Where Heraklion shops, snacks and lunches: the markets worth your morning.
Food markets, farmers markets and covered halls: where Heraklion shops, snacks and lunches.
The Agora on 1866 Street is the spine of food shopping in Heraklion, a narrow run of cheese, herb, rusk and butcher stalls between two squares.
Go for: Cheese, Herbs, Barley rusk
Tip: Run from the Meidani end towards Kornarou Square, and look for the Venetian archway hidden inside the Koudoumas coffee shop.
The fishmongers on Karterou at the top of the Heraklion market are the loudest corner of the Agora, and the place locals buy the day's catch.
Go for: Fish, Seafood, Morning shopping
Tip: Come before 11:00. The stalls sit near the top of the market, on the cross street that runs off 1866.
Kornarou Square closes the southern end of the Heraklion market, a fountain, a coffee house and the point where 1866 Street stops being a market.
Go for: Coffee, Market browsing, Sweets
Tip: The Bembo fountain and its Turkish pump house sit here, and the square marks the southern end of the 1866 Street market.
The herb shops along the Heraklion Agora sell dittany, mountain tea and spices by weight, and they are the market's most useful souvenir stop.
Go for: Mountain tea, Dittany, Spices
Tip: Ask what is picked on Psiloritis rather than imported. The good shops will tell you which slope the tea came off.
The cheese counters of the Heraklion Agora sell graviera, myzithra and staka by the kilo, and will tell you which mountain village made each one.
Go for: Graviera, Myzithra, Staka
Tip: Ask for a taste before buying. Most counters will cut a sliver of graviera and tell you which mountain village made the wheel.