Cheese Travel in Greece

The Cheese Regions

Greek cheese is mostly sheep's and goat's milk, and each region has its own.

• Crete: graviera, kefalograviera, kefalotyri, sweet and sour mizithra and anthotyros, from flocks that graze on wild mountain plants. Psiloritis, the island's highest range, is shepherd country.
• The Cyclades: Graviera Naxou, a PDO cheese made mostly from cow's milk; San Michali from Syros, a hard cow's milk PDO cheese; kopanisti, the peppery spread of Tinos, Mykonos and Syros; manoura on Sifnos; and Ios's goat graviera and wine-aged inosperitis.
• Epirus: feta, galotyri, and in Metsovo the smoked Metsovone and Metsovela.
• Thessaly: Elassona is feta country and holds a feta festival in September in some years.
• Peloponnese: barrel-aged feta from Kalavryta, and sfela and other cheeses in Messinia.
• The Ionian and North Aegean: Kefalonian feta, and ladotyri, the hard sheep's cheese of Lesvos.

Places With Their Own Page

Crete: the Shepherd's Shelter on Psiloritis (milking and cheesemaking, April to October), Arkadianos Farm near Rethymno (farm visit and tasting), Spiridi farm's cheese workshop near Agios Nikolaos (€40, three mornings a week), Anogeia and the Nida plateau, and Crete's summer cheese festivals.

The islands: Armeos farm on Naxos, Diaseli on Ios, Anthi's Farm on Sifnos and Mykonos Farmers.

Mainland and cities: Metsovo, cheese tasting in Athens, Varvakios central market and Thessaloniki's Modiano and Kapani markets.

When to Go

The farm season runs from spring to autumn. The Shepherd's Shelter makes cheese with visitors from April to October and Anthi's Farm from 1 May to 10 October. May, June and September are good months: warm but not yet scorching, and the islands are quieter than in high summer. July and August bring the village festivals, including the Great Graviera Festival in Anopoli, Crete, every 15 August, but also the heat and the crowds. Island farm programmes wind down for winter (Anthi's Farm stops after October). That is the time for the city markets and tastings in Athens and Thessaloniki, which run all year, and for Metsovo, a mountain town at its best in winter.

A Suggested Route

Islands and Crete in ten days or so: start in Athens with a morning at Varvakios and an evening tasting at Cinque. Take the ferry from Piraeus to Naxos for a cheesemaking session at Armeos, then hop to Ios for Diaseli, or to Sifnos or Mykonos for their farms. Fly or sail on to Heraklion, spend two nights in the Psiloritis villages for the Shepherd's Shelter and Anogeia, stop at Arkadianos Farm on the way to Rethymno, and finish in the east with the Spiridi workshop near Agios Nikolaos.

Mainland in four or five days: from Thessaloniki, with its Modiano market, drive west to Kalambaka for Meteora and a food and wine tour with galotyri, cross the Pindus to Metsovo for Metsovone, and end in Ioannina.

Getting Around

Ferries from Piraeus and Rafina link Athens with the Cyclades, and the islands are connected to each other in summer; services thin out in winter. Most farm visits are out in the countryside, so plan on a hire car, a taxi or the pickup some farms offer (Anthi's Farm collects guests free from Apollonia). On Crete a car is close to essential for the mountain villages. On the mainland, KTEL intercity buses reach Metsovo from Ioannina and Kalambaka.

Can You Visit a Feta Dairy?

Feta is Greece's best-known cheese, but very few dairies publish public visits. The options that do exist: Flegga Creamery near Volos runs one-hour tours through the Gastronomy Tours booking site, except in September and October; a farm day near Kalamata includes a dairy tour every Thursday; and Kostarelos offers tastings at its feta dairy in Markopoulo, near Athens airport, by appointment. For a quick comparison, Cinque in Athens serves a trio of sheep's, goat's and barrel-aged feta. Elassona's Panhellenic Feta Festival, planned for September 2025, was postponed because of sheep pox and has no new date yet.

Animal Health Notices

Sheep pox on the mainland and foot-and-mouth disease on Lesvos have disrupted farms in 2025 and 2026. On Lesvos, the ban on visitors taking dairy off the island was lifted in August 2026. Before booking a farm visit, check with the farm that it is receiving visitors.

More Places to Taste and Buy Cheese

Smaller stops with verified details. Most of the shops do not publish hours, so call ahead.