Along with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant transition to online learning happens in tourism and hospitality education. In response to the call for scholarly attention to online learning, this paper explores the effectiveness of virtual experiential learning in enhancing students' engagement by comparing two groups of students who participated in virtual and in-person field trips for a culinary tourism course. Adopting a mixed-method approach, the data were collected from online surveys about student engagement, reflective diaries about their winery field trip experiences and assessment marks. As a result, it was identified that both virtual and in-person field trips enhance the student's skill and emotional engagement. In particular, while a virtual field trip is more effective in increasing skill engagement, an in-person field trip is a more effective approach for emotional engagement. Unlike these two engagements, no significant impacts of virtual and in-person field trips on participation and performance engagement are observed. Its theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.