Laconia Culinary Tour – October 10-17, 2020 –

Live in an organic farm and venture into the gardens to pick vegetables to cook your farm to table meals. Learn about the local cuisine, delicacies, and their culinary history. Taste natural wines and feel the love that created them. Learn about olive oil, the liquid gold and its health benefits. Dance to the ancient rhythms. Speak as a Greek and learn how to order or shop for your food. Travel in the steps of Leonidas and the last Byzantine emperor in Laconia, a diverse destination in the Peloponnese in southern Greece that includes a vast range of ancient sites, culture, historical monuments, museums, beaches, and picturesque villages on the mountains or by the sea side. Enjoy a week-long Laconia culinary tour in one amazing vacation package!

Retreats / Tours Payments & Cancellation Policy

Day 1

• Arrival at Eumelia
• Welcome farm to table dinner. The chef will prepare for you an organic and zero-kilometer meal. eumelia’s organic vegetables are combined with local delicacies and form a unique gastronomic experience

Day 2

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast, including some of eumelia’s specialties such as lavender butter cookies, rosemary chocolate cake, freshly handmade bread with figs or olives, and infusions with wild herbs from the farm.
• Sustainability tour of the organic farm and experience, learn, meet the Greek agricultural landscape. The aim and wish is to establish a sustainable example of an ecotourism / agrotourism / education / culture space that receives, entertains and educates visitors as well as the local population on issues such as environment, environmental technology, organic farming methods, alternative health, sustainability, self-sustainability and progressive educational tools.
• Local cuisine cooking class with a twist and lunch: Learn all the secrets of the local Laconic gastronomy with the guidance of the farm chef. Prepare and bake your own sourdough bread made with locally sourced and milled organic flour. Pick fresh eatable wild greens from the farm and learn to prepare filo dough and make that famous local pitas. Pick the vegetables and herbs you need from eumelia’s organic gardens and herb spiral and prepare your own local cuisine traditional meals with a twist. From farm to your table, prepare and cook an organic, traditional, local cuisine and zero-kilometer meal. The organic vegetables and the famous organic olive oil are combined with local delicacies to offer you a unique gastronomic experience. Put together the gastronomic puzzle of the region, boil, bake and create special dishes from the symphony of local products.
• Basic Greek culinary language class: Learn basic culinary Greek and know your way around a Greek kitchen, when you order your food at a taverna or shopping for food in a local market.
• Farm to table dinner

Day 3

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast
• Set off on your first daily trip towards sea side town of Neapoli and head towards Kastania Cave: One of the most impressive caves of Greece can be found near the village of Kastania on the southern tip of the Peloponnese. The route follows the winding mountain road leading to the forest-covered eastern slopes of Mt. Parnon. Rich in density and variety of shapes, colors and figures, Kastania Cave is classified as second of its kind in Europe. Nature needed three million years to create this fantasyscape with its unparalleled décor and numerous impressive formations.
• Cooking expo and lunch at Neraida (Neraida means fairy in Greek), which is deservedly considered among the best and most special taverns of Laconia and the whole Peloponnese. A very sophisticated space emanating an air of a familiar bygone era, a genuine, warm hospitality and of course an inspired cuisine with most of the ingredients produced by the owners. They make with their own hands the basics (bread, olive oil and wine), as well as other products such as syglino (a sort of smoked ham), olives, various liqueurs, yogurt, pies and all the sweets and all the other ingredients are carefully selected and sourced from local producers.
• Head to the seaside Byzantine Castletown of Monemvasia.
• Liqueur tasting, local fermented honey and other local specialties tasting with a view of the sea and surrounded by Byzantine architecture.
• Dinner in Monemvasia in the best restaurant in the castle with a culinary history of over 50 years
• Return to eumelia

Day 4

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast
• Local cuisine cooking class with a twist and lunch
• Wine tasting of Greek natural wines and food pairing. Discover the Greek grape varieties through five natural organic wines paired with local cheeses and cured meat. Walk among eumelia’s organic vineyards and learn the history of wine in Greece and the biodynamic practices that we follow.
• Farm to table dinner

Day 5

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast
• Begin your second daily visit of the region and this time you head to the historic area of Mani, filled with small stone castles and a raged terrain unmatched in beauty. You will visit the historic towns of Gytheio and Areopolis and head to the seaside town of Limeni with its theatrical backstage landscape and architecture. You will see how the local delicacy “Pasteli” (a honey sesame bar) is created and taste a freshly baked variety.
• Enjoy lunch by the seaside in one of the most amazing locations and enjoy fresh seafood in the town of Limeni.
• Head back to Gytheio for an afternoon drink with a background stage of neoclassical buildings and the picturesque port.
• Dinner in Gytheio town in the best restaurant with view of the port
• Return to eumelia

Day 6

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast
• Olive oil and olive tasting. Learn all the secrets of the green gold of Greece, how to distinguish a fresh extra virgin olive oil, the eatable Greek olive varieties and how to store your olive oil properly. Meet the perennial olive trees that age more than 2000 years – you can even hide in their trunks!
• Farm to table lunch
• Natural olive oil soap making. Experience firsthand how to make your own natural soap. Select the herbs of your choice, combine them with organic extra virgin olive oil from our farm and make your personal soap bar with the natural cold method.
• Farm to table dinner

Day 7

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast
• Local cuisine cooking class with a twist and lunch
• Live music and dance with an amazing local band playing “rebetika” songs (referred to as Greek blues) and dinner with a large variety of mezzedes (small appetizers dishes)

Day 8

• Organic homemade handmade breakfast
• Departure from Eumelia
• Visit Ancient Sparta and have a guided tour by an archeologist of the city state that inspired millennia of history.
• Visit one of the nine olive oil museums in the world and see the history and tools used throughout the centuries to produce the liquid gold.
• Lunch at one of most unique tavernas in Laconia.
• Farewells & departure