Cretan Food, Local Culture & Wine: a Food Tour like no other in Chania Crete!
- Clyde
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
Back in 2023 we made the decision, to start a brand new Food Tour in Chania Crete Greece. The idea came from our Beer Tour guests, asking for a memorable lifetime experience that will go deeper into the local food culture.
Since our philosophy is not to copy anybody's tours or ideas, we decided to create a brand new tour, out of scratch.
We spent around 7 months of driving around in Chania's countryside, in order to find the right places & people. Not an easy task, as we wanted to be out of the beaten track and at the same time, to create an easy, approachable tour that does not require extra skills.
the basic elements
Creating a food tour that will only be focused in food, was not an option for us. Food is a big part of the local culture in Crete but it is also connected with nature, history & local stories, country side villages and of course the local population that still producing small volume but high quality produces or they even have the knowledge to find & harvest goods, directly from nature.
That was the frame for out new experience. Let's take things from the beginning, piece by piece.
Food:
Crete is the core of the known worldwide Mediterranean Diet. The most healthy & tasty diet in the world. Even though we live in this food paradise - Crete, the majority of the local population, have changed their eating habits to more easy, fast and not so healthy choices. This fact, has a big impact on the food menus & ingredients that offered to the visitors of our island.
We wanted to change that.
The downtown food tours are not focused on the offered food quality but mostly to street food. Finally, all these tours end up going at the sane spots & tasting the same foods.
What we did, was to discover small and hidden café-taverns, that even locals don't know their existence, which are still using extra virgin olive oil, seasonal or wild foraged ingredients & herbs, owners that have their own small gardens, animals or they are still cooking the old local recipes.
Nature & villages:
The island of Crete and specially Chania, has a very reach and beautiful flora. If you don't have the chance to experience it, then you don't have a full picture of Chania. Olive groves with ancient olive trees, grapevines, flowers, fruit & nut trees are everywhere.
So, we made the decision to run our Food Tour, at the outskirts of Chania's White Mountains range. This amazing low volume traffic route in nature with free range animals around, like goats & sheep's, creates a memorable experience.
Sit back, relax & we'll do the driving!
The villages of Chania, only 40-50 years ago were full of people, vibrant schools and life in general. These villages, were the places that Cretan population used to stay instead of today's coast line. People working the earth and making their living, while their network of exchanging goods, made money of no importance.
False governmental policies, let these villages without infrastructure & finally forced the local population to abandon them.
Our aim is, by visiting some of these villages, to keep the memories from the past alive but also to encourage their small population to keep doing what they are still doing.
History, local stories & people:
You cannot run a tour in Crete without historical facts & local stories.
Chania are full of remains from different eras & different empires, starting from around 3.000 BC. Even though this is not a historical tour, in case you love history, we can go deeper as we love history as well.
War memorials dedicated to the people died for a Free Crete & important battles or old Byzantine churches will be some of the elements that we'll see or visit but not only... a big surprise is waiting all history lovers!
Local stories & traditions are more valuable when we hear them from villagers, that had the chance to live these experience, stories & traditions. Pure & friendly people, unspoiled from the modern way of life, they are ready to welcome strangers & share with them whatever they have available like fruits, homemade cookies, wine or just having a chat by using their body language.
Proud of being Cretans, they feel that they represent their island to the travellers.
These moments are just unforgettable.
Home made wine or spirits:
In our travels, we are curious to see how a locals house looks from inside. We made the thought, that our guests might feel the same as well. So we focused in finding a local villager that would be interested in this idea while feeling comfortable to open his private space to us and to our guests.
That wasn't an easy task at all but we finally made it.
We felt very lucky & happy when we found this nice person but we cannot describe our happiness when we realized that this man is also a home made wine producer.
Finally we combined the visit to his place and a wine tasting session, directly from his old wooden barrels. Wines of different years, made from the most popular grape variety in Crete ''Romeiko''. This grape creates a red & high in alcohol wine, who tastes like brandy.
This experience might be the core of our Eat & Crete Food Tour [non-touristy] in Chania Villages!
our core Values
In order to feel like a true Cretan you need to be a small scale producer, focusing on quality than quantity: home made wine, distilled high alcohol spirits, having your own garden & vegetables, olive oil, fruits, nuts, honey or even eggs from your chickens.
Additionally, when trying to keep the old traditions, tools, houses, paths & memories alive.
That was our only bet, when we were designing our Eat & Crete Food Tour:
to connect the Cretan food, local population, nature and small almost abandoned villages in one piece.
This tour is a five hours deep dive full of Cretan Gastronomy, Old School Village Culture & Homemade Wine!
It is a cultural immersion, not only delicious & informative but also a lifetime experience that you'll simply never forget, totally different than a downtown Chania touristy food tour.
We are trying to preserve the old Cretan traditions, through the eyes of our guests, while connecting the villages population with different cultures from all over the world.
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