Peza and Archanes

This tour is built for guests who would rather spend their Heraklion port day on Cretan wine and village life than at the ruins, a good fit if you have already seen Knossos on a previous visit or simply prefer to skip the antiquities.

After meeting your guide, you drive about 10 miles (16km) into the hills to the Peza Valley, set between the Dikti and Psiloritis mountain ranges. Peza is the single most productive wine region on Crete, producing roughly 70 percent of the island's wine, and its two signature grapes are Vilana, a floral, citrusy white, and Liatiko, a red used for both dry wines and rich, sun-dried dessert wines. At a local winery you get a short tour of the cellar and a guided tasting of a few of these Cretan varieties.

From the winery you continue to Archanes, a village so carefully restored that it won second place in the European Union's competition for best-restored village in Europe in 2000, recognized for its Integrated Sustainable Settlement Development project, followed by a Gold Environmental Award from the University of Crete the following year. Wandering its cobbled lanes past bougainvillea-covered courtyards and colorfully painted houses, it is easy to see why. Archanes sits at the base of Mount Youchtas, whose silhouette, seen from certain angles, is said to resemble the reclining face of Zeus, and local legend places the god's tomb on its summit, a myth so persistent in antiquity that the Cretan philosopher Epimenides used it to accuse his fellow islanders of habitual lying. You have time to relax over a light lunch, included, at a traditional taverna and experience the hospitality Crete is known for before your guide brings you back to Heraklion.

• Prices shown are not valid on Sundays or local national holidays. If your only day in this city is Sunday, please contact us for pricing and availability.