Welcome to Thessaloniki! After checking into our hotel in the historic heart of the city, we’ll make our way to Thessaloniki’s picturesque old city for welcome drinks and to get to know Carolina, our trip leader for the week. After our drinks, we’ll walk to a nearby classic taverna, where Carolina will take us through all of our exciting plans for the trip. We’ll then tuck into a meal made up of some of Thessaloinki’s most iconic dishes. It will be a great indication of good eats to come!

On our first full day in Thessaloniki, we’ll start by enjoying a traditional breakfast at our hotel before traveling across the city to visit the city’s markets, including a historic century-old marketplace which has been recently renovated. Along the way, we’ll taste some of the region’s specialties, including local olive oils, Greek coffee and bougatsa, Thessaloniki’s custardy phyllo pie. At the markets, we’ll get an introduction to some of Greece’s foundational flavors, from honey and olives to wild herbs, through the handiwork of local artisans. We’ll collect edible delights along the way and finish with a cooking class led by Carolina, using ingredients gathered during our walk. The result will be a sumptuous dinner paired with bold northern Greek wines.

Today we’ll bid farewell to Thessaloniki and begin making our way toward the Pelion Peninsula and our home base for the next few days, Pinakates, a stunning village high in the region’s mountains.

Along the way, we’ll visit one of Greece’s most impressive – and lesser-known – archaeological sites, the Royal Tombs of Aigai, which date back to the 3rd century BCE. From there, we’ll continue to the seaside city of Volos for a late lunch at a tsipouradiko, a traditional type of taverna unique to this part of Greece that specializes in seafood accompanied by rounds of tsipouro, an aromatic spirit made from grape pomace. Here we’ll also meet Stathis Kataropoulos, a local organic farmer who will serve as one of our insiders to the Pelion region.

Afterwards, we’ll make our way to Pinakates, check into our boutique hotel, housed inside a beautiful converted 18th-century village mansion, and have the evening to rest.

Today we’ll get to know some of the Pelion region’s traditional foods and the people who make them. We’ll begin in the lush village of Agios Vlassis, where we’ll meet a local beekeeper, see his hives and taste honeys made from wildflowers and native trees such as chestnut, learning along the way whether our tastes run toward delicate wildflower honey or the richer, more savory character of local chestnut honey.

For lunch, we’ll head to Vizitsa, another beautiful village filled with historic stone homes and narrow walking paths. Here we’ll meet with the leaders of a local women’s co-op and enjoy a hands-on cooking demonstration with them, learning how to make “spoon sweets” – jam-like confections made from local fruits like crab apple and quince.

After a short break at the hotel, we will meet again and walk into the village for dinner at a local taverna, where the wife of a local shepherd will demonstrate how she prepares her trahana. For our meal, we will enjoy dishes made with products from the shepherd’s goats, including cheeses and a comforting soup, and we will end on a sweet note with house-made baklava. 

Today we’ll continue exploring some of the Pelion region’s most distinctive products and the people behind them. We’ll begin with a visit to a local producer of Greek mountain tea, made from the flowering buds of ironwort, a perennial related to mint that thrives at Pelion’s higher elevations. Over a few cups, we’ll learn how the plant is harvested and why mountain tea holds such an important place in Greek households.

For lunch, we’ll make our way to Stathis’s farm, where we’ll get a chance to pick some of his crops and prepare them together under Carolina’s guidance for a family-style meal. For this truly farm-to-table feast, think fennel fritters with tzatziki, vine leaf dolmades, baked giant beans with chard and leafy green salads scattered with edible flowers.

In the evening, we’ll return to our hotel for a light dinner.

We’ll drive to the seaside village of Milina, where we’ll board a sailboat and cruise across the Aegean to the small island of Paleio Trikeri. Once on the island, we’ll head toward its most famous landmark, an impressive monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary and built in 1825 on the site where an ancient icon of the Virgin was said to have been miraculously discovered beneath an olive tree. We’ll visit with the caretakers of the monastery and learn about its remarkable history, including its use as a place of exile for thousands of left-wing Greek women during the 1940s.

Afterward, we’ll return to the island’s tiny seaside village for lunch by the water. Following a long stop for a leisurely swim, we’ll make our way back toward port during golden hour while Carolina prepares a rustic fish stew in the boat’s galley kitchen. We’ll enjoy dinner as the sun sets before returning to land.

After breakfast together at the hotel, we’ll make our way to the beautiful village of Milies, set like an amphitheater on the slopes of a forested mountain. Milies once played an important role in transporting agricultural goods from remote villages to the port in Volos; we’ll follow the historic train tracks as we stroll into the forest and out to a stunning railway bridge.

After our hike, we’ll travel to the eastern side of the peninsula for a swim at one of the area’s most pristine beaches, then enjoy a light meze lunch with the scenic blue waters as our backdrop. Coffee and dessert will be in the nearby village of Tsagarada, where we’ll sit at a historic cafe in the local square, shaded by the branches of a spectacular thousand-year-old plane tree. After returning to the hotel for some downtime, we’ll walk to a nearby village for dinner at a local taverna.

We depart for Athens early in the morning, arriving by midday and with free time to visit the Acropolis and Goulandris Museum, shop or relax before our final dinner. We’ll take an evening stroll and then head to a modern taverna steeped in history. Expect to eat many small courses of exquisitely sourced and prepared dishes, accompanied by the restaurant’s refined selections of Greek wines.

We’ll say our final goodbyes in the hotel before making our ways to the airport after a beautiful and very filling week! If you’re sticking around in Athens (or Greece) longer, talk to our team and we’ll give you some recommendations for things to see, eat, and drink.