OVERVIEW
Highlights of a food tour of Karpathos
Renowned for its unspoiled landscape, pristine beaches and traditional villages, Karpathos is one of those islands in Greece that’s ideal for anyone who loves delicious food and traditions that have remained unchanged for generations.
Sustainability is a way of life in Karpathos, with the purest local products at the heart of a cuisine that’s based on time-honoured recipes and traditions. It’s the kind of island where some locals still bake bread at home and tend their own vegetable garden.
The honey you eat might be infused with the aromas of wildflowers and herbs and the extra-virgin olive oil will almost certainly be pressed locally. Meanwhile, the cheeses (often made by locals from their own animals) include soft manouli, salty armyrotiri and spicy meriari. And to wash it down, you’ll enjoy a glass or two of locally-produced semi-sweet red wine.
There’s a farm-to-table ethos in many of Karpathos’ tavernas, serving freshly caught seafood, meat sourced from animals that roam freely in the wild and hilly countryside and vegetables grown locally (sometimes even in the taverna’s own vegetable gardens).
Local dishes include makarounes pasta with caramelised onions and meriari cheese or sitaka (similar to yogurt), a variety of pies with a puff-pastry like dough (kourou), stuffed courgette flowers and vine leaves, onion pies, oven-baked goat in a tomato sauce, omelettes with wild greens called tsimetes and deliciously sweet loukoumades (dough balls) or baklava drizzled with honey.
Your entire holidays on Karpathos will be like a giant food tour, but there are also experiences that let you get closer to the people behind the products. Wine-tasting, honey-tasting and olive oil-tasting and cooking classes are among the best things to do in Karpathos for all visitors… and even more so for foodies!
DON'T MISS
The best experiences on a food tour of Karpathos
Wine tasting
Karpathos may not be among the more famous islands in Greece when it comes to wine, but there are some family wineries that you can visit. Most of the vineyards are located in the mountainous part of the island (Othos, Volada, Menetes). In Volada, the Mattsson Winery offers vineyard tours where you’ll learn about the wine-making stages – from tending the vines to bottling. At the end of the tour, you’ll sample a variety of wines produced at the vineyard. Best of all for wine lovers, Karpathos holds an annual wine festival where you can sample wines from different local vineyards.
Cooking classes
Here’s your chance to pick up some culinary skills on your holidays in Karpathos. Cookery classes are mostly held in villages like Olympos (a time capsule of authenticity blessed with breathtaking views across the north of the island). They can be full-day experiences or even part of multi-day food tour of Karpathos. Either way, you’ll have the experience of being taught how to prepare traditional dishes by a local with products grown in Karpathos. Many cooking classes involve preparing bread making in a traditional wood-fired oven and cheese-tasting paired with local wine (you might even make your own cheese). Recipes include makarounes (fresh pasta with caramelised onions, sprinkled with goat’s cheese) and the best finish is always loukoumades (dough balls) drizzled with Karpathian honey.
Honey tasting
For those with a sweet tooth, a honey-tasting experience hits the spot! Karpathos is known for its thyme honey (you’ll find an abundance of wild thyme and rare local herbs in the countryside), with one of the most famous producers being the Gergatsoulis family near Menetes village. Another gem is the Kypseli store in Olympos village, which is run by a local beekeeper. But if you want to meet the people behind the honey pot, there are organised beekeeping tours in Volada or near Diafani. You'll see the beekeepers at work, learn the internal workings of a beehive (including how to spot the queen bee and what her role is) and taste honey straight from the honeycomb. And of course, you can take a jar of Karpathos’ famous thyme honey home with you.
Olive gathering and olive oil tasting
You can go olive oil tasting and visit an olive press in Karpathos throughout the summer months, but if you visit Karpathos in autumn, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in the olive harvest. There are experiences that include a tour of the olive grove followed by helping to spread special nets and participating in gathering the olives from the trees. You’ll then be shown the process of extracting the olive oil in a traditional olive press and enjoy a tasting session with fresh olive oil, sourdough bread and other local delicacies.
GET PLANNING
How do I get to Karpathos?
Karpathos has an airport with direct flights to Athens all year round. There are also flights to and from Thessaloniki and a number of international charter flights in spring and summer.
The island has two ports, a main port in the capital, Pigadia, and a smaller port in the Diafani area. There is an all-year-round ferry connection with Piraeus, with sailings 2-3 times a week, but remember that the journey takes about 20 hours. In the summer months, Karpathos is also connected to other islands in the Aegean, such as Crete (Heraklion and Sitia), Santorini, Rhodes, Halki and Kasos.
When is the best time of year to enjoy a food tour on your holidays in Karpathos?
Karpathos is an ideal island for summer holidays in Greece if you want to combine beautiful beaches and traditional villages.
If you’re a foodie, the best months to enjoy a food tour of Karpathos are May-June and September-October as the weather is still warm enough to swim and you can enjoy most of the experiences described here.
You’ll find sustainable experiences on Karpathos whenever you visit, however:
- May and September are the ideal months to visit wineries (check when to go here)
- Autumn is the best time to enjoy the olive harvest and honey-gathering as part of a beekeeping experience.
- Autumn
- Spring
- Summer
- Winter
How long do food tours in Karpathos last?
- You’ll need a minimum of 2-3 hours for any one activity and you can also join full-day or multiple-day food tours in
- Discover Greece tip: If you want to get to know Karpathos well and have time for all these activities and experiences, you’ll need 5-6 days.
