A tour of Paragea Olive Oil Factory, Parga, Greece
I’m a huge proponent of visiting local attractions wherever we go. In fact, some of the small towns that we go to have the best attractions that would have never made it onto our larger tour itinerary.
When we stopped in Parga, we originally thought that it was for an overnight. Upon checkin, Costas, our awesome hotel conceirege/front desk agent/manager/tour guide suggested that in the morning, if we had a flexible schedule, we should head to the local Paragea olive oil factory. They don’t use the factory for oil production anymore, but the family still runs it as a tourist destination, complete with tour, explanation, and olive oil tasting.
The tour was only 3 euros each, and was located down a few sets of steps close to the center of town.
We had to wait for a bit for our tour to start, because a local school group was learning about how to make soap from olive oil.
Our tour started with a video showing how the family still, to this day, collects olives and turns it into all kinds of products.
The old implements are still there and used for demonstration
I was surprised at how well set up the area was, with information signs everywhere explaining the process.
The explanation was quite complete, and talked a lot about the history of olive oil making. If you look closely at this one, you can see the wear and tear on the stone. That rounded out area was where the bucket was constantly beaten over the centuries to compress down the olive paste to make sure the buckets were filled.
After it was all said and done we headed to the olive oil tasting, with a pair of Danish women who were on holiday as well. We were quite adventurous, and by the end of the tasting, we were drinking all kinds of oil out of spoons!
Olive Oil Tasting
We walked back to the hotel along the waterfront, and found some pretty unique things, like this playground with a slide to nowhere!
Once we got back to the hotel, it was a quick shower, change, and we were on our way to the next stop on the adventure!
