Ikaria Island holiday, organic farmstay villas in Greece

This organic farmstay villa in Greece is an agro-tourist unit with an organic farm and a winery where small groups of guests stay in two stone houses which have been restored using natural local materials. They were the original family homes built between 120 and 500 years ago. Each of them is approximately 70 - 80 square metres in size and has 3 rooms. They each have two bedrooms, one on the first floor and a large living room / kitchen at ground level. They each have a large family-size bathroom attached to the house. There are no internal doors and all doors open to the front yard. They can accommodate between 4 - 6 people. Each has an outdoor seating area with a flower garden with views over the vineyard and the forest to the Aegean sea. Visitors can relax and watch spectacular sunsets across the sea from here.

We are a certified organic farm and we offer our guests organic meals and in addition they live in this farm. We mainly produce grapes and wine (in our winery ) as well as olives, vegetable and fruit, aromatic plants and a few corn and beans. We use these products in cooking and offer them to our guests with our home-made bread, jam, grape syrup, raisins etc..
We use certified organic practices on the farm and that makes an environment free of chemicals. We cook and offer only to our guests meals (private cooking), using mainly organic products, some of them originating from our farm. We prefer organic fair trade products (if they are imported like coffee etc). We offer our guests other organic products (soap, etc). Every kitchen has a tap with carbon-filtered water only for drinking.

Ikaria is a unique island with a variety of interesting places. It has mountains, large free-standing rocks, quiet beaches and clean seas. Much of the island is covered with pine and oak forests. It has an abundance of wildlife and flowers. As there are no charter flights to the island it is still free of massive tourism.

The unit was set up by the resident couple when they returned to their native home to dedicate themselves to environmental work on their own land. They live there with their four children. The property is located to the northwest side of the island, in the hill village of Pigi. It is in the middle of a pine and oak tree forest 5 kilometers from the seashore. The aim is to operate the unit with the minimum possible impact on the environment. Guests are offered private cooking, as well as courses about the light Mediterranean cookery and wine-tasting.

The above prices include transfers from the airport or ferry-port of Ikaria, breakfasts and lunches (mainly organic). Walking and Cycling: Our location is ideal for mountain walking and mountain cycling. Walking is appropriate for everybody while cycling is suggested only for the more advanced.

Wine Tasting Courses: Have you ever wished you knew more about wine, its styles and its flavours? This could be the holiday for you. You can explore the world of wine with the local established wine producer in our 6 day course in the ancient home of wine-making, Ikaria. Over the course you will learn the basics of wine, its origins, its making and its varieties starting from the very beginning. Every day we taste 7-8 carefully selected and representative wines. You will learn about the different styles of wines and the grapes used in them. You will learn step by step how to taste the wine and the special vocabulary of the wine-tasting. This includes how to describe the colour, the flavours and the taste of the wine. The wine course needs a minimum of 5 participants. The cost is 300 euro per person.

Mediterranean Cooking Courses: We offer our guests courses about the light Mediterranean cookery, which is a new and unique cooking style. There we combine the taste of the traditional Mediterranean recipes, using organic ingredients, with the benefits of the light cooking that keeps all the nutritious content of the food. The courses take place in the kitchen of one of the stone houses. At the end of each session, the guests have lunch with the prepared food. The cost is 150 euro per person (6 courses).

Small groups are ideal for taking part in these courses. An ideal combination in these small groups can be (per house):1) Two couples, 2) two couples and a single, 3)one couple and three singles. There is also place for a baby or child.

If a group such as above come to stay, we can form a small group for the course. This group can take the wine tasting course where we need a minimum of 5 people, and the cooking course, where we need two at least. In case we have less than 5 people we can find 1 or 2 other visitors from the island who have expressed interest to fill the course.

Family size kitchen-living room with gas cooker, dishwasher, refrigerator, television, filter and espresso coffee maker (fair trade coffee), toaster, access to the internet. etc. Family size bathroom with a washer.

Bedrooms: 2 bedrooms per accommodation, Cork insulated beds, ecological mattresses, feather-pillows, bath towels, ecological shampoo, hairdryer.

Services: Cleaning every day, change of bed linen twice a week, change of towels twice a week, further services of extra cleaning. Private cooking every day. Free transfer to and from the airport or port. Complimentary wine from our winery every day.

Disabled access: There is disabled access but some paths are very steep. Although there is wheelchair access to most of the places a person would want to go (kitchen with bed, bathroom and outdoor area), we strongly recommend our place only for one person with a disability at a time. This is because we are limited in the personal attention available at certain times of the day.

Family friendly: The whole family lives in on-site, they have their own yard and their own privacy. Visitor’s children can play with our children at table games, outdoor games, cycling, walking in the forest, use the village play area, learn about organic farming and, possibly archery.

Baby friendly: We can put a baby cot in a room (parent’s room or kitchen) and give several baby toys. We can also buy and prepare proper food for the baby but after a pre-agreement (including the cost of that) with the parents. By road: The accommodation is 30 kilometres to the west of the island’s airport
By rail: We are 8 kilometres to the west of the port Evdilos.

We usually drive our visitors from the port or airport to our place.