Vacations that cook

For some, cooking on vacation is a treat, not a chore. These stellar hotel cooking schools and classes offer vacationers with culinary inclinations a chance to cook up delicious meals alongside local chefs.

Make your way to The White Barn Inn, a rustic haunt in Kennebunkport, Maine, where chef Jonathan Cartwright offers hands-on cooking instruction highlighting the restaurant’s nightly offerings.

Berlin’s modern Relexa Hotel Stuttgarter Hof houses a sleek on-site cooking studio that can be booked for parties of 10 to 20. Learn a few recipes and then wait for the class to culminate in a three-course meal with wine pairings.

For a bit of culinary nirvana, however, you could just head to luxury Cavallo Point in San Francisco. It houses a seriously impressive culinary studio that hosts both cooking demos and classes, features two flat-screens for a close-up view and holds ongoing, hands-on classes and demos, followed by meals at rustic wood tables.

Meanwhile, Austin’s health-minded Lake Austin Spa Resort, which houses a welcoming cooking school, hosts free classes from notable local chefs and authors, with an emphasis on local, organically prepared dishes.

Itching to leave the country? Consider a trip to scenic Cong, Ireland, where Lisloughrey Lodge — tucked within the Guinness family’s one-time country estate —features how-to’s on chef Wade Murphy’s luxurious dishes.

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