Food & wine

There is no single Greek cuisine. Cretan, Epirot, Macedonian, island and Ionian cooking are distinct traditions with different fats, different staples and different histories — and Greek wine has quietly become very good.

Lunch, at length
Harvest, late September
Image slotAssyrtiko in the cellar, Santorini. Basket-trained vines in ash, tasted where it is made rather than in a tasting room.
Image slotThessaloniki markets, Macedonia. Modiano and Kapani in the morning, then small plates until late.
Image slotXinomavro at Naoussa, Macedonia. The red that changes minds about Greek wine, at harvest in September.
Image slotPies before dawn, Zagori. Filo rolled by hand in a village kitchen, the only way to understand Epirot food.

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The indigenous grapes are the story: Assyrtiko from Santorini's volcanic ash, Agiorgitiko from Nemea, Xinomavro from Naoussa — a red often compared to Nebbiolo — Malagousia, Moschofilero, Vidiano. Most of it never leaves the country in quantity, which is why it surprises people.

On the food side, the regional lines are sharp. Crete cooks with wild greens, barley and sheep's cheese. Epirus makes pies. Thessaloniki is Ottoman and Sephardic. The Ionian is Venetian, with tomato and spice the Aegean never adopted. The Cyclades preserve, because they had to.

The useful things to arrange are the ones you cannot book from outside: a cellar tasting with the winemaker rather than the visitor centre, a morning in a market with a cook, a village kitchen at the hour the pies are rolled, a table held at a place with eight covers and no listing.

Where it is at its best

Assyrtiko in the cellar
Santorini
Basket-trained vines in ash, tasted where it is made rather than in a tasting room.
Thessaloniki markets
Macedonia
Modiano and Kapani in the morning, then small plates until late.
Xinomavro at Naoussa
Macedonia
The red that changes minds about Greek wine, at harvest in September.
Pies before dawn
Zagori
Filo rolled by hand in a village kitchen, the only way to understand Epirot food.

Three ways this trip is shaped

Worked examples, not products. Nothing here is booked or sold — they are simply how a trip of this kind fits together when the distances are respected.

5 days · April – June, September – November

The Naoussa and Amyndeon table

Thessaloniki
Naoussa
Amyndeon
Edessa

Xinomavro at the source, long lunches in the vineyards, and the best market city to begin in.

Day by day, on the map

8 days · April – November

Crete, west to east

Chania
Apokoronas
Rethymno hills
Heraklion
Peza

Mountain cheese, raki distilling in October, and indigenous grapes almost nobody outside the island drinks.

Day by day, on the map

6 days · March – June, September – November

Nemea and the Peloponnesian south

Nafplio
Nemea
Areopoli
Kalamata

Agiorgitiko, first-press oil in November, and tavernas unchanged in three generations.

Day by day, on the map

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Regions for this

Santorini, before the ships
Naxos Chora
Image slotThe caldera by boat, not by road — Cyclades (classic). A private caïque out to the volcanic islets and the hot springs, leaving mid-afternoon and back for sunset on the water.
Image slotAssyrtiko in the vineyard — Cyclades (classic). Basket-trained vines lying flat in volcanic ash, tasted in a cellar with the person who made it.
Image slotDelos — Cyclades (classic). An entire uninhabited sacred island, thirty minutes off Mykonos. The most complete ancient city you can walk through in Greece.
Image slotInland Naxos — Cyclades (classic). Marble villages, a Venetian tower, an emery mine, a kouros lying unfinished in a field where it cracked.

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Cyclades (classic)

Santorini, Mykonos, Paros, Naxos. Famous for good reason, and entirely manageable if you get the hours right.

Sarakiniko, Milos
The Sifnos paths
Image slotMilos by boat, all day — Cyclades (off-grid). Kleftiko's sea caves, Sykia's collapsed roof, and coves with no land access at all.
Image slotThe Sifnos footpath network — Cyclades (off-grid). Two hundred kilometres of waymarked old paths between villages, monasteries and bays.
Image slotPanagia Hozoviotissa, Amorgos — Cyclades (off-grid). A white monastery pinned to a vertical cliff three hundred metres above the sea.
Image slotClay-pot cooking — Cyclades (off-grid). Revithada and mastelo, cooked overnight in a wood oven, eaten on Sunday like everyone else.
Image slotThe Lion of Kea — Cyclades (off-grid). A smiling archaic lion cut from the rock above Ioulida, reached on foot in twenty minutes.
Image slotKolona, Kythnos — Cyclades (off-grid). A sandbar with sea on both sides, best swum to from a boat before the afternoon wind.

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Cyclades (off-grid)

Milos, Folegandros, Sifnos, Amorgos, Serifos, Kimolos, Kea and Kythnos. Same light, same sea, a fraction of the people.

Western Crete, out of season
The Lefka Ori
Image slotSamaria or Imbros gorge — Crete. Samaria is sixteen kilometres and a full day; Imbros is eight and family-manageable. Both end at the Libyan Sea.
Image slotKnossos, early, with an archaeologist — Crete. Evans's reconstruction is controversial and much better with someone who can explain what is real.
Image slotBalos and Gramvousa by private boat — Crete. A hooked sandbar between two seas, best reached before the day boats.
Image slotA village kitchen — Crete. Wild greens picked that morning, snails, and a raki still made in the yard.

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Crete

Not an island so much as a small country: four mountain ranges, a Bronze Age civilisation, and its own kitchen.

