Road-trip to Lasithi: Zeus Cave, Vidiani, Krasi, &Olive Mill Farm

Discover the hidden treasures of the Lasithi Plateau, including the historical Cave of Zeus and Kera Monastery. Immerse yourself in Cretan culture with a visit to a traditional village and a workshop on Cretan crafts. End the day with a mouthwatering local lunch at a traditional tavern.

Duration: 11 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Heraklion - We will start collecting participants from pick-up points in the morning. Depending on the place of your hotel/apartment the bus ride will differ.

  • Dikteon Cave - Bus Drive to Dikteon Cave: 50’
    We will visit the Cave of Zeus for about 1 hour and 40 minutes.
    The mythical birth place of the king of gods Zeus, decorated with impressive stalactites and stalagmites.

  • Monastery Vidiani - The bus drive from Zeus Cave to the Monastery of Vidiani is almost 10’ where you can enjoy the views of cretan countryside. We will stop for a visit at the Monastery for about 25’.

  • Krasi - Bus Drive to Krasi: 15 minutes.
    The little traditional village Krasi with its beautiful freshwater springs and the oldest tree on Crete, for about 20’.

  • Lyrakis Family S.A. - Lunch&guided tour at an Olive Mill Farm (bus drive to the Farm: 25 minutes).
    There will be a big variety of traditional dishes made from local products of Crete, homemade wine and meats from the surrounding mountains. After lunch there will be guided tour around the Olive Mill Farm about olive oil production, olive soaps, ceramics, honey etc.

  • Heraklion - Embarkation in the buses and drive back to the hotels where we gathered participants in the morning.
    Depending on traffic and on the pick-up places of each one, the time of journey back to the hotel will differ.

What's Included
  • Liability Insurance Coverage by ALLIANZ for all tour participants
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • Professional Driver
  • All fees and/or taxes included
  • Experienced Tour Guide / Leader
What's Not Included
  • Lunch
  • Cave of Zeus Entrance: 6€
Additional Information

This tour will let you explore many places at the Lassithi Plateau such us the mythical Cave of Zeus and the monastery of Vidiani. You will visit the traditional village of Krasi, where lays the oldest tree of Crete and later in the day you will attend an Olive Mill Farm where you will be guided around and learn more about the production of olive oil, olive soap and honey. Last but not least, the day will end with a delicious local lunch that will be prepared for our group (not included in price) at the outdoor special area of the Ovive Mill Farm, with unique view to the Agean Sea and the Cretan Mountains.

Location
Heraklion
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.2
(71 Ratings)
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Travel40471828001
Aug 7, 2024
Zeus cave and olive mill - Very well organised,friendly and insightful whole day was really enjoyable would definitely go again with this company
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jen
Aug 16, 2024
Good tour. Need more time at some of the tours. - We had a great time on this tour. We had a hotel pick up, and it added an hour onto our trip since we were the first ones on and then the last ones to be dropped off.. We were staying at Paralos Lifestyle Beach (for reference). The bus was so comfortable and the driver was amazing, I don't know how he fit into places! The only thing I would like in the 4 places we visited was that we had a longer stay at 2 places. A small town that we didn't get much time to be at and at Zeus Cave. The small town was fascinating and beautiful. It had Tavernas that we wanted to go in, but a quick walk around drove my curiosity more. I really wanted to try some Tavernas that were around. Felt a little rushed here. Zeus Cave, if you've never been, is a hike!! I'm really fit, we had an hour and a half total time there. It took me 1 hour 15 minutes to do the total Cave climb/tour. Which meant we only had 15 minutes to grab a drink. We didn't get time to walk around the area. Since it was repeated that tourism was #2 income, I felt a certain way at both places. Those places could use a longer stay. But the 4th stop was the longest. The Olive Mill. Not that I didn't enjoy it, we paid 15€ each for lunch, which was very good, they had a huge shop. Since you were there the longest, you bought things there. Which made me feel that this place gets tons of income and the smaller places we visited could have benefited from the tourist money more.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Michel_cremer
Aug 13, 2024
A fun excursion that takes height - A charming excursion in the mountains. The view of the Lasithi plateau is beautiful and impressive. We go from 0 to 1000 m in a few minutes to discover a completely different landscape. The visit to the cave of Zeus is worthwhile (to take literally) and the passages through the home village of Kazantzakis is pleasant, the same for the small monastery, before visiting the modern oil mill and its meal to the sound of a biuzouki orchestra. We had a great day and the Award was very decent via Tripadvisor.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
238shelley
Aug 10, 2024
Nice trip, fantastic views. - The cave and area where the cave is are beautiful. I think they should have a warning to tell people before they book that the walk is hard going. We could have had a little longer in the little village and less time in the olive grove and there’s not a lot to fill the time there. The drive was amazing, picked up on time and dropped off at the door. The guild was brilliant very knowledgeable and interesting. We got picked up 8.10 and dropped back 3.30 so around 7.5 hours.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
809mar_aisabelg
Jul 17, 2024
Interesting. - Very interesting and nice. The juices were exquisite. As an aspect to improve, we would have liked you to explain more about Zeus.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tamara_n
Jul 10, 2024
worth it - the tour was good. I'd definitely recommend it. The guide was detailed in his descriptions, the bus was on time and the sites were stunning.
Review provided by Viator
Tatiana
Jul 8, 2024
Safari - Interesting guided tour of the land rover . We visited mountain villages , admired the beautiful view of the fertile valley, free-roaming herds of goats , tasted and purchased products from farmers, dined in a typical (for tourists) restaurant, went down to the grotto (need good physical fitness!!!) and learned much from Cretan mythology. We recommend it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Laurences2006
Jul 3, 2024
Nice meeting - Beautiful discovery orchestrated by MICHALIS , who shares his experience with enthusiasm and professionalism. Attention visit the cave many steps. Visit with local produce and very good dinner in a tavern.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kaylalee001
Aug 8, 2024
Most of the time was picking and dropping people off - If you want a long bus journey book this we got picked up from herakolin and had a 2 hour bus journey just picking people up from other hotels before we even started our journeys to see the slights, once we got to the places we didn’t have a very long stop other than the cave and and olive factory all the other stops were about 20 mins it was a nice day out but the bus journey made me never want to do it again
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Marta_b
Jul 10, 2024
Just OK - Both the guide and the driver were fantastic. We were explained everything with detail, loved the mythological stories. Although the time in the cave was little; just 1h 30m taking into account the really steep hill that you have to walk up for more than 20 minutes in order to get to the cave, (20 minutes if you're in good physical form) and the way down, the queue... You don't really have the time to enjoy the cave (Which is smaller than it looks like). The monastery was interesting thanks to Tania,the guide, we were there for 15 minutes aprox. The little town of Krasi was quaint and we were there for 30 min. The olive mill farm was the only thing that looked like a tourist trap and the food there was €15 without drinks, to me it would be the skippable part. The views from the mountains, breathtaking.
Review provided by Viator
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September 2024
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