about us
staori is a social cooperative that cares first and foremost about people,
especially our guests and the residents of communities in which we live and travel.
We welcome guests across the spectrum of social identity, including ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and neurodiversity.
Our values
We visit pristine locations around Crete and make very little impact. Our interactions with local communities help to sustain traditional ways of life such as nomadic pastoralism.
We celebrate local natural landscapes. We ensure that our activities are sustainable and have minimal effects on local biodiversity.
We encourage our guests to absorb and understand the local way of life while sharing their own cultures with communities, such as the shepherds of Crete, in order to achieve a balanced exchange.
We support the fair distribution of profits within local communities and do our part to prevent the exploitation of one group of a society for the financial gain of another.
We choose only local products and services in order to support local communities and ensure that financial gains from visitors remain in place.
We provide our visitors with deeply rewarding Cretan travel experiences while ensuring that the natural and cultural resources of these special places remain intact for future visitors to enjoy.
We are focused on genuine interactions in unspoiled places throughout Crete, and we provide our guests with the kinds of travel experiences that affect them deeply and remain with them for a lifetime.
As a sustainable travel agency, we believe that travellers should make a positive impact on the local environment, society, and economy. This can only be achieved through genuine respect for the local people, the culture and customs of the area, the natural landscape, and a commitment to a fair socio-economic system.
Our team
Eleni Hereti
(she/her)
Eleni is a tourism specialist from Crete. She has been working in alternative forms of tourism for the last two decades. During this time, she has initiated various projects involving local communities and developed several ecotourism destinations, particularly around villages in Mount Psiloritis and the Amari Valley.
Haris Saslis
(he/him)
Haris is a biologist from Crete. He holds a PhD in biology with a focus on botany. He has worked in the UK, Australia and Denmark. Drawing on his scientific expertise in plant biology, he has been leading nature and wild food tours on Crete for the past few years. He is passionate about communicating the wonders of the amazing biodiversity of Crete.
Haris Papagiannakis
(he/him)
Haris is an outdoors and wildlife enthusiast from Crete. His involvement in conservation projects and environmental activism led him to study ecotourism in the past. Nowadays, he leads walking and wildlife tours, parallel to his passion of developing sustainable destinations around Crete.