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Your questions answered…
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1. How does payment work?
Payment for our scheduled tours is taken in full online at the time of your booking via an online card payments. All major credit cards are accepted. The price advertised includes all booking and card fees.
When booking a tour privately by request you’ll be sent a custom booking link and a deposit of €50.00 will be taken at the time of booking via online card payment.
2. What’s the cancellation policy?
Bookings are fully refundable with at least 24hrs notice via email. If you need to cancel just send an email to yum@cyprustastetours.com. Cancellations with less than 24hrs notice or no-shows will not received a refund.
Cancellations for custom requests and private tours will need to give a minimum of 3 days notice to receive a full refund. If notice is given less than 3 days in advance then the €50.00 deposit will be lost. For more info – click here.
3. How much time in advance is needed in order to book a private or custom tour?
Normally we need notice of a tour request no later than 48 hours before the requested date however in the event of last minute requests, we will do our best to try and accommodate – so do get in touch!
4. Is all the food/wine included on the tour?
Yes! If you’re a culinary tour fan and have done this kind of thing before then you’ll know that food & wine tours can vary greatly. All of our guided tours and activities include everything stated within the tour description – e.g. door-to-door transport / entrance fees / tasting fees / lunch / drinks etc. Just check the tour description to find out exactly what each option includes. There should be no need to spend any extra cash during your time with us but it’s advised to bring some along as you’ll have the opportunity to buy traditional products and local wines at the fantastic prices!
5. Can I get a discount if I drive to the activity location myself?
We do not offer discounts if participants join our experiences with their own transportation. The fee paid to Cyprus Taste Tours is strictly charged for our hosting and activity services. Transport is offered free of charge and so there is no discount applied if you join with your own vehicle. Please note that many of our activities also involve drinking alcohol and under no circumstances do we recommend that our participants drink and drive.
6. Where do we meet for the food/wine tour?
Transport is included in all of our day tour experiences and we’ll meet you outside your hotel or specified location. Transport is not included for our city walking tours and you’ll have to make your own way to the tour meeting point. Click here to see our meeting points. Once you’ve booked your city food tour you’ll receive a confirmation email with details and a map of the location.
7. Why don’t your tour descriptions list specific villages / restaurants / locations?
We know that when you look at the itineraries of other tour companies they may list an hour-by-hour schedule and a set of specific stops or locations. Our tour descriptions do not for one simple reason – we treat each booking as a unique experience! All of our tours have themes and a kind-of checklist of what we include but the specifics of where we’ll go and what we’ll see often changes. This is because, if you’ve booked a villages food tour and it’s the season for harvesting olives – then we might include this as one of the 5 promised stops so you can see the action and experience the best of the activity. If Mrs. Maria has called us that she’s baking halloumi bread tomorrow then we’ll get this in too so you can meet a real local and experience a true Cypriot kitchen. If you’ve booked a wine tour and its September – then we know that this is the time to walk through the vineyards at Mr. Yiannis winery to see the grape varieties – so we’ll include it! This list could go on and on but we hope you get the idea and appreciate our concept 😉
8. Your day tour descriptions don’t display specific time lengths – what should I expect?
Similarly, with the timing of our tours, although we are able to give you an approximate idea – again you should expect this to be flexible. We make an effort to get you involved in Cyprus life, so if we finish tasting at the traditional sweets stop but then Mr. Costas invites us to sit for a coffee and the group is happy to take part – then you might find yourself discussing his hobby of octopus fishing and love of bee-keeping. Our tours do not offer the typical hop-on / hop-off approach. You should expect to spend the day with true locals and enjoy the random encounters that come up. If you’ve booked a full day tour then we advise you to keep that day for us so you can fully relax and get involved. However, if you do have to get back by a certain time – just let us know in advance and your guide can be mindful to make sure you’re returned on time.
9. Does the city tour start and finish at the same location?
Our city walking tours are likely to end at a different location than the meeting point but again it will be a well known spot and probably not more than a 5-10min walk from where we started. You’ll have the option to go off in your own direction or have your guide accompany you back to the starting point. If you are taking part in a day tour, you can specify a different drop-off point if required and we’ll try to accommodate your request.
10. How much walking is involved in the city tour?
During our city walking tours we’ll walk an approximate total of 3km / 2miles. This will be broken up by restaurant visits where you’ll be able to sit down and relax!