North-east Corfu
Off Antipaxos
Image slotA day boat to Antipaxos — Ionian (Eptanese). Two beaches with Caribbean water, twenty minutes off Paxos, empty by six.
Image slotThe Myrtos road — Ionian (Eptanese). Kefalonia's west coast from above — one of the great European coastal drives.
Image slotCorfu Town on foot — Ionian (Eptanese). Venetian fortresses, the Liston arcade, and a Sunday philharmonic band that has played since 1840.
Image slotIthaca, slowly — Ionian (Eptanese). Two harbours, a hill village, and the least developed island in the group.

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Ionian (Eptanese)

Corfu, Kefalonia, Lefkada, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Paxos. Green, Venetian, and the closest Greek islands to Malta.

Athens, arrival evening
Hydra, out of season
Image slotThe Acropolis before the gates open — Athens & Argo-Saronic. First entry with a licensed archaeologist, then the museum, then out before the heat.
Image slotThe National Archaeological Museum — Athens & Argo-Saronic. Two focused hours with someone who knows it beats four hours alone.
Image slotCape Sounion at sunset — Athens & Argo-Saronic. The Temple of Poseidon on its headland, with Byron's name cut into a column.
Image slotEating off the square — Athens & Argo-Saronic. Koukaki and Petralona — the kitchens Athenians keep for themselves.

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Athens & Argo-Saronic

The city, the coast below it, and four islands an hour from the port — Hydra, Spetses, Aegina, Poros.

The Mani, late autumn
Nafplio
Image slotEpidaurus — Peloponnese. Stand at the centre of the theatre, speak normally, and listen. Summer festival performances still fill it.
Image slotMystras — Peloponnese. An abandoned Byzantine city on a hillside above Sparta — frescoed churches, a palace, and almost nobody.
Image slotThe Vyros gorge, Mani — Peloponnese. Old kalderimia from Kardamyli up into the Taygetos, walkable in half a day.
Image slotNemea in September — Peloponnese. Agiorgitiko at harvest, tasted with the winemaker in the cellar.

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Peloponnese

Mycenae, Olympia, Epidaurus, Monemvasia, the Mani. The densest concentration of history in Greece, and you can drive it.

Zagori, in the rain
Vikos, from the rim
Image slotThe Vikos gorge floor — Epirus & Zagori. Monodendri to Papingo, six hours, one of the great European day walks.
Image slotRafting the Voidomatis — Epirus & Zagori. Clear, cold, gentle water through the gorge — genuinely suitable for children.
Image slotThe stone bridges — Epirus & Zagori. Kokkorou, Plakida, Kalogeriko — three arches, and a walking route that links them.
Image slotA pie made in front of you — Epirus & Zagori. Filo rolled by hand at six in the morning, the way it has always been done here.

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Epirus & Zagori

Forty-six stone villages, the deepest gorge in Europe by ratio, and arched bridges over glacier-clear water.

East Pelion, October
Damouchari
Image slotThe Pelion railway — Pelion & Magnesia. A narrow-gauge line designed by Evaristo de Chirico, father of the painter, over stone viaducts.
Image slotKalderimi walking — Pelion & Magnesia. Tsagarada to Damouchari, downhill through forest, ending at a sea you swim in.
Image slotSki Agriolefkes, then swim — Pelion & Magnesia. A small ski centre at 1,500 metres, forty minutes from a beach. In February both work.
Image slotA tsipouradiko in Volos — Pelion & Magnesia. Order by the round; the food arrives on its own logic.

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Pelion & Magnesia

The mountain of the centaurs: chestnut forest running down to two different seas, and skiing above a beach.

Thessaloniki, evening
Sithonia, September
Image slotEating Thessaloniki properly — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. A morning in the markets, bougatsa, and a long evening of small plates in Ladadika.
Image slotThe Athos coastline by boat — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. Twenty monasteries seen from the water, some of them a thousand years old.
Image slotVergina — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. Descend into the tomb of Philip II, with the grave goods displayed where they were found.
Image slotSailing Sithonia — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. Diaporos and the islets off Vourvourou — shallow, clear, and easy water.

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Halkidiki & Thessaloniki

Three peninsulas of pine and clear water, and the best eating city in Greece behind them.

Prespa, first light
Naoussa, November
Image slotSkiing Kaimaktsalan — Macedonia (north). The highest slopes in the country, above a crater lake, on a border ridge.
Image slotPrespa by boat — Macedonia (north). Out to the hermitages and the submerged church, with pelicans on the water.
Image slotThe Arcturos bear sanctuary — Macedonia (north). Rescued brown bears in forest enclosure at Nymfaio — serious conservation, not a zoo.
Image slotPozar thermal baths — Macedonia (north). Steaming natural pools in a snowbound gorge below Kaimaktsalan.

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Macedonia (north)

Prespa's lakes, Kastoria's furs and frescoes, Nymfaio's bears, and the highest skiing in Greece.

About Food & wine

Where it is at its best

Assyrtiko in the cellar

Thessaloniki markets

Xinomavro at Naoussa

Pies before dawn

Three ways this trip is shaped

The Naoussa and Amyndeon table

Crete, west to east

Nemea and the Peloponnesian south

Regions for this

Cyclades (classic)

Cyclades (off-grid)

Crete

Ionian (Eptanese)

Athens & Argo-Saronic

Peloponnese

Epirus & Zagori

Pelion & Magnesia

Halkidiki & Thessaloniki

Macedonia (north)

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