The Selective Food Tour: Feel Like a Local is 105Olives’ most personal tour — a half-day journey through the real food culture of Crete, guided by a local who grew up with this cuisine and knows where the locals actually eat, shop, and drink. This is not restaurant tourism. This is Crete as it feeds itself.
What’s Included
- Private guide with deep local food knowledge
- Covered market visit with tastings from producers
- Traditional kafeneion (old coffee house) stop
- Morning market visit (if running on tour day)
- Lunch at a mageirio (old-style Cretan kitchen)
- Olive oil tasting at a local producer
- Selection of local food products to take home
- Private transfers from and to your accommodation
The Philosophy: Why “Selective”?
Most food tours in Crete follow the tourist circuit — the harbour restaurants, the souvenir shops selling Cretan products at tourist prices, the “authentic” experiences designed for visitors. This tour is different.
The word “selective” means we go where a local would go. Where the produce is best, not where the signage is most polished. Where the cook has been making the same dish for 40 years, not where the Instagram feed is most attractive. This requires local knowledge — and that’s what your guide provides.
The Covered Market
The tour begins in the covered market of whichever city you’re based in — Heraklion’s 1866 Street, Chania’s Agora, or Rethymno’s old town market. Your guide knows every stall owner personally.
You’ll taste your way through:
- Graviera cheese — Crete’s great aged hard cheese, made from sheep’s milk, nutty and firm. Your guide will find you the version that’s been aged 12 months, not the fresh tourist version.
- Myzithra — fresh sheep’s whey cheese, creamy and mild. One of the oldest cheeses in the world, eaten on Crete since Minoan times.
- Thyme honey — Cretan thyme honey is internationally recognised as among the world’s finest. The bees forage exclusively on wild thyme; the honey is intensely aromatic and complex.
- Herbs and spices — dried Cretan oregano (far more pungent than continental varieties), mountain tea (malotira), and dried herbs used in traditional Cretan cooking.
- Rakomelo — raki (Cretan eau de vie) infused with honey and warm spices, traditionally offered as a morning reviver. Your guide will find you a producer who makes it properly.
The Kafeneion
No visit to Crete is complete without stopping in a traditional kafeneion — the old men’s coffee house where Greek coffee is served with a glass of cold water and the conversation flows in Cretan dialect. Your guide knows which kafeneions still operate the old way and are genuinely welcoming to visitors who arrive with a local.
You’ll have Greek coffee (thick, unfiltered, served in a small cup), a slice of fresh dakos rusk, and a chance to sit with your guide and understand the role this institution plays in Cretan social life.
The Olive Oil Tasting
Crete produces approximately 30% of Greece’s olive oil — and Greece produces 80% of Europe’s extra-virgin olive oil. Cretan olive oil is a serious agricultural product, and your guide will take you to a producer whose family has been pressing olives for four generations.
The tasting covers: the difference between early harvest and late harvest oils; how to identify quality (colour, viscosity, taste, smell); the specific Cretan olive varieties (Koroneiki, Mastoidis, Tsounati); and why the oil from different parts of the island tastes different. You’ll leave knowing how to buy good olive oil for the rest of your life.
Lunch at the Mageirio
The tour ends with lunch at a mageirio — a traditional Cretan kitchen that cooks one large pot of food each day and serves it until it runs out. No menus, no choices. What’s in the pot is what you eat.
This is how working Cretans have eaten lunch for generations. The food changes daily with season and availability: baked lamb with artichokes in spring, stuffed tomatoes and peppers in summer, bean soup with wild greens in autumn. Your guide will explain each dish’s history and the ingredients as you eat.
The meal includes house wine (usually locally sourced), bread, and a small dessert. The conversation is the best part.
Tour Details
- Duration: Half day (4–5 hours)
- Start time: 09:00 (morning is essential for market freshness)
- Group size: Private — your group only
- Best for: Food lovers, culinary travellers, anyone who wants to understand Cretan culture through its food
- Physical level: Easy (mostly walking on flat ground)
Contact 105Olives to book your private Cretan food tour. Every tour is shaped around your group’s tastes and preferences.