11. I’ve booked a day tour – what time will I be dropped off at my accommodation?
Every tour description has an estimated timeframe specified on the experience page. If you’re booking a full day tour then you should expect to be with us from morning until the evening. Our small group tours aim to give you a truly local experience and you might find that the tour could take an off-the-schedule stop or you end up spending extra time having coffee with a random village lady or visiting a pop-up festival that happened to be going on that day… it’s for this reason that we can’t give you a specific drop-off time. We recommend that you keep the full day free but of course, if you do have dinner plans or something else you need to get back to – just let us know in advance and the guide will make sure to keep to a plan in order to get you back on time.
For cruise passengers – we understand that the end time is non-negotiable so as long as you let us know what time your ship departs, then we’ll make sure you’re back with time to spare.
12. I’m vegetarian / vegan / gluten-free, can I take part?
If your group are the only participants and you all share the same dietary requirements then we can definitely arrange a delicious food tour that suits you! If it turns out that there are others also booked on the tour, unfortunately it’s unlikely the entire group will all have the same dietary requirements so you might have to miss out on some of the tastings / dishes but there should still be plenty to enjoy! Please specify any dietary requirements on your registration form so we can have it in mind and do our best to include tastings / dishes that work for you.
13. I don’t drink alcohol, what will be offered instead?
Many of our participants don’t drink alcohol or just prefer a non-alcoholic option. Just specify this on your registration form and we’ll arrange non-alcoholic traditional Cypriot drinks for you to try!
14. What if I have allergies or things I’m not able to eat?
The places we’ll be visiting are truly authentic and will cook recipes in the traditional way. If you’re not sure about ingredients included in a dish being ordered, you can ask your guide and they’ll be able to fill you in so foods that don’t suit your diet can be avoided. Also, if you have a food allergy or intolerance, you must specify the details in the notes section of the registration form.
15. How much food will we eat on the city food tour?
If you’re taking part in our Off The Eaten Track city walking food tour then you should expect to leave this tour comfortably full. This experience involves 5 stops where you’ll be offered food to eat. This would normally consist of… 1 starter stop (e.g. traditional platter / pastry / local sandwich etc.), 2 main dish stops (mini meze / mousaka / souvlaki etc.), 1 traditional products stop (nuts / honey / wine / sweets etc.) and 1 dessert stop (cake / pastry / chocolates etc.). All foods you’ll try will be traditional tastes and recipes local to Cyprus.
16. What if it rains on the day I’ve booked my city walking food tour?
City tours will take place in most weather including rain! Just make sure you dress appropriately and don’t worry about umbrellas – we’ll provide those. Luckily, Cyprus has great weather and it only rains approximately 40days a year. A tour will only be cancelled if there have been severe weather warnings to ensure the safety of participants. In these cases, we’ll give as much notice as possible and an alternative tour date will be offered or customers can ask for a full refund.
17. What language will my tour guide be speaking?
Tours take place in English but our tour guides speak Greek too. If you would like a tour in another language, please contact us and we’ll see what we can arrange!
18. Can I bring my child/children?
We generally don’t recommend our scheduled tours for young children. The days can be long and the activities (e.g. wine tasting) might feel boring for kids! With regards to our city tours – just keep in mind that there is walking involved and if you’re taking part in a dinner tour then it is likely to finish around 9-10pm. We trust parents to decide whether the tour will be suitable for their child/children.
If you’re a family interested in booking a tour then check out our family days here. If you prefer to join a tour then please contact us and we’ll let you know what options we have available.
19. Do you offer discounts for children?
By keeping our tours small we aim to give a bespoke, personable experience. Unfortunately this also means that we don’t have seats to give up at a discounted rate. Our hosts charge us the same fees regardless of age so there isn’t really the opportunity to cut costs on any of our experiences. We understand that our tours can be too pricey for families so if you’re visiting during the off-season (December – March) then please contact us as the winter months are usually when we do have seats to spare and of course are happy to accommodate better prices for kids when we can.
20. What if I am a sole traveller/booking alone – can I book a tour?
Yes. Solo travellers can join our scheduled group tours and in the unlikely event that we don’t have others booked on the experience then we’ll contact you to offer you an alternative option or a full refund.
21. Is there a waiting list when my requested date is fully booked or unavailable?
If you aren’t able to make any other date/tour and would really like to take part then please send us your contact details, the number of people hoping to attend and the tour & date you’d like and we’ll let you know should any spots become available.
If your questions haven’t been answered here, please do not hesitate to contact us.