This cheese journey takes travellers from vast wetlands to dramatic mountains and sweeping valleys in search of some of Europe’s least-known unique cheeses.
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Cheese continues to be one of the world’s most loved foods, cherished for its versatility, diverse flavours and unique histories.
Varieties such as Camembert and Mozzarella have been renowned for decades and are used in countless dishes and preparations across the world today. However, Europe still holds many secret, ancient cheeses, deeply rooted in cultural identity, tradition and resistance.
Made with centuries-old practices, these varieties are aged using animal stomachs, fermented with live cheese mites, brine-washed, or made in remote shepherd huts.
If you’re passionate about cheese, this epic journey will take you from dramatic mountains, remote villages, flatlands and more to some of Europe’s more under-the-radar cheeses.
Pule cheese, Serbia
Start off this unforgettable cheese pilgrimage in Belgrade, Serbia, on a quest to taste what is widely considered the world’s rarest and most expensive cheese, Pule cheese.
From Belgrade, travellers can easily take a train to Sremska Mitrovica (Vojvodina), followed by a taxi or rental car to the Zasavica wetlands to the Zasavica Donkey Reserve.
The coveted cheese, made of milk from Balkan donkeys , is only produced in this tiny reserve by a single cheesemaker called Slobodan Simić.
Made with milk from around 100 endangered Balkan jennies (female donkeys), sometimes blended with goat milk, Pule has a signature rich, nutty, earthy and slightly sweet taste.
Around 25 litres of milk are needed to produce just one kilogram of cheese, making Pule a staggering €1,000 per kg. Conservation efforts and donkey care costs also contribute to the price. This includes having to milk the jennies up to three times a day, due to their extremely low milk yield.
The reserve also offers other products made from donkey milk, like cosmetics and liqueurs.
Bonus? See the adorable donkeys and other native animals like beavers and hairy Mangalica pigs while soaking in the pristine nature, perfect for peaceful river cruises or picnics.
Travellers can stay in Hotel Sirmium in Sremska Mitrovica and enjoy the town’s rustic charm. Tuck into čvarci (pork crackling), local fruit brandies made with pears and plums called rakija at traditional Serbian farmhouses in Zasavica.
Gjizë, Albania
From Serbia, travellers can take a train or drive to Podgorica, Montenegro, before continuing by car or bus to Shkodër and onwards to villages in the Accursed Mountains such as Theth and Valbona.
Here, locals make gjizë, a soft, strained curd cheese, in small stone farmhouses. This cheese is often preserved in clay pots with olive oil and eaten with peppers and herbs, and is deeply representative of Albanian highland traditions.
Gjizë is made by acidifying milk using citric acid or yoghurt, giving it a dry, sour ricotta-like flavour. It is also used in traditional dishes like Albania’s famous Fërgesë.
While the odd restaurant might