An Olympia food tour joins a visit to the ancient sanctuary with local tastings or a meal in the countryside of Elis. For more days out, browse Greece Tours.
This page sets out the tours you can book, how they run, the foods you taste, where they start, the season and common questions.
What is an Olympia food tour?
An Olympia food tour joins a visit to the ancient sanctuary with local tastings or a Greek meal. The trip runs in Elis, in the western Peloponnese. You see the birthplace of the Olympic Games and taste local food in one day.
Olympia is a small town in Elis, on the Peloponnese peninsula. Elis is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese. Today it is a regional unit of Western Greece. The town of Olympia serves the archaeological site, which lies beside it to the southeast.
The site was a major Panhellenic religious sanctuary of ancient Greece. The ancient Olympic Games were held there every four years. They ran from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The sacred precinct, called the Altis, was dedicated mainly to Zeus. An Olympia food tour pairs a walk on this ground with a meal or tasting nearby.
Katakolo is the nearby port where cruise ships call on the Ionian coast. One Olympia food tour on the list below carries Katakolo in its title.
Which Olympia food tour can you book?
Six Olympia food tour cards cover this trip, and they last from five hours to one full day. Four run for a private group. One is a small-group tour, and one is a group day trip with a tasting.
Each line below gives an Olympia food tour card title, then its length and group type.
- Katakolo: Ancient Olympia Tour with Food and Drinks: 5 hours, private group of up to 4.
- Ancient Olympia: guided tour, meal with cooking class, virtual reality museum: 5 hours, private tour.
- Olympia: Guided Tour of the Archaeological Site, Museum and Archimedes Museum: 5 hours, private group of up to 4.
- Olympia: Traditional Meal at a Family Home & Time to Explore: 5 hours, private small group of up to 8. It pairs a home-cooked meal with free time to explore.
- Small Group Tour Ancient Olympia & Local Delicacies Tasting: 1 day, small group. It is the one Olympia food tour here that fills a full day. It adds a honey farm and a local market.
- Olympia: Group Tour with entry tickets & tasting experience: 5 hours, group day trip. A local expert leads it, with entry tickets and a tasting of local products.
Four more Olympia food tour listings carry their own titles. One is “Small Group Tour to Olympia, Honey Farm & Local Market Tasting”. Another is “Exclusive Olympia Tour from Katakolo with Local Tasting”.
A third is “Ancient Olympia & Magna Grecia Farm Experience with Tastings”. The fourth is “Katakolon Small Group Tour: Olympic site, Honey/Olive Oil Tasting”.
Pick by length first. Five of the six cards last five hours, while the honey farm and market tour fills a full day.
Then pick by group and port. A private group keeps the Olympia food tour to your own party. Cruise passengers at Katakolo can set each card beside an Olympia shore excursion before they choose.
How does the Olympia food tour from Katakolo work?
The Olympia food tour from Katakolo visits the archaeological site and museum of Ancient Olympia. This is the birthplace of the Olympic Games. Guests then enjoy a Greek meal with unlimited free drinks. The day also includes time to shop for souvenirs in Olympia.
The booking card for this Olympia food tour lists the day in four parts:
- A visit to the archaeological site of Ancient Olympia.
- A visit to the site museum.
- A Greek meal with unlimited free drinks.
- Souvenir shopping at a small shopping centre in the city of Olympia.
The card lists the meal after the site and the museum. Souvenir shopping comes last on its list.
The tasting on the Olympia food tour is a Greek meal. The card states that the drinks with this meal are unlimited and free. It does not name the dishes or the drinks on the menu.
The card lists the Olympia food tour at five hours for a private group. It includes skip-the-line entry, so the group does not wait in the ticket queue. The card also marks the tour as wheelchair accessible.
How do the Olympia tours with food and a museum work?
Two private versions of the Olympia food tour join a guided visit, Greek food and a museum. Each one lasts five hours. One adds a virtual reality museum that shows ancient times in 3D. The other adds the Archimedes Museum to the site and its museum.
On the first Olympia food tour, a certified guide leads the walk through the site where the Olympic Games began. Guests also cook Greek food with an instructor, which our Olympia cooking class page explains. The tour title names the meal and the virtual reality museum as well.
The second Olympia food tour is a private guided tour with a professional guide. It visits the archaeological site, the museum and the Archimedes Museum. Its booking link names this third stop the Museum of the Origins of Science. A traditional Greek meal is part of the day.
Greece counts the Archaeological Museum of Olympia among its principal museums. It houses finds from the area, including the site of the Ancient Olympic Games. Its principal pieces include Hermes and the Infant Dionysus, attributed to Praxiteles, and the Nike of Paionios.
The original museum building was the first Greek museum built outside Athens. Today the museum has a main building with twelve exhibition rooms. Its collection covers objects from the area, from prehistory to the time of Roman rule. Objects from the Temple of Zeus are also among its principal pieces.
Both cards list skip-the-line entry and wheelchair access, as the Katakolo card does. Each Olympia food tour of this kind runs for a private group, so the guide works with one party only.
Which local foods do you taste on an Olympia food tour?
