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George, Porto Club founder, will be your host and personal guide all the way. We visit restaurants, taverns, local farm homes where you sample delicious dishes. We feed you like royalty, treat you to fine wine, tasty home made bread, green pies and teach you to make your way around the fresh food markets. Our cooking lessons can last 2 to 5 hours and afterwards you enjoy the meal that was prepared. There will be plenty of time to explore the rich natural and cultural attractions of the island, share activities, excursions, and contact local people.
At village Tzanakiana / Margarites around 25 km southern east the city of Rethymnon. A fine stone-built country manor of 1750, the Kouriton house classified as historical. It has been preserved for its traditional architectural structure, typical of the Cretan design stemming from prehistoric Minoan mansions. Run by the owner retired University professor of Music a very nice and warm lady and her sons. Breakfasts and dinners at the manor prepared by the house lady with fresh ingredients from the area but most important with love and care.
During the restoration procedure, the historical listed monuments Kouriton House preserved all the architectural characteristics of the 18th century house that has its roots at the pre-historic Minoan mansion: the backyard with the rock-built ponds and the terraces, the oven-house, the ceramic chimneys, the bedrooms, the rest for pitchers, the old jars, the crenellation and the rock-hewn surface water reservoir.
The house has 7 bedrooms that can accommodate from 2 to 4 persons. On the ground floor there are 2 two-bedroom flats with a fireplace, an oven-house as well as a dining room with very old jars and a monastery-style table, where the guests can enjoy thematic breakfasts based on local products and traditional recipes. On the first floor of the house there is the living room, where the guest can have a drink or use the internet. Every piece of furniture is a copy of the original Cretan furniture of the house, while the beds are authentic antiques.
Every room has a fridge, a TV, a hair dryer and ecological air conditioning. The guest house also provides drinking water from the fountain located in the area as well as a softener. It is built right at the entrance of the forest and the historic paths with a view over the evergreen gorges and the traditional settlements. The guest house has a rich library with vast folklore, historic material, leaflets regarding the Cretan gastronomy, a photocopy machine and audiovisual material infrastructure.
Youll stay in the Thalori Resort which is made up of a cluster of 14 traditional houses and boasts a central restaurant, kitchen and recreational area. Each house has been built with an emphasis on traditional, locally sourced resources. Local rocks and stones make up the walls of the properties, local marble and wood for the interior and traditional fireplaces and embroidered carpets make for a warm and welcoming stay.
All houses are equipped with central heating, fireplace, fully equipped kitchen, mini stereo system, Satellite TV with 20 LCD screen, Chess table, board games, orthopaedic mattresses, and complimentary bathroom products. Houses vary in size and accommodate from 1-5 people. There are 4 double bedroom houses, 5 triple room houses, 1 four bedroom property and 4 five bedroom houses. Bathrooms are shared within each house.
If you are travelling solo, stay in a double room house for sole occupancy for a small supplement or you may be able to share a house with other guests but this is subject to availability (to check availability please contact us. Houses are allocated according to availability, where possible your group will be offered their own house.
The thick stone wall and central heating make the houses a comfortable temperature year round. There is a swimming pool with beautiful views over the area at the accommodation. The restaurant is built in a similar style to the houses and set over two floors. There is also a professional kitchen and separate meeting room with terrace within the restaurant building.
Your cookery lessons will take place either in the complex's kitchen, side meeting room with terrace, or in the restaurant itself. The imposing windows of the restaurant offer panoramic views to the Libyan Sea. The beach is about 7 kilometers away so within walking distance. Enjoy the wilderness of the mountains and the spectacular views and inlets to the secret beaches of southern Crete.
Porto Club is a family founded company that set out to share the wonders and mysteries of Cretan regional cuisine with the world. Founded on the principles of passion, sharing and learning we pride ourselves in enjoying with others the uniqueness, wonders and pleasure of Cretan Vegetarian regional cuisine while ensuring to intertwine these with an understanding of the production, pride and culture specific to each region.
