MARKET TOURS · AROUND THE WORLD
Where the city actually shops.
Fish stalls in Tokyo, spice souks in Marrakech, the Rialto at first light, La Merced for blocks. Real reviews of the market tours and stall-to-table cooking classes worth your morning, in the cities worth showing up hungry for.
Markets worth the trip
Three markets that are a destination on their own.
Most cities have a market. A few have a market people fly in for. Tokyo has Tsukiji, Marrakech has the souks, Mexico City has La Merced and a hundred barrio mercados. Walk them with someone who knows the stalls and they become the best morning of the trip.
Japan
Tokyo
Tsukiji is the market every food traveller has heard of, and it lives up to it. The inner wholesale floor moved on, but the outer market is still hundreds of stalls deep in knives, dried fish, tamago and tea. A guide gets you there early, navigates the 400-odd vendors, and turns breakfast into the best sushi of your trip before the tour buses arrive.
- 1 Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market Food and Culture Walking Tour
- 2 Tokyo: Tsukiji Fish Market Food and Walking tour
- 3 Tokyo Sushi Making Class in Tsukiji with Professional Chef
Morocco
Marrakech
The Marrakech souks are a market you can get gloriously lost in: spice pyramids, the dyers' lane hung with wool, slipper stalls, olives by the barrel. A local untangles the maze, teaches you to haggle without offence, and walks you to the food, ending at the smoke and lanterns of the Jemaa el-Fnaa night stalls.
- 1 Moroccan Cooking Class & Marrakech Market Visit with Chef Khmisa
- 2 Evening Marrakech: Gastronomic and Market Tour Inside the Medina
- 3 Moroccan Cooking Class with Market Visit and Meal
Mexico
Mexico City
No city wears its markets louder. La Merced runs for blocks, San Juan stocks the exotic, and every barrio mercado has a salsa counter and a taco stand worth the trip. A guide steers you to the chiles, the moles and the quesadilla lady everyone swears by, and often turns the haul into a cooking class afterwards.
- 1 Mexican Cooking Class with Food Market Visit in Mexico City
- 2 Essence of Mexico: Authentic Mexican Cooking Class & Market Tour
- 3 Mexican Street Tacos Hands-on Cooking Class and Market Tour
If you only book one
The market tour more travellers rave about than any other.
Out of every market walk on the site, this is the one that sends people home telling everyone they know to set the alarm and go.
The crowd-pleasers
The Most Popular Market Tours Right Now
Tsukiji at dawn, the Rialto fish hall, the Marrakech souks, La Merced for blocks. The market mornings travellers are happiest they showed up for.
Start with a city
The best market tours, city by city.
Tokyo for the fish stalls, Marrakech for the souks, Venice for the Rialto, Mexico City for the mercados. Pick the city you are headed to and we will show you the market tours worth booking there.
What kind of market
Three kinds of market morning.
Not all markets are the same trip. Pick the one that pulls you: the dawn fish hall, the spice-souk labyrinth, or the produce mercado you taste your way through and then cook.
Marrakech
Get lost in the souks. On purpose.
The Marrakech medina is a market you wander into and stop checking the time: spice pyramids, the wool hung along the dyers’ lane, lanterns, olives by the barrel. A local untangles the maze, teaches you to haggle without offence, and walks you to the smoke and grills of the Jemaa el-Fnaa night stalls.
See the best Marrakech market tours →Rome
Taste your way down the market aisle.
A Roman market morning at Campo de’ Fiori or the Mercato di Testaccio is a tour in itself: the cheese counter, the cured-meat slicer, the fresh-pasta window, supplì and pizza al taglio, a stallholder pressing samples on you down the row. Many walks finish by turning the basket into lunch at a hands-on cooking class.
See the best Rome market tours →Venice
The Rialto, before the city wakes.
For a thousand years Venice has shopped at the Rialto: the pescheria loud with the night’s lagoon catch, the produce barges along the canal, the herb and spice stalls. A market tour gets you there at opening, teaches you to read what is in season, and often carries the basket on to a cooking class or a cicchetti counter for lunch.
See the best Venice market tours →Tokyo at dawn
Tsukiji, the world’s great fish market.
The inner wholesale auction moved to Toyosu, but Tsukiji’s outer market is still the morning every food traveller wants: hundreds of stalls deep in tuna, uni, knives, dried fish, tamago and tea. A guide gets you there early, navigates the 400-odd vendors, and turns breakfast into the best sushi of the trip before the tour buses pull in.
- 1 Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market Food and Culture Walking Tour
- 2 Tokyo: Tsukiji Fish Market Food and Walking tour
- 3 Tokyo Sushi Making Class in Tsukiji with Professional Chef
By the clock
When do you want to hit the market?
Tsukiji is best at opening, the Rialto roars by mid-morning, and the Marrakech souks come alive after dark. Pick the hour that sounds like your kind of market and the city to match.
First light
Tokyo, before the crowds.A Tsukiji walk at opening, when the knife stalls and the tamago grills are calm and the seafood is at its freshest. A guide threads you through the outer market for sushi breakfast and the bites a first-timer never finds.
Mid-morning
Venice, the Rialto in full swing.The fish hall and the produce barges at the Rialto are loud and packed by mid-morning. A local shows you what is in season in the lagoon, then turns the basket into lunch at a cooking class or a cicchetti counter nearby.
After dark
Marrakech, the souks at night.When the spice piles glow under the lamps and Jemaa el-Fnaa fills with smoke and grills, a guide walks you deep into the souks, past the dyers and the lanterns, to the food stalls only locals queue at.
Palermo
The market that shouts at you.
Palermo’s street markets are a sensory ambush in the best way. The vendors at Ballarò, Capo and the Vucciria sing their prices, the grills throw smoke over panelle and pane ca meusa, and the stalls run from swordfish to sea urchins to mountains of citrus. A local walks you through the chaos, orders the Sicilian street food you would never point at, and often ends the morning at a hands-on cooking class.
See all 5 Palermo market tours →By city
Pick a city and find its market.
Tokyo for the fish stalls. Venice for the Rialto. Marrakech for the souks. Mexico City for the mercados. Rome for the produce squares. Seoul for the food alleys.
More cities
More market cities worth the trip.
Valencia for the Mercado Central, Ubud for the dawn produce market, Mumbai for the spice bazaars, Taipei for the night markets. The rest of the map, ready when you are.
Market then kitchen
Pick a city, shop the stalls, cook the haul.
A mercado morning in Mexico City, a dawn market in Ubud, the Mercado Central in Valencia. Three cities where the best tours start at the stall and end at the stove.
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