Greece: Food & Wine Heaven With Cooking Classes
per person
There is more to Greece than the image of tourists infesting beaches like locusts from sprawling hotels. Don’t be afraid to roam out of bounds and discover Greece’s food and wine heaven — and allow International Experiences to show you the way. Naxos is the biggest and the greenest island in the Cyclades of Greece. It has high mountains, fertile valleys, lush green gorges, stunning seascapes and traditional villages perched high on mountain tops, where the inhabitants still wear their traditional dress and live off the fruits of the land. Naxos is also home to beautiful old churches, monasteries and Venetian castles coexisting harmoniously with the Cycladic architecture. Did we mention food? You’ll be enjoying the local cuisine and spirits, sometimes in cooking classes and also in local kitchens and a Venetian castle. This best food tour to Greece will rock your world, and give you classic time-tested recipes that you’ll bring home to your friends and family. This Greek food and wine tour is about organic farm to table–and wine glass!
Highlights
- Enjoy authentic world-class and locally sourced Greek cuisine
- Hand-pick the ingredients you’ll need to prepare traditional Greek recipes
- Wine tasting in a medieval wine cellar
- Savor a traditional dessert in a Venetian castle
- Embrace fantastic but still unknown Greek red wines
- Mosaic making via a four-hour workshop in a medieval studio
- Dazzling cooking classes in various kitchen environments
- Destination
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Included
AccommodationsActivities as SpecifiedEnglish Speaking GuideGovernment taxesMeals as SpecifiedTransportation
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Not Included
Domestic AirfareInternational AirfareTips For Tour GuidesTravel InsuranceVisa Processing
From our gallery
1
WELCOME TO NAXOS!
- Arrive in Naxos on your own via port or airport and proceed to your accommodation -- Naxian Collection -- where you can relax for the rest of the day.
2
GETTING A TASTE OF GREECE
- Start your day with a healthy, locally sourced breakfast before you participate in local cheese making, followed by a cooking class with Mrs. Julia, who cooked for Anthony Bourdain when he visited Naxos a few years ago. You're off to a good start!
- You'll then go to the hotel’s farm and hand-pick the ingredients you'll need to prepare a few delicious, traditional Greek recipes--which you'll later enjoy for lunch. Dishes will include green beans, veal with red wine sauce, and stuffed vegetables. Yum.
- Your day ends with a one-hour wine tasting at the Naxian Collection’s medieval wine cellar, where along with the hotel’s sommelier, you'll taste a few Greek red wines accompanied by a local-style cheese platter and enhance your knowledge of some fantastic and still unknown Greek red wines.
3
CREATING YOUR OWN GREEK FLAVORS
- By sourcing our favorite locations and creating your own palette of tastes, we invite you to explore the Naxos foodie landscape on your own. Kinidaros, Apeiranthos, Kaloxylos, Chalki & Naxos Town will be the meeting points. In the morning, you'll be baking either cheese or an olive pie in Kinidaros -- what a debut! Kinidaros is the village where the Naxian marble quarries are located.
- Next, you'll visit a restored windmill in Apeiranthos, which is the most traditional village in Naxos.
- For lunch, you'll stop in Kaloxylos, which is a tiny village where you'll get your hands dirty at another cooking class!
- Halki, which used to be the capital of the island long ago, for Venetian towers, neoclassical buildings and ancient Byzantine churches that will transport you back in time. There you'll visit the Citron (local liqueur) distillery. This tour couldn't end anywhere else but in the Venetian Castle (old city of Naxos) which was built by Venetian nobility in 1,200 -- where you'll enjoy a savory traditional dessert.
4
MOSAICS
- Today you'll explore another side of your creativity by making a unique mosaic and learn about classic and contemporary mosaic making via a four-hour workshop. You'll be learning and working in the special medieval environment of a working studio that's part of the restored monastery of Agios Eleftherios. This is the real deal!
- The monastery’s altar features fascinating icons, which, besides displaying impressive artistic dexterity, also depict a great deal of historical information about the monastery itself. The monastery and workshop are located in the traditional village of Sangri, in the interior of the island of Naxos.
- After the mosaic making you're free to relax and enjoy some well-deserved beach or pool time.
5
ANTIO SAS!
- Depart from Naxos and proceed to your port or airport. [Private Luxury Transfer to the port/airport.]