My multigenerational family of 8 spent the day with Traditional Cooking Classes during our port visit to Crete on a recent cruise.
We were greeted with an air conditioned van by Tony, our driver, after getting off the cruise ship bus transfer at the port gate. He told us about Crete as he drove us to the village of our cooking class.
When we arrived in Archanes, we were taken to a cute business with a nice, clean restroom, small kitchen, and covered porch area. It was nice that there was a fan set up to help keep us cool. Tables were set up on the porch as well, with the ingredients and cooking tools we'd need for the morning. We prepared stuffed peppers & tomatoes and tzatziki. Some of my family members don't care for tomatoes, so they made extra peppers. While the peppers and tomatoes cooked, we were served local greek wines. Our hostess was sweet and informative (I think her name was Maria). She even made a short trek down the street to buy local bread for my parents, who love Greek olive oil with their meals.
Our morning cooking was relaxing and fun. We made fantastic family memories.
I did arrange a meat selection prior or our arrival, but somewhere it got lost in translation. So we did have a veggies only meal. My teenager was still hungry, so our hostess brought him meat, but I had to ask a couple of times. That was the only downer of the day.
Otherwise, it was a great experience, and I'd recommend it to others.