How to Eat and Drink Your Way Through Greece

There’s no question that Greece’s cuisine is an integral part of vacationing there. From moussaka to local olive oil to octopus, Greece offers healthy, tasty food at every corner.

For true gastronomes, however, simply eating out while in Greece may not be enough. For those looking for a true food immersion experience, chefs around the country offer extended cooking classes — some as long as a week — where visitors can cook, eat, and drink the best of Greek food. Local growers also welcome tourists, offering meals created from local ingredients and a look into how they grow and produce traditional food.

Here are some ideas for planning your vacation in Greece around food and drink.

Spend a Week with Kea Artisanal

In this popular program, award-winning cookbook author Aglaia Kremezi and her husband, Costas Moraitis, offer visitors a weeklong immersion into Greek food and culture through cooking classes, food tastings, and tours of the Cyclades’s beaches, archaeological sites, and villages. Here’s an example of a typical day: Guests are picked up at their hotel in the morning, then harvest grape leaves to make dolmades and prepare a kid to roast in a wood-fired oven. After a wine tasting, they share a lunch that they have prepared. Guests spend the afternoon relaxing, then have dinner at a local taverna. Throughout the week, students also learn how to make traditional breads, fry vegetables, and prepare locally caught fish.

For those who can’t stay a week, Kremezi also offers one-day events and special programs throughout the year.

Experience Olive Oil

Greek olive oil is renowned worldwide, and a Greek vacation is the perfect time to learn more about this revered product. The Olive Oil Tasting Family Workshop, which is held outside of Athens, introduces visitors to the process of making olive oil. The three-hour experience begins with a tour of the family’s garden and a discussion of the history of olive oil and its significance to Greek food. Visitors also will learn about the types of olive trees and how olives are harvested and then processed into olive oil. After learning how to recognize a quality olive oil, guests will taste some of Greece’s best.

If you’re looking for a deeper olive oil experience, plan to visit Greece around October. This is olive harvesting season, and some farms welcome visitors to help pick olives and then teach them how to treat the olives with brine and spices. You’ll also get to see how olives are pressed to express the oil, and you’ll likely leave with a few liters of fresh olive oil.

Forage in Crete

To visit the sources of Greece’s freshest ingredients, plan to spend a few days in Crete. You will work with an experienced guide to identify and forage for food and then prepare a delicious meal. This is a great vacation for foodies and nature enthusiasts who enjoy hiking and the outdoors. The four-day trip also includes wine tasting at an organic winery, beach strolls, instruction in identifying Greece’s medicinal and edible plants, and a walk through a local village.

Sample Wine in Santorini

If you’re looking to experience the best of Greek wine and wine making, head to Santorini. One travel writer referred to this famous island as the Napa Valley of Greece, as it is home to numerous vineyards and local wines. Some say the wine here is especially good because local grapes grow in a dry climate and in soil with favorable mineral content.

The best way to visit wineries in Santorini is to book a tour. Some vineyards can be hard to find on your own, and tour operators generally will pick you up and return you to your hotel. Car and bus tours will fill up early, so you may want to consider a boat tour. Wherever you visit, you’re likely to be treated to an amazing view of Santorini’s caldera along with a quality glass of wine.

The Art Space winery in Exo Gonia would be a good place to start your Santorini wine tour. This unique location, which is carved into a pumice rock cave, features artwork by Greek artists and produces its wines on-site. Art Space’s owner has installed modern winemaking equipment 8 meters underground, and this small operation creates four varieties of wine using organic grapes from its vineyard. Other notable wineries you may want to visit include Estate Argyros, which is more than 100 years old and is run by members of its founding family. It has won awards for its wines, including its Vinsanto — a libation aged for 12 years in French oak barrels. Boutari in Megalohori offers tours in five languages and daily wine and food tastings, and Santo Winery — the largest on Santorini — is on the edge of the caldera and sells all sorts of Greek food delicacies along with its wines.

Whether you leave Greece with a suitcase full of Greek wine or a heart full of happy memories, focusing your vacation on Greece’s food and wine will be a satisfying, once-in-a-lifetime experience.