricultural tourism

During a stay at the Four Seasons Tamarindo in Jalisco, Mexico, Sarah Fazendin, founder and managing partner of Denver-based Videre Travel, learned something interesting: The chickens living at the luxury property’s 34-acre farm, Rancho Ortega, are partial to a particular genre of music.

The farm’s resident “chicken whisperer” informed Fazendin that, after much trial and error, it was discovered that playing reggae was the only thing that could coax the chickens into laying eggs.

“They had initially had some problems with the egg-laying, but now they have plenty,” said Fazendin, who had toured Rancho Ortega shortly after the Four Seasons Tamarindo opened late last year. “And celebrating that success was something that everyone there was really, really excited about.”

It wasn’t the first high-end hotel farm experience for Fazendin, who has also milked cows and gathered eggs at the boutique Morgan’s Rock Hacienda and Ecolodge in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

“That’s a really hands-on and memorable experience,” said Fazendin, though she acknowledged that the property’s agricultural programming isn’t for everyone. When suggesting it to clients, Fazendin makes sure to show them photos of the property’s farm, El Aguacate, and pictures of herself participating in its signature Breakfast at the Farm experience, which, in addition to milking cows and gathering eggs, involves making tortillas.

“I really want to help them visualize it,” Fazendin said. “I mean, if someone doesn’t want to milk a cow, they certainly don’t have to, but it’s important that they know there are cows and manure, and that can be overwhelming for someone who’s never been on a farm before. But people figure out pretty quickly if it’s something for them.”

Yet, for a certain segment of travelers, a taste of farm life is exactly what they’re looking for.

“Any luxury traveler today could probably be described as a foodie,” Fazendin said. “So in the luxury market, this is really a logical extension of food and wine culture and travelers wanting to learn more about where their food comes from. Italy, for example, is one of the countries that does it best, and they’ve had that ‘agritourismo’ movement happening for decades.”

Feeding the growing demand

Italy, with its vast vineyards and olive groves, isn’t the only place where farms are taking center stage.

A growing number of hotels and resorts around the world are eager to capitalize on demand for agricultural tourism at the luxury end, with many cultivating their own farms, gardens and greenhouses, or playing up partnerships with local growers.

The properties standing out most in this space, however, have on-site farms that go well beyond the typical rooftop herb garden, featuring expansive acreage and a dizzying array of produce and livestock.

Most importantly, they’re increasingly putting their farms at the forefront of the guest experience, not just by way of farm-to-table culinary offerings but also through classes, tours and other experiences that underscore the nexus of agriculture, sustainability and wellness.

According to Kurt Bjorkman, COO of the 97-room Ranch at Laguna Beach in Orange County, Calif., the property’s half-acre Harvest Garden farm has generated “a high level of interest” since its launch six years ago.

“We’ve had families with small kids who originally planned to go to Disneyland for a day but instead decided they wanted to stay back at the hotel, go to the farm and hang with the chickens and our farmer, Farmer Leo,” Bjorkman said. “And we’ve also had corporate groups that actually come out and do team building by turning compost together.”

The Ranch, which is part of the Beyond Green network of sustainability-minded hotels, offers complimentary farm tours twice a week. Depending on the season, the farm, which typically generates about 100 pounds of produce and flowers for the property per month, is planted with crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas and lettuce.

“To sit down and have lunch or dinner and really understand where that lettuce or other vegetables came from, it can be transformative,” Bjorkman said.

According to David Mishkin, executive property manager for the Southall Farm & Inn in Franklin, Tenn., that desire for more transformative culinary experiences has certainly helped spark heightened interest in agriculture.

“There are so many TV shows nowadays that home in on a chef, and then you watch them searching for the very best ingredients — that kind of show wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t already a high level of interest for that type of thing,” Mishkin said.

Southall Farm & Inn has no shortage of agricultural offerings, thanks to its 325 acres of farmland comprising vegetable gardens, an apple orchard, an apiary and greenhouses, including a hydroponic greenhouse specializing in lettuce and other leafy greens.

Guests can explore the grounds during a complimentary Welcome to the Farm walking tour, book popular experiences such as the Ready, Set, Grow gardening class or attend the Planting Party, which gives guests the chance to work alongside Southall’s farmers in planting a seasonal crop.

“We’ve had groups come out here and plant tomatoes, for example, and we talk about everything from how to start the plants in a greenhouse, how to correctly plant them and many other things, like frost timing,” Mishkin said. “It’s a very get-your-hands-dirty, immersive experience.”

Farm tours have also proven exceptionally popular at the Castle Hot Springs, a luxury resort just north of Phoenix. The historical property underwent a revamp and relaunched in 2019 with a three-acre farm and a greenhouse, which are planted with 150 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

“Our first year, we didn’t offer official farm tours, and we’d just kind of randomly talk to guests and take them around the farm,” said Ian Beger, Castle Hot Springs’ resident lead agronomist. “But then that got a little bit too crazy. We were spending half of our day doing individual farm tours, so we decided to hold them once per day. And now they’re our most popular activity at the resort.”

