For a long healthy, happy life eat olive oil, seafood, bread, and wine. The ancient city of Athens has exploded into a brilliant, sexy food scene and the island of Sifnos is a haven of gastronomy, tradition and ceramics. 

Greeks are still the same as they have always been – warm, generous, fun-loving and passionate. Athens used to be a place you passed through on your way to the islands, but not any more. Athens glow-up has only happened in the last few years – now it's fabulous. The gastronomy has become very distinctive with a kind of Greek gastro-taverna vibe happening. You still have your traditional joints but now there are also stylish bars making sophisticated cocktails, groovy cafés, a reinvestment in old style recipes with sophisticated restraint and a cultivated edge. May is an ideal time to visit to avoid heat and crowds and concentrate on the job at hand – which is being hosted by me and our Greek tour manager for cooking lessons, shopping trips, market visits, rooftop cocktails and fine dining. Our hotel is an upmarket supermarket with stylish bedrooms upstairs – I'm not making that up.

The second half of the tour is on the heart-warming, authentic and foodie island of Sifnos in the Cyclades group. We travel by ferry to get there resplendent in our new Greek shirts, sandals and summer frocks. Upon arrival at the chic five-star Elies Resort, we throw ourselves into the pool or three metres further to the beach. Drenched in white houses with blue doors, dovecotes, hilltop villages and beautiful beaches, Sifnos is one of those places where you say, OK I'm selling up and moving here to milk goats, eat fish and make pots. Sifnos is famous for its relaxed rhythm of life and clay pot in wood fired oven cooking – could be chickpeas, could be goat, could be potatoes. Paradoxically, it's become fashionable to eat raw fish dishes, make natural wine and as with everywhere in Greece, make really good bread. We sail the high seas in a wooden gulet, snorkeling and swimming, visit an organic farm to cook and check out the pottery. Our last night bash is on the beach, distinguished by traditional food, singing, dancing and weeping because we're leaving.

This tour includes a significant amount of walking in warm temperatures. For your comfort and enjoyment, participants should be in good health and able to walk for extended periods.

2027 greece tour

Athens & Sifnos

15 – 21 May – Tour Full

25 – 31 May – Bookings Open

Cost 

 NZD 8,500 per person
(based on twin share). 

This includes 6 nights accommodation, airport transfers on days 1 & 7, Peta and our local guides, internal transport, cooking classes, entrances, all meals & wine with meals. 

NZD 1,900 accommodation single supplement subject to availability.

Maximum of 12 guests.

Accommodation

In Athens we stay at 
Ergon House

In Sifnos we stay at
Elies Resort

Our mission has always been to provide really authentic gastronomic and cultural experiences. We travel initially to lose ourselves and next to find ourselves, because travel cracks us open and so pushes us over all the walls and low horizons that habits and defensiveness set up.  

Behind every person and every household is a story of local traditions and daily life in villages and towns. Traditional food is about ancestral memories and looking back and holding on to old cultures – it is profoundly about identity.  Come with us and partake in the honesty, grace, generosity and fun that is a Peta Mathias tour. Suitable for fit and healthy gastronomic adventurers!