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Deal of the week:

Food adventures

Travellers are not looking for bargains when they seek out great food and wine but they can often find value when upmarket companies package culinary adventures. Metropolitan Hotels is offering two new over-the-top gourmet weekend packages, part of a series of recently introduced Insider Gourmet Tours. Two packages, one in Toronto and the other in Vancouver, are being offered only for the weekend of April 20-22.

In Toronto, guests will travel by private limousine from their hotel room to the St. Lawrence Market for a guided tour, cheese tasting at the Alex Farm Products cheese shop and a sampling of the back- bacon sandwich from Carousel Bakery. Guests will then head to the Niagara region for tours of Thirty Bench, Peller Estates and Inniskillin wineries in the company of wine writer Margaret Swaine, have lunch overlooking the vineyards and attend the Ontario Wine Awards dinner. The next morning, back in Toronto, participants will experience a hands-on cooking demonstration and brunch at Mildred Pierce Restaurant.

In Vancouver, visitors get a tour of Canada's first and only Sake Winery, located in the Granville Island Market, followed by dinner at top sushi restaurant Tojo's, hosted by Nathan Fong, Global TV's Saturday Morning Chef. There are also visits to regional food purveyors, including Les Amis du Fromage for a cheese tasting with the owners; the Fish Market on Granville Island for the best catches of the day; MIX The Bakery, known for its exceptional breads; and Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates, for a tour of the chocolatier's factory. The weekend's finale is a seaside adventure via private floatplane for dinner at the Cannery Seafood House. En route to dinner, you get an aerial tour of Vancouver.

The packages are available to guests of the Metropolitan Toronto, SoHo Metropolitan and Metropolitan Vancouver. The cost is $999 per person based on double occupancy; add $100 for single occupancy. For details, visit http://www.metropolitan.com/packages.

Culinary cruise

Silversea Cruises is offering 40 per cent off the nine-day Silver Whisper cruise from Nice to Athens on May 28.

Part of the line's Relais & Châteaux Culinary Series, the star attraction is Anne Desjardins, head chef and co-owner with her husband, Pierre Audette, of the Relais-Châteaux restaurant and inn l'Eau à La Bouche, located in Ste-Adèle, Que., about an hour's drive north of Montreal. She has been called the best chef in Canada by The New York Times. The cruise visits Malta, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Crete and Nauplia as well as spending two days at sea.

The cost -- about $5,300 aperson, cruise only -- includes suite accommodation, a premium assortment of complimentary wines, Champagne and spirits, your own fully stocked beverage cabinet and all gratuities.

For more information, visit http://www.silversea.com.

Tastes of Niagara

Inn on the Twenty in Jordan, in the heart of Niagara Wine Country, has a package that combines visits to four wineries with a three-course dinner.

Crush on Niagara Wine Tours, a wine tour company, drives you to four wineries where you try a range of experiences from tank sampling and cheese pairings to ice wine tasting.

The package includes two nights' accommodation in a suite, breakfasts and a three-course dinner at On The Twenty. Weekday packages start at $156 aperson, per night, plus taxes and gratuities; weekend packages start at $201.

For more information, call 1-800-701-8074 or visit http://www.innonthetwenty.com.