An Olympia food tour draws on the farm produce of Elis, the region around the ancient site. Its farms grow maize, tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, watermelon and melon. Greek staples add olive oil, honey and wine.
Olive oil, the oldest element of Greek cuisine, is the first product to know before an Olympia food tour. Koroneiki olives cover 50 to 60 per cent of the olive acreage in Greece. In the Peloponnese, this olive is also called Koroni. The Olympia olive oil tasting page covers the oil alone.
Honey is a common dessert ingredient in Greek cuisine. Greek honey comes mainly from the nectar of fruit and citrus trees, along with thyme honey and pine honey. One bookable Olympia food tour adds a honey farm and a local agro market to the ancient site.
Greek cuisine stands on a triad of wheat, olive oil and wine. Greece has about 200 vine varieties, including Agiorgitiko, Moschofilero and Mavrodafni. Wine has its own page: Olympia wine tasting.
One third of jobs in Elis are in agriculture. About one third of its land is fertile, and the rest is mountainous. No land in the Peloponnese is more fertile than the plain of northern Elis. Raisin exports from the western Peloponnese once fuelled the growth of nearby Pyrgos.
The staple dishes of Greek cuisine below use the same produce. They show the flavours of Greece, not the set menu of any Olympia food tour:
- Horiatiki: a village salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta and olives, dressed with oregano and olive oil.
- Spanakopita: a filo pie of spinach and cheese.
- Fasolada: a soup of dry white beans, olive oil and vegetables.
- Gemista: baked peppers and tomatoes stuffed with rice or ground beef.
- Tzatziki: strained yogurt mixed with cucumber, garlic, salt and olive oil.
Where does an Olympia food tour start?
An Olympia food tour starts from one of three points. They are the cruise port of Katakolo, the town of Olympia and Athens. Pyrgos, the capital of Elis, lies 16 km west of Olympia.
Katakolo is a seaside village 11 km west of Pyrgos, on a headland above the Ionian Sea. Cruise ships call at its port, and passengers use the stop to visit Olympia. That makes the port the sea gateway for an Olympia food tour. Its market has more than sixty shops, including traditional Greek products.
The town of Olympia is the second start for an Olympia food tour. Ancient Olympia is one of the seven municipalities of Elis. The regional unit also holds the ancient ruins of Elis and Epitalion. Greek National Road 74 runs from Pyrgos to Tripoli via Olympia.
Athens is the third start, for travellers who base their stay in the capital. One small-group Olympia food tour filed under Athens lasts one day. It runs in English and pairs the archaeological site with a tasting of local delicacies. Our Ancient Olympia day trip from Athens page covers that route in full.
Pyrgos stands in the middle of a plain, 4 km from the Ionian Sea. Its train station has regular trains to Katakolo and Olympia. Its bus terminal runs intercity routes to Athens. Pyrgos therefore works as a rail and road link for an Olympia food tour.
When is the season for an Olympia food tour?
An Olympia food tour runs all year. The booking calendars show open dates in every month, from January to December. Summers in western Greece are hot and dry, and winters are wet. Late spring and autumn sit between the two.
Olympia lies in Elis, in the Western Greece region. The national climate atlas places the greater part of the western coast in the hot-summer Mediterranean zone. Summer weather there is mainly sunny and dry, with hot days and warm nights. Winters are wet, and the western areas of the zone get more rain.
Weather records from Araxos, near Patras, help you time an Olympia food tour. August is the warmest month, with a mean of 27.0 °C and an average high of 33.6 °C. January is the coolest, with a mean of 10.2 °C.
The months either side of summer are milder. October has a mean of 19.1 °C, and April has 15.4 °C. July is the driest month at Araxos, and November is the wettest.
No booking card marks a closed season or a winter break. Dates stay open from the hot, dry summer through the wet winter. That lets you match an Olympia food tour to the weather you prefer.
What do travellers ask about an Olympia food tour?
Can an Olympia food tour cater for dietary needs?
No card on this page promises it. The cards state nothing about vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free or allergy menus. Before you book an Olympia food tour, send your dietary needs to the operator through the booking page. Ask in writing, and keep the reply with your booking confirmation. List every food you cannot eat, and name each allergy.
Can children join an Olympia food tour?
Yes. One card sells three ticket types. Adults are aged 18 to 99, children 4 to 17, and infants 3 and younger. The other cards sell one ticket for ages 0 to 99. No card on the page adds age notes. Before you book an Olympia food tour with young children, ask the operator about the meal.
How do you book and cancel an Olympia food tour?
Pick a date on the card’s calendar, then finish the booking on the linked page. Every card shows free cancellation, but none states the time limit. Read the terms on the booking page before you pay. Four cards close bookings 3, 8 or 10 hours before the start of an Olympia food tour. Two cards state no cut-off.
What do you wear on an Olympia food tour?
The booking cards set no dress code. Wear comfortable walking shoes for the ancient site, as on any Ancient Olympia guided tour. Bring a hat and a bottle of water, since summer days on Greece’s western coast are sunny and hot. Light, loose clothes suit the heat on an Olympia food tour in July and August.