OVERVIEW
Once the summer residence of the Olympian gods and home of the mythical centaurs, Pelion now offers food enthusiasts a heavenly experience. So alongside mountain & sea fun, traditional villages and wonderful beaches, every self-respecting foodie on holiday in Pelion should add a food tour to their list of things to do in one of the most magical corners of Greece.
It doesn’t matter when you visit or where you stay in Pelion. Within just a handful of hours from Athens or Thessaloniki, you’ll be surrounded by dense forests or by the coast, hungry to discover the local products and gastronomy of Pelion.
In early summer (May and June), aromatic herbs (oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, dittany, mountain tea etc) come to life on the hillsides, as do sour cherries and wild strawberries in the forests. Full summer comes with peaches, plums, figs and an abundance of other fruit which, if not eaten straight away, are turned into jams and marmalades.
And September to November herald the harvest of Pelion’s apples (most famously PDO Zagorin), pears and quinces, as well as walnuts and chestnuts in the mountains. Grapes are gathered in vineyards to make wine and tsipouro, followed by olives to produce the region’s exquisite extra-virgin olive oil.
Cheeses made with milk from free-range sheep and goats include PDO feta, kaseri (hard, yellow) and manouri (soft, white) as well as soft anthorito and mizithra, hard kefalotiri and creamy galotiri.
And in villages such as Trikeri, Zagora, Portaria and Vizitsa, look for products from local women's cooperatives, with family recipes including spoon sweets (fruit and vegetables preserved in sugar syrup), liqueurs and jams.
Meanwhile, every taverna and restaurant in Pelion reflects its location: fresh seafood in coastal villages and meat dishes (like veal with quince with chestnuts) in the mountains. And in Volos (Pelion’s main city), you’ll find tsipouradika restaurants specialising in seafood meze and locally brewed tsipouro (with or without aniseed).
Look out for local dishes including tsitsiravla (young pickled shoots of pistachios trees), kopanisti Volou (an orange-coloured spicy cheese dip made with pepper, tomato and garlic), kolitsani (a type of sea anemone, floured and fried), boubari (local sausage with potatoes), spetzofai (peppers and sausage cooked in tomato sauce) and blonde baklava (made with almonds instead of walnuts).
A full food tour of Pelion includes activities like organised wine, olive oil, herb and honey tasting experiences and a cooking class that lets you unlock the region’s culinary secrets. It’s an unforgettable journey through the seasonality, sustainability and local traditions of Pelion.
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BUNLARı KAÇıRMAYıN
Highlights of a food tour of Pelion
Herb tasting
Pelion was famous in ancient times for its healing herbs and plants, with the myth of the centaur Chiron teaching Asclepius (the god of medicine) of the therapeutic properties of its herbs and Homer referring to the mountain as a ‘polyfarmakon’. Many of these myths and traditions still resonate today and herb-tasting experiences are offered in various villages.
In Lafkos, you’ll learn about herbs like wild lavender, oleander, thyme, heather, sage and rosemary and learn how young ferns are turned into a local delicacy (fterokeftedes). If you visit the village on 1-2 May, there is a festival at the Monastery of Agios Athanasios with plenty of food and wine, as well as traditional music and dance. In Drakia, you can visit Chiron's Herb Garden, created within the forest to teach visitors about the medicinal properties of the mountain’s herbs. You can even participate in planting, weeding or harvesting in the garden. And in Tsagarada, you can visit a herb garden, make your own herbal tea and taste local dishes with various aromatics.
Top tip: Even if you don’t book a herb tasting tour, you’ll find shops in every village with local herb products.
Olive oil tasting
From October to January, you have the opportunity to take part in the olive harvest, but there are olive oil-tasting experiences that introduce you to one of Pelion’s most famous local products all year round. In Ano Lechonia, you can take part in a guided tour of the Voliotis family’s olive press, where you’ll be introduced to the various stages of olive oil extraction process and taste the difference between the different grades of olive oil (virgin, extra virgin and agoureleo – early-harvest, green olive oil). Meanwhile, in Palaia (Old) Hania, the Koumoutsis family offers olive oil-tasting experiences at their organic farm. And your insight into Pelion’s olive oil tradition is completed at the Olive and Olive Oil Museum in Ano Gatzea.
