Some high-end tourists are turning to posh properties where they can fish, forage and harvest their meals – and immerse themselves in local culture in the process.

At Casa Angelina, a luxury hotel on Italy's Amalfi Coast, a handful of guests leave their suites as the night sky turns violet. One by one, they board a wooden boat and set sail into the Tyrrhenian Sea, fishing line in hand, to hunt for their next lunch: squid.

No, there hasn't been a mix-up at reception. Around the world, patrons of posh properties are swapping plush robes and pool naps for windbreakers and food-sourcing excursions, where they'll forage, hunt, harvest or fish for their own food. And they're paying top dollar for the opportunity to do it, with singular activities costing as much as several hundred pounds and multi-day resort and luxury farm stays costing into the thousands.

People have been searching for food for survival since the dawn of mankind, but in the past decade or so, travellers at five-star hotels have started paying to do so as a leisurely tourist activity. In Italy, hotels like Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco in Siena and Hotel Savoy in Florence offer truffle hunting excursions. Similar food gathering experiences are popping up around the world. The Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar, Scotland, for example, offers guided foraging tours of local plants and vegetation led by an in-house forager who identifies and shares information about plants that can be used for teas, tinctures, condiments and cosmetics. And at Rosewood Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, guests forage at the hotel's onsite garden, gathering food for their meals. At Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, Canada, guests gather plants on the island and learn how to use them in drinks.

But why are people choosing to work for their food while on holiday? It might be as simple as a hunger for something different.

"As the pace of modern life accelerates and technology consumes so much of our attention, there's growing value in slowing down and touching the soil, engaging the senses and rediscovering where nourishment truly comes from," said Vinod Narayan, general manager at Wildflower Farms, Auberge Collection, a resort in New York's Hudson Valley that offers immersive walks through the woodlands surrounding their 65 cabins and cottages. "[Activities like] foraging reflect a broader cultural desire to reconnect with the natural world in a tangible,........

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