A look inside the growing Australian truffle tourism industry, where dogs sniff and schnapps follow
Updated 27 May 2026
Here, VisitCanberra gives a look inside the sensory experience, which visitors can experience with just a short drive from Parliament House, the seat of Australia's national government in heart of the Australian Capital Territory.
There was once a time when vacation meant sand between your toes, saltwater on your lips and a margarita by the pool. But travel in 2026 is changing. Tourists crave longer, immersive activities that engage all the senses and provide a stronger understanding of place.
And since few know their natural environment better than farmers, it’s sensible that agritourism—taking trips to farms or ranches—is trending in 2026. Data from vacation rental site VRBO shows a 300% spike in farm-stay interest, with 84% of travelers wanting to stay on a property with nature trails and fresh fruit for the picking.
One form of agritourism gaining a surprising popularity bump throughout regions all around the world is truffle foraging, an old-world European tradition that began in ancient Mesopotamia and in recent history became associated with top producers like Italy and France, but is now happening in new countries like Australia.
Black truffles are among the rarest edible fungi, known for their unmistakable, woodsy aroma often described as nutty and slightly musky. They grow entirely underground near the roots of certain trees and remain invisible from the surface. Trained dogs that can sense their scent beneath the soil help detect the truffles’ locations, at which point the lucky guest gets to dig them up and enjoy.
Australia has become the world's fourth-largest black truffle producer since planting its first host trees in 1995. Truffle farms are also cropping up. Tourists can join guided truffle hunts during peak season in the country’s colder months from June to August. The setting is usually quiet forest or farmland, a scenic haven away from the city. In Australia, one of the most unexpected places to experience this is in Canberra, the country’s capital city, where cool winters create ideal growing conditions.
What to expect on your first truffle hunt
Truffle hunting begins in the hours after frost loosens its grip on the ground, says Alice O’Mara, co-owner of boutique truffle destination Beltana Farm in Canberra, Australia which offers both rural charm and proximity to the city center.
That way, trained dogs—often English Springer Spaniels, Border Collies or the Italian Lagotto Romagnolo, a fuzzy, endearing breed that somewhat resembles the lumpy truffles they were trained to retrieve—have the best chance of smelling the black gold below the soil.
Sometimes, guests need to warm up, too—though not from frost, but to the truth about truffle’s flavor complexity. Fresh truffles taste richer than the oil that comes on top of truffle fries and truffle potato chips, but those trendy snacks are sometimes the only previous experience guests have with truffles before joining a foraging tour.
"People come in thinking they don't like truffle because they've had truffle oil at restaurants. Then they smell the real thing and realize it's nothing like what they expected,” said O’Mara.
Soon enough, though, they start digging. For an hour, guests crouch over, squatting or kneeling to follow their guide dog’s nose. Here, O’Mara takes the opportunity to give guests an oral history lesson and explain how the truffles are cultivated. As dogs move ahead, following the odor, they scan the ground. A dog detects something and stops to signal the specific spot. Guests then kneel and brush away soil.
What comes out of the ground is small and black as an inkwell, almost knotted-looking and uneven in shape. It’s the Tuber melanosporum, the Périgord truffle. And then comes the smell.
Smelling and describing truffle aromas
“It really hits you in the face,” said O’Mara. “I like it pungent, almost diesely-smelling. Some people think of asparagus; that is a quite common thing that we hear. Or beetroot, that earthy scent. They're probably the three key smells that people tell us when they're having a sniff.”
That’s the benefit of truffle hunting in groups: you can compare truffle smells, but also compare the “smell palettes” each person’s nose picks up. In this way, truffle hunting is almost like an exceptionally interactive wine tasting, but with truffle aromas. Foragers learn about the way smells can vary depending on ripeness, as well as what kind of tree the truffles grew beside—oak, hazelnut or other varieties. Blue cheese is another common aromatic note, says O’Mara. The two foods share chemical compounds alike.
After the search, truffle tourism experiences often continue the fun in the kitchen. Some farms serve meals made with freshly foraged truffles, shaving them over dishes so the flavor pops. Others may continue the hands-on theme and segue the group right into cooking demonstrations using finds from the day’s harvest.
“People are wanting a bit more of a connection to land, a bit more of an understanding of where their food is coming from,” said O’Mara. Beltana Farm has a full-service restaurant on site that presents a seasonal menu with local ingredients like oysters from Australia’s South Coast, cuttlefish-ink-cured meats, desserts drizzled with caramelized wattleseed—an aboriginal Acacia seed—and, of course, truffles foraged by guests’ own hands.
“If guests are going to have a meal, why not make it a really unique experience?”
The euphoria of agritourism
Finding one’s first truffle can bring about what O’Mara describes as “almost a euphoric state.” The combination of learning a new skill and building anticipation by getting down on the ground to dig with a trowel makes the moment tourists pull their truffle from the soil feel “like you've won the biggest prize in the world.”
After all, tourists are just big kids inside. Even the most buttoned-up adults smile in glee when given the chance to follow their forager instincts and commune with nature on an outdoor excursion.
At the end of the day, after the hunt and meal, a swig of truffle schnapps makes for the perfect aperitif to cleanse the palette. The truffle essence gives the drink an earthy undertone, but the schnapps adds complex sweetness.
"People love it,” said O’Mara about the truffle schnapps. “It's great over ice cream. But as a shot it also works."
Unlike wineries, where visitors tend to arrive with a clear sense of what the visit will involve, O’Mara notes that many guests come to truffle farms with little prior understanding of the process. Unless they are already truffle enthusiasts, she says, most are encountering the experience for the first time.
This lack of expectation sets truffle hunting apart from more familiar food and wine experiences. “Guests are always just so excited and blown away with watching a dog work and learning about how nature creates these amazing things,” O’Mara said.
Wine tastings operate year-round, but truffle season arrives once annually for just a few months,typically June through August in Canberra. Nature’s short window for truffle hunting is part of what makes the activity so coveted. One week they’re there, the next they’re gone. But the knowledge (and the memories) last much longer.
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About the author
Megan DeMatteo is an internationally published writer and solopreneur inspiring meaningful travel. Her work appears in Fodor’s, Dwell, Insider, Marie Claire and more.