In Crete, a meal is not only a celebration but also a culmination of various events. Enjoy culinary explorations that blend all the secrets particular of the region of Crete and let you enjoy and learn about them first-hand alongside the locals. Going from one region of Crete to another changes not only what you eat, but how you eat it, how its prepared and what accompanies it. Each region is a mystery unto itself. Immerse yourself in the fantastic flavours and mouth-watering smells of regional Crete.
We believe that the most authentic way to experience and understand the heritage of Cretan culture, nutrition, history, way of life and its people, is in the company of a local scholar, walking through streets which are alive with religion, art and history, immersing in the architecture, learning about the life, traditions, and customs of Cretan people, past and present.
You will sample some of the finest meals as well as fruit and vegetables in the world. You will drink selected spirits (ouzo, raki, liquors) and wines that will elevate your spirit and help you relax, and relish the excellent traditional cooking in some of the less obvious restaurants that we will point you out.
Follow Porto Club Vegetarian lead, come on a route of adventure, travel and wonder as you explore the mysteries, flavours and customs particular to various Cretan regions on our unique & authentic Cretan vegetarian food holiday. We can promise you we will not be part of any tourist trail or the sheep following mentality. Our aim has always been to offer quality not quantity, so Porto Club remains small but perfectly formed.
We offer a unique opportunity to experience at first hand authentic Cretan regional cooking techniques and recipes that have been developed and handed down over generations. All of the ingredients you will use are bought each morning from local open market and so you will be working with fresh fruit and vegetables in season.
Throughout our cooking you will learn about the ingredients and the traditions around the dishes. You will learn the passion of the Cretan kitchen and, importantly, have a lot of fun and enjoyment doing it.
Your week in Crete will be as much a hands on cooking experience as a cultural one. George will introduce you to the philosophy of local cooking and its traditions. You will learn about the history of Cretan cuisine and how it was influenced by its occupation for more than 2000 years.
You will learn the inspirations behind the Cretan dishes, the methods employed by local producers, how to make a variety of Cretan dishes from simple ingredients you can find back home, how very few ingredients can be the basis for 6 or 7 dishes.
You will learn how to prepare traditional Cretan dishes adapted to vegetarian requirements but never compromising on flavor as well as the cooking techniques and methods used to create the dishes.
Cretans eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables. The fat we use in our cooked food and salads is mainly olive oil. We eat pulses and vegetables in large amounts. They are the basis in our daily diet. No more than two or three days would go without pulses in a meal and not a day without vegetables, wild greens, olives, uncooked fresh vegetables and greens as salad, Cretan rusks and fruits. We eat more fruit than most, in fact, 4 times more than the other inhabitants of the Mediterranean.
A traveler in Greece when goes for lunch or dinner can find a huge variety of vegetarian / vegan meals in Estiatorion (restaurant). In these restaurants they present their specialties in show tables so guests can view the meals and choose one of them. Estiatorion is restaurant that operates mostly for local people. They always supply a big number of free-meat dishes we call them Ladera. You can find them at taverns or other kind of restaurants but Estiatorion is the ones I always suggest.
I have no compunction in saying that Crete and Greece is an ideal destination for a vegan / vegetarian, at least nutritionally. There is still a long way to go to connect with the philosophy and spirit of the vegan way, but any vegan visitor will be surprised at how harmoniously local Cretan people live with animals, almost all of whom free range in the fields or mountains. I hope and believe respect is a good first step between Cretans and vegans / vegetarians worldwide.
For many Greeks (especially in the countryside and islands), five days a week their meal is vegetarian or vegan. Yes, Greeks are meat and dairy eaters, but because such a large percentage of our diet consists of pulses, vegetables, greens and fruits, a vegan or vegetarian visitor will not have any difficulty in finding a huge variety of vegetarian food all over Greece. You dont have to apologize or explain why you dont eat meat.
Taste the healthy Cretan and Greek Mediterranean meat-free delicacies and our fine wine. You shall feel strong humanity, away from the stress of our daily life. You shall feel the warmth of Greek and Cretan company. You shall be captured by the place, perhaps because you think that time has stood still or because they welcome you with a shot of Tsikoudia with Cretan rusks and fresh tomato or a tsipouro or an ouzo.
Heraklion International Airport
3 km
Transfer included
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