Greece with Travis Swikard

​​Kαλως ηρθες στην Ελλάδα — Welcome to Greece! After meeting at our hotel, we’ll get right down to business with a food tour. As we wander in and out of markets, bakeries and cafes, we’ll sample succulent loukoumades, Greece’s honey-drenched answer to the doughnut; spinach and cheese pies; tangy, creamy cheeses and cold cuts; and grassy, fragrant olive oils and honeys.

These treats are just an appetizer for the main course: a traditional lunch — think no-frills fare like lemon-crusted mackerel and charred souvlaki — at a local taverna. As the afternoon rolls around, we’ll return to the hotel for some rest and relaxation. 

Don’t slumber too deeply because our welcome dinner at Varoulko Seaside, one of the country’s few Michelin-starred restaurants, will be one for the ages. As yachts glide silently past our perch on the marina and the Acropolis shimmers in the distance, we’ll enjoy achingly fresh seafood just out of the water. With each bite, tonight’s dinner will give new meaning to the great poet Odysseus’s claim that to deconstruct Greece is to be left with an olive tree, a vineyard and a fishing boat — and that is all you will ever need. 

Up first is a pilgrimage to the nearby Plaka neighborhood — a cobblestoned hillside lined with tavernas, shops and cafes — for a deep dive into kafeneon (coffeehouse) culture, followed by a hands-on lunch in the best sense, as we roll up our sleeves together with Travis to learn more about the techniques and primal ingredients of Greek cuisine. It’s a masterclass in slowing down, and celebrating seasonal ingredients. We’ll sit down for an incredible meal and toast our local chefs. 

We’ll have time this afternoon to wander on our own before a very special tour of the Acropolis. We’ll take our time to drink it all in—wandering among the columns of the Parthenon and marveling at the ancient stonework of the Temple of Athena and Nike. Tonight’s dinner will be at our hotel’s rooftop restaurant as modern Athens thrums and glimmers below. 

This morning we’ll puddle-jump over to Crete, Greece’s largest island and virtually a country unto itself, with a rich history dating back to Neolithic times. It’s also the birthplace of olive oil, with olive trees having been cultivated here for more than a dozen millennia, and there’s no better place in the world to learn about liquid gold, as the poet Homer referred to it.

We’ll start our island adventure with a visit to a traditional olive mill and family estate, learning all about ancient and contemporary cultivation methods, then enjoy a cooking class and lunch courtesy of the family matriarch. Travis is passionate about olive oil — he uses some 30 different bottlings in his restaurant — and as we cook, he’ll tell us all about how to play around with different nuances and flavor profiles.

After our feast, we’ll check into our beachside hotel and have a little time to unwind and explore the fishing village of Agios Nikolaos, whose picturesque coastline captured the imagination of filmmakers like Walt Disney and Jules Dassin back in the 1960s. Dinner tonight will be at our hotel, where the playful menu features mashups of Greek classics, like grilled grouper with bouillabaisse cream, stuffed artichokes with miso, and pastitsio with a moussaka twist. 

After dinner, for those who want to stay up a little, we’ll enjoy a nightcap with Travis under the stars.

Legend has it that you can’t truly understand Cretan culture without heading to the mountains, and today’s our day to do just that. We’ll jump into 4x4s and explore the hidden secrets of Crete’s higher elevations, stopping first at the village of Krista, home to a 13th-century church with immaculately preserved Byzantine frescoes. Next, we’ll wend our way upward past olive groves and herds of grazing goats toward the summit of Giouhtas Mountain. 

At the top, we’ll rest among the ruins of an ancient Minoan settlement and enjoy sweeping views of the island’s rugged north coast, fringed by the purple Selena and Dikti mountains. No visit to the mountains is complete without wine, and one of Crete’s iconic wineries just happens to be a stone’s throw away. Here we’ll learn more about native varietals like kotsifali, a dry red known as the “soul of Crete.” 

Up next is a truly special lunch. We’ll stop at a picturesque hillside village at a taverna steeped in legend, where will fill up on saganaki (charred feta with eggplant and tomatoes) and tsigariasto (roasted lamb) and eat to our heart’s content. We’ll then return to the tranquil luxury of our 5-star resort to reset and relax. Dinner is on our own tonight.

We’re off to Santorini by ferry this morning, cradle of Minoan civilization and site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, which has bequeathed the island its unique microclimate and ashy terroir. Our morning will be devoted to learning about the Santorini’s small, flourishing wine industry centered on the indigenous Assyrtiko grape, known for its distinctive citrus and mineral notes and saline aroma.

We’ll visit several family-run wineries, learning more about Assyrtiko’s versatility and aging potential and admiring the ambelia, the ancient technique by which the vines are trained picturesquely into low-spiraling baskets to protect them from the winds. Travis adores salty, volcanic soil wines, and as we taste he’ll offer us a wealth of tips on how to best pair them with different foods.

Santorini is a place to indulge whims and wander, so the afternoon is ours to stroll the winding cobblestone alleyways and admire the traditional cerulean-domed, whitewashed buildings that clamber up and down the island’s rocky hillsides. Dinner tonight will be a true sundowner, as we watch the Aegean ignite in a kaleidoscope of reds and yellows from our perch at our rustic restaurant. 

Today is about island living in all its glory, as we board our private catamaran for a day of exploring the deep blue Aegean sea. Our first port of call will be the spectacular caldera hot springs, where we’ll lather ourselves up for a rejuvenating mud bath.

After rinsing off, we’ll sail past the ancient settlement of Akrotiri, home to one of the first lighthouses in Greece, stopping for a swim at the secluded cove of White Beach, named for the gleaming cliffs that encircle it. While we enjoy an onboard seafood barbecue lunch, Travis will talk more about his passion for seafood and share some of his favorite preparation methods with us. After lunch, we’ll head to nearby Red Beach for more swimming and snorkeling.

Our dinner tonight is at Selene, famed for its wine cellars helmed by one of Greece’s only Masters of Wine, and for a menu that features traditional Cretan ingredients like red prawns, sea urchin, skinny katsouni cucumbers, and milk-fed lamb.

It’s back to Athens this morning, and straight back into the mix for another food tour. We’ll start with a short walk through the vibrant Monastiraki and Psyrri districts, famed for their colorful flea markets, artisan workshops and vibrant street art.

Our lunch today will be in the old market building of Athens’s lively central market, where fresh fish, crayfish, and shrimp will be brought straight to our table from the fish market next door, and prepared tableside. As we sample a traditional Greek fish soup and a deluxe sushi platter of nigiri and sushi rolls, Travis will talk about his training in Japan, demoing some of the dishes we’re sampling.

We’ll have time this afternoon to bid farewell to Athens on our own before reconvening for a very special farewell dinner, filled — Greek-style — with toasts to our hosts, the gods, the saints, and long life. Yamas! 

It’s time to say farewell to our new friends. As we go our separate ways, we know that, as Greeks say, Φάγαμε ψωμί και αλάτι — we ate bread and salt (and much, much more) together, and now we’re bonded for life. Until we meet again!