A Kos food tour walks the lanes of Kos Town and its markets, tasting island cheeses, honey, bread and dishes cooked from Dodecanese recipes. Plan the rest of the trip with Greece Tours.
What food tours run on Kos?
Winery tours with tastings, the Skevofilax winery in Kefalos, a cooking class with Mama Contessa, an olive oil, aloe vera and wine tuk-tuk tour from Pyli, a land experience with lunch, tavern dinners with Greek dancing, and a bus tour with honey tasting.
Booking.com lists a Ktima Akrani winery tasting from 18 pounds and a wine, oil and honey tasting.
What dishes do you taste on Kos?
Pitaridia, a Kos-style lasagna boiled in meat broth, katimeria cheese pies or sweet versions with honey, vine leaves stuffed with bulgur, pork with bulgur, varvara boiled wheat with nuts and raisins, and posia cheese aged in olive oil.
Seafood meze includes grilled octopus, salted fish, fried moray eel and calamari.
Pies such as elaiotyropita and bourekia are baked in wood-fired ovens with cheese, herbs or pumpkin.
Other dishes include small tomatoes, artichokes stuffed with rice, kolokythopoulia courgette fritters, lachanopita and skordalia.
What is posia cheese?
The signature dairy product of Kos, a cheese aged in olive oil for depth and complexity, used in pies and salads and served on its own at tastings.
Food tours on Kos include tastings of posia and honey.
Kos honey is aromatic and floral and flavours desserts and pastries.
Pitaridia sessions join the tastings on hands-on tours.
What wines are made on Kos?
Bright, aromatic wines from southern Aegean grapes such as Assyrtiko, Aidani, Athiri, Moschato and Monemvasia, poured on winery tours in the countryside and at Skevofilax in Kefalos.
The wines pair with seafood and meze.
What is the Skevofilax winery?
The standard tasting holds a 4.7 rating from 4 reviews.
Kefalos sits on a peninsula on the south-west side of the island.
The windmill of Papavasilis dominates the town, home to 2,329 people in 2021.
Is there a cooking class on Kos?
An olive oil tasting with an olive field tour and cooking demonstration also sells on Booking.com.
Mama Contessa runs the class on Kos.
Food tours also offer pitaridia sessions.
What is the tuk-tuk tasting tour?
The tour leaves from Pyli.
It is sold for all ages.
What is a Greek night on Kos?
Both run in the evening.
Wine is included on both.
Why is Kos known for food?
Flat terrain and bike paths link farms, beaches, vineyards and tavernas.
Meals in mountain villages, harbour tavernas and family kitchens express filoxenia, Greek hospitality.
Ottoman and Venetian influences shaped the island’s history.
What is Kos?
The third largest island of the Dodecanese after Rhodes and Karpathos, 42.1 by 11.5 kilometres, with 37,089 people in 2021, the second most populous of the group, lying between Nisyros and Kalymnos near the coast of Asia Minor.
Kos Town is the main town and seat of the municipality.
The snorkeling and diving side sits at Kos scuba diving.
How do you book a Kos food tour?
Book winery tours, cooking classes and dinners online for a set date, check whether transport or hotel pick-up is included, and note the 18-plus age rule on wine tastings.
The wineries tour includes transportation.
The Zia sunset tour includes hotel pick-up.
The Rhodes version sits at Rhodes food tour, and a day trip sits at Kalymnos day trip from Kos.
Where does a Kos food tour walk?
Through the centre of Kos Town, between the plane tree square, the market hall on Eleftherias square and the lanes behind the harbour, with stops at bakeries, cheese counters and tavernas.
The centre is flat, so the route runs on foot from stop to stop.
The market building faces the Defterdar mosque on the same square.
The lanes behind the harbour hold the older tavernas.
What is posia cheese?
A hard island cheese from Kos, matured in wine or wine lees, which gives the rind a red tint and the paste a sharp finish.
It is served in slices with bread and olives.
Shops on the island sell it beside mizithra and local graviera.
A Kos food tour puts it early in the route, with the first glass.
What bread does a Kos food tour cover?
Barley rusks, sourdough loaves and sesame rings from the town bakeries, eaten with oil, tomato and cheese.
Rusks are soaked briefly in water before dressing.
Bakeries open early and sell out of the morning batch by midday.
Bread and oil open most tasting routes on the island.
Which dishes does a Kos food tour taste?
Stuffed vegetables, chickpea dishes, grilled fish from the local boats, slow-cooked goat, and honey with yoghurt at the end.
Kos grows tomatoes, watermelons and vegetables on the flat north of the island.
Fish comes in at the harbour in the early morning.
Honey is produced in the villages on the slopes of Mount Dikeos.
What does a Kos food tour drink?
Local wine from the island vineyards, ouzo with ice, and raki poured at the end of a meal.
Vineyards sit inland from the north coast, around the villages.
Ouzo is served with water and a small plate of food.
Coffee is taken slowly in the square at the end of the walk.
How long does a Kos food tour take?
About three to four hours on foot in the town, with five to seven stops and enough food between them to replace a meal.
Groups stay small so the tables fit the party.
Walking distances between stops are short.
Evening tours finish after sunset.
When does a Kos food tour run?
Late morning for market and bakery stops, and early evening for taverna stops, with the hottest hours of the day left out in summer.
Shops close in the early afternoon.
Tavernas open for dinner from about eight.
Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons for walking the route.
Where does a Kos food tour start?
In the centre of Kos Town, near the plane tree square or the market hall, with the meeting point named at booking.
The harbour, the castle and the Agora all sit within a few minutes of the start.
Ferries and cruise ships dock beside the same centre.
No transport is needed for the town route.
What do you eat in the Kos villages?
Village bread, cheese, honey and goat in the settlements on Mount Dikeos, where tavernas cook on wood and the tables sit under plane trees.
Zia and the Asfendiou villages hold most of those tables.
The drive up from the town takes about twenty minutes.
Evening is the hour for a village meal, after the light goes.
Does a Kos food tour suit families?
Yes. The route is flat, the stops are short, and the dishes are plain enough for children: bread, cheese, tomato, chicken, honey and yoghurt.
Tables are booked ahead so the party sits together.
Portions are shared rather than ordered per person.
Dietary needs are given at booking.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Kos food tour taste first?
Bread with olive oil, posia cheese and olives, before the cooked dishes.
What is the signature cheese of Kos?
Posia, a cheese aged in olive oil and used in pies and salads.
What grapes grow on Kos?
Assyrtiko, Aidani, Athiri, Moschato and Monemvasia.