Castle Hot Springs also offers a Homegrown Gardening workshop, which is targeted toward home gardening enthusiasts looking to either start a garden or step up their gardening game. According to Beger, Castle Hot Springs is in the process of retooling that offering to make it more comprehensive, with plans to send each attendee home with seedlings and other supplies, essentially providing them a “garden to-go.”

“Almost every week, I have a guest come to me saying, ‘We did your Homegrown Gardening [workshop] or the farm tour last time, and we bought your seeds and our garden’s growing,” Beger said. “I think we’ve probably inspired hundreds of garden creations at this point, which is pretty exciting.”

At Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection in New York’s Hudson Valley, meanwhile, agricultural programming goes well beyond the usual complimentary farm tour or beekeeping workshop. The 140-acre property, which opened last fall, also offers more niche experiences, such as its Raising Shiitake workshop, which teaches guests to grow shiitakes by inoculating logs with the living mycelium of the mushroom, and a Fruit Tree Grafting class, during which attendees learn about the art of tree surgery and are given a grafted apple tree seedling as a parting gift.

“Our farm-related experiences are some of our most popular,” said Enza DePalma, Wildflower Farms’ experience curator. “Guests are curious and excited; they want to get their hands dirty and learn.”

One of Wildflower Farms’ founding farmers, Jax Hughes, said he’s been “pleasantly surprised” by the level of guest enthusiasm.

“There are always a ton of good questions, and, without fail, people light up when they get to pick things [like] cherry tomatoes, broccolini, etc., and eat them right out in the field,” Hughes said.

Keeping agricultural traditions alive

For some properties, a farming focus is not just about bountiful organic, sustainably grown produce but also about preserving a way of life.

In Trancoso, Brazil, the Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa’s 50-acre farm, located roughly 10 minutes by car from the property, is just one of many in a thriving agricultural community. But as Trancoso’s prominence as a luxury travel destination continues to grow, Uxua co-founder Bob Shevlin and other local hospitality stakeholders are working to ensure that agriculture remains a key pillar of the district’s tourism ecosystem.

“We decided very early on, along with other [hoteliers] in our social network, to make sure that we keep the farming, which is a part of the heritage here, and not let development squeeze it all farther out until all the farms are an hour drive from here,” Shevlin said. “Italy is the inspiration. Farming is so relevant to their tourism story today. And it will be relevant 100 years from now.”

Although Uxua has traditionally attracted an outsize share of fashion and design aficionados — the hotel’s other co-founder is Dutch fashion designer Wilbert Das — Shevlin has seen a recent uptick in the number of guests expressing interest in farming and in the property’s gardening, foraging, fishing and agroforestry practices.

Uxua’s farm visits can also be combined with activities like kayaking, horseback riding and biking.

“The client is getting more and more switched on to [agriculture],” Shevlin said. “And I think it’s a great evolution in travel. They want to get their hands in the soil or post an Instagram story while foraging or cooking with the farmer’s wife.”

Meanwhile, in Italy, the motherland of agricultural tourism, Umbria’s Tenuta di Murlo is the latest steward of land that has, according to owner Carlotta Carabba Tettamanti, been farmed since the Middle Ages. Set on an 18,000-acre estate, Tenuta di Murlo’s accommodations, which comprise just three hotel rooms and nine standalone villas, are dwarfed by its vast agricultural offerings, which include vegetable gardens, vineyards, olive trees and beehives and animals such as goats, hens, rabbits and ducks.

The Carabba Tettamanti family has owned the estate since the 16th century, though the Tenuta di Murlo hospitality concept is a more recent addition, debuting with an inaugural villa in 2006.

“As Italians, we believe it’s a privilege to have an estate that’s so unique, and we have to preserve it for generations to come,” said Carabba Tettamanti. “And our idea is to keep it as authentic as possible. People are really interested in the history of the place, the traditions of our family and the farming.”

In Mexico, along the Baja California peninsula’s Pacific coast, Paradero Todos Santos is doing its part to preserve local agricultural traditions that go back at least 100 years. Nestled within Todos Santos’ historical La Mesa farming community, Paradero guests are greeted by the aroma of poblano peppers, basil, chives and other fragrant crops upon arrival.

According to Paradero co-founder Joshua Kremer, one of the property’s most popular activities is its Learn to Farm program, which gives guests the chance to explore the fields and learn more about organic and sustainable farming practices.

“It’s a very grounding experience for a lot of people,” Kremer said. “They [realize] that the arugula from their Whole Foods in the U.S. doesn’t taste anything like the arugula here. And being able to see where it’s being grown, when we’re all so disconnected from that kind of reality, I think is very special and profound.”