Crete's Wine and Olives Safari Tour from Chania
Description
Hop in a Land Rover and let it take you on a culinary and cultural journey through Crete. This Greek island is renowned for its wine and olive oil. On this full-day guided tour from Chania, see how olives are harvested and turned into extra-virgin olive oil. Visit an olive mill and check out a 3,000-year-old olive tree. Sip wine while touring a vineyard. Commune with sheep and goats while making your way around the island in the Land Rover before visiting a 16th-century house where you’ll learn all about Cretan knife production. Finally, enjoy a typical Cretan meal in a small tavern.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Safaris aren’t just for gawking at exotic animals. On Crete, a safari is much more intoxicating. After being picked up in a Land Rover at your hotel in Chania, take a full-day guided tour through a landscape decorated with olive trees and vineyards. This is a tour filled with wine, food and fun. Expect to come away with a thorough knowledge of Crete’s culinary and cultural history. Stop by an olive oil mill to learn from your guide about how olives are harvested to make extra-virgin olive oil. You’ll even see a 3,000-year-old olive tree. Moving from olives to grapes, take a tour of a vineyard and taste the wine while learning about the ancient Cretan methods of wine-making. Sit down in a small tavern and enjoy a typical Cretan meal. The cuisine of Crete is renowned for its life-giving, longevity-producing qualities. Expect fresh herbs and greens, seafood, feta cheese, and maybe even savory pies. Stop by the chapel of Agia Paraskevi, set above a huge cave. The cave, 525 feet (160 m) deep and 118 feet (36 m) wide, was a shrine to an ancient fertility goddess long before the church was built. At the conclusion of your tour, you’ll be dropped back at your hotel.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Your centrally located hotel in Chania
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Please wear comfortable shoes and bring sun screen and your camera
- Child seats are available; please request them at time of booking
- Collapsible wheelchairs with removable wheels can be accommodated providing the passenger is accompanied by someone who can assist them board and disembark
- Individuals taller than 195 cm or heavier than 130 kg may find the trip challenging
Reviews(12)
The driver was amazing and gave us great information while we drove and at the oldest olive tree. Plus the olive production tasting was sooo delicious! The guide was so educated and able to explain everything. Wine tasting was great and food stop was authentic. The off roading was a bit too long and the drive through mountains could have been skipped.
Dear Guest, Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re delighted you enjoyed both the beauty of the excursion and the warm hospitality of our team, who always strive to make each trip memorable. Exploring Crete’s landscapes is truly special, and we’d love to welcome you again on another Cretan Holidays adventure.
Great drivers/tour guides with off-road jeeps. It was fun to drive off the beaten track into the countryside. Including wine tasting of three local wines and a visit to an olive oil factory with really good olive oil. We also visited an old monastery and a cozy restaurant where we had lunch. That was also delicious 🙂
This was a memorable tour! My family and I learned a lot about Greece’s history, and about the wine and olive oil they produce. We will never forget Olga our tour guide who made us feel like family from the moment we entered her vehicle.
Dear Marie, Thank you so much for your kind words and for choosing our tour. We are delighted to hear that you and your family enjoyed learning about Greece’s history, wine and olive oil. We hope to see you again soon and share more of our beautiful country with you.
It was a terrific time. Our guide Thannasi was the best. He was fulls of so many great stories and so much Cretan history.
Dear Amanda, We are so grateful that you took the time to give us an excellent review. We will be really happy to see you again soon on our other excursions too. Thank you!
This was a highlight of my trip to Crete. It was a full day full of a wonderful experience. The olive oil factory was informative. The wine tasting was excellent and fun. And our lunch was amazing. It was worth every penny and I highly recommend!
Dear Dar _P, Thank you so much for taking time to leave an excellent rating. We hope to see you again soon
This was our 1st guided tour in Crete. Overall an excellent experience. Our tour guide, Thanass, was fantastic. Even with his hoarse voice, he pushed through with tons of useful tips, information and interesting stories. The olive mill was situated high up in the mountains, and the woman providing the tour was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about their products. I only wish the gift tubes (a soon to be product) made from residual olive pulp were available at the time of our tour. The winery was another excellent part of the tour. We tasted all six of their offerings, and they kept getting better. My girlfriend, who is very selective about her white wines, enjoyed everything from the whites to the rose. I’m generally a fan of reds, but enjoyed drinking all of them. You will also make a brief stop to visit the world’s oldest olive tree. It makes for a good photo op, but don’t count on getting any olive oil from that particular tree. That’s reserved for dignitaries and famous people. The last part of the tour consisted of a stop at a taverna on the mountain road back toward Chania. The food was filling, but just OK in taste. In all there were nine of us on the tour, and we were the only occupied table. I’m not so sure how they stay in business. Pick up and drop off were very close to our Airbnb and timely. If you’re at all interested in touring an olive mill or winery this is definitely worthwhile. Oh, forgot to mention the little bit (~30 min) of off road driving between the winery and taverna. It’s quite bumpy, so be prepared. The tour guide encourages people to switch seats between stops, so it’s probably better to strategically sit mid vehicle during the off road part. Yas mas!
Thank you so much for your detailed and enthusiastic review Jayk. We and our partners do all we can to provide the best experiences to our guests and it always makes our days when a guest appreciates it. Hope to see you again soon!
This was a fabulous day of exploring Crete outside of the main cities. Athanasios (I hope I got the spelling right), was a wonderful guide who knows a tremendous amount about the island - you'll learn a lot! Manalo was also along for the ride as a new trainee and was wonderful. The wine is delicious, the rural scenery is stunning, the olive oil is SO good (I was traveling light otherwise I would have gotten some), the oil tree is way cool, and the food at the tavern is delicious....highly recommend.
Dear Tarsi, We are so glad to heat that you had such a nice experience at Wine and olives safari tour. It is a great pleasure when our guests recommend our excursions. Hope to see you again soon!
What a great tour this was! Beautiful places seen, enjoyed the silence in nature, had delicious wine tasting and on top of that a super tour guide! Highly recommended!!
Dear deniseee Thank you very much for your nice comment. We are glad that you enjoyed the trip and your review is the greatest reward for us! With best regards
Absolutely great day with Antonio, our tour guide, with a visit to the Olive Mill and Winery, and the best of all, a fabulous lunch with Opa & Yia Yia! It’s a must do!
<p>This is an amazing tour! So many great sites, the ride through the gorge is amazing, and the meal and the family who provided it is absolutely great! We only spent a week on Crete, and this was our favorite non-beach day!</p>