A cooking class
There is plenty of choice when it comes to cooking classes in Pelion, where you get to create a delicious meal from scratch from local ingredients and learn all about the region’s culinary traditions. In Portaria, the Karaiskos family offers lessons where you create a farm-to table meal with ingredients picked straight from the farm (tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, courgettes, eggplants, pumpkins, peppers, beets etc). Dishes may include spanakopita (spinach pie), kolokithokorfades (courgette flowers stuffed with minced meat and rice, boiled and served with avgolemono egg-and-lemon sauce) and strapatsada (omelette with chopped tomatoes). In Horefto, there are cooking classes where you create galotiri (creamy cheese) and other local specialities and include family-friendly classes for younger kids.
Wine tasting
Pelion’s vineyards are found mainly in the south, where the Aegean winds and mountain slopes create an ideal climate for growing grapes. You can join an organised tour (some by bike) or visit vineyards on your own.
There are a handful of vineyards that can be visited in and around Argalasti village, with the Patistis Winery offering vineyard tours and wine tasting of its organic wines (reds made from Xinomavro, Roditis, Limniona and Cabernet Sauvignon) and whites made from Assyrtiko and other grape varieties). And at Milea Winery, you can enjoy both the beautiful location and the wide variety of wines produced by its passionate owners. Also in Argalasti is Mylonas Winery, which you can visit to pick up a bottle or two.
Bonus: A Wine Festival takes place in the first ten days of August in Nea Anchialos, where you can enjoy wine from local producers all over Pelion and traditional music.
Honey tasting
Your last foodie activity in Pelion is honey tasting. There are many beekeepers in Pelion whose honey is enjoyed all over Greece. You’ll find honey from bees feeding on fir trees, orange and lemon blossom, chestnut, thyme and other vegetation. And not just honey but a whole range of honey products, like royal jelly, pollen, propolis, natural beeswax and honeycomb. The Koumoutsi Family Farm in Hania (where you can also enjoy olive oil tasting) offers tours of its beehives where you’ll learn about the honey production process and taste up to 10 different varieties of honey.
GET PLANNING
How do you get from Athens and Thessaloniki to Pelion in Greece?
By car:
Pelion is separated into southern, eastern and central regions, which can be hard to move between because roads are often small and mountainous. For maximum flexibility, it is best to hire a car and choose food tours in the region of Pelion where you are staying.
Most villages in Pelion take 4-4.5hrs to reach by car from Athens and 2.5-3.5hrs from Thessaloniki.
By bus:
There are daily bus services connecting Volos with Athens (4hrs) and Thessaloniki (2hrs) and regular buses connecting Volos with villages in Pelion. There is also a limited bus service between the villages of Pelion (more information here).
Distances by car
From Athens to:
- Volos: 330km (4hrs 40mins)
- Portaria (central Pelion): 339km (3hrs 50mins)
- Tsangarada (eastern Pelion): 328km (3hrs 45mins)
- Argalasti (central Pelion): 330km (3hrs 40mins)
- Palaia Hania (central Pelion): 351km (4hrs 15mins)
- Ano Lehonia: 338km (3hrs 50mins)
- Lafkos (south Pelion): 375km (4hrs 40mins)
From Thessaloniki to:
- Volos: 211km (2hrs 20mins)
- Portaria (central Pelion): 220km (2hrs 30mins)
- Tsangarada (eastern Pelion): 259km (3hrs 30mins)
- Argalasti (central Pelion): 249km (3hrs 5mins)
- Palaia Hania (central Pelion): 233km (2hrs 50mins)
- Ano Lehonia (west Pelion): 221km (2hrs 30mins)
- Lafkos (south Pelion): 258km (3hrs 20mins)
Producers & Museums
How much time do I need to dedicate to doing a full gastronomy tour of Pelion?
- For each experience, you will need to a minimum 3-4hrs (with some full day or even multiple day Pelion food tours options).
Discover Greece tip: You will need 5-6 days to get to know Pelion and its villages in depth.
Tip: The annual Tsipouro Festival takes place in Katohori, near Portaria, at the start of June, where you can watch a re-enactment of the tsipouro distillation process and taste it for free.
Tip: The annual Apple Festival takes place at the beginning of September each year in Zagora, organised by the local women’s cooperative. Always popular, it includes plenty of music and dance.
Tip: The annual Cherry Festival takes place in Agios Lavrentios village on the last Saturday of June, with music and treats like fresh cherries and cherry spoon sweets.
