Gastronomy tour Chania: wine, cheese and two meals in villages

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/17

Duration5h–6h

GroupUp to 12

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Two meals in villages, four wines, and the olive oil mill that makes them

A guided gastronomy tour through traditional villages between Chania and Rethymno where you taste local cheese, honey, olive oil, smoked meat and Greek sweets, drink coffee made the traditional way, tour a working olive mill, and eat two full meals at family-owned tavernas—one beside Lake Kournas with views across the water and mountains. The tour runs 5 to 6 hours with pickup and dropoff included, and vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options are available at both meals.

5h–6h

Step-by-step itinerary

Cretan villages food and wine tasting

Visit traditional coffeehouse and drink Greek coffee
Taste traditional sheep milk ice cream and Cretan cheese
Visit old church with garden of fruit trees and herbs
Pass through beautiful village with river
Tour modern olive oil mill and taste olive products
Enjoy first meal with local dishes and wines at Lake Kournas
Enjoy second meal with different traditional dishes

The Experience

You start in a traditional coffeehouse surrounded by trees and streams, where Greek coffee is slow-cooked in hot sand the way it has been for centuries. From there the tour moves through villages and stops at a cheese shop where you taste graviera cheese and try sheep-milk ice cream made locally in Chania—the carob flavor exists nowhere else in the world. The guide takes you to a 500-year-old church with a garden of fruit and nut trees, then to a modern olive oil mill where the producer walks you through the pressing and lets you taste virgin oil and olives straight from the source. You can buy souvenirs there: handmade pots, oil, olives, the things people make and keep.

The first meal happens at Lake Kournas, where the taverna sits above the water with views of the sea and mountains behind it. You eat lamb cooked with oil and wine, lamb slow-cooked in fire, grape leaves stuffed with rice, zucchini flowers, eggplant with tomato and cream cheese, and other dishes the family has made for years. Four local wines come with the meal. The second taverna is in a different village and serves completely different food—chicken with grape juice, pork with tomato and peppers, smoked pork with oregano and sage, mushrooms marinated in beer. Both restaurants use products from their own village or grow them themselves.

The tour includes an air-conditioned vehicle, a live English-speaking guide, and pickup and dropoff from your hotel or designated spot. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free versions of every dish are available at both meals. The remaining time in the 5- to 6-hour window is travel between stops.

What’s included

Pickup and dropoff from your hotel or designated spot.
air-conditioned vehicle.
live English-speaking guide.
traditional Greek coffee made in hot sand.
tastings of local cheese, honey, olive oil, smoked meat, Greek sweets and herbs.
guided tour of a working olive oil mill with tasting.
two full meals at family-owned tavernas with four local wines at the first meal.
vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free versions of all dishes available.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyInfant seats availableNot for heart conditions

Operated by HappyTravellersTours & Transfers

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want to eat real Cretan food in the places where it's made and served, rather than a restaurant in town. The two full meals and the olive mill visit mean you're tasting and learning from the source—the families who cook it, the producer who makes the oil, the villages where it all happens. A shared tour with a guide who knows the owners and the stories behind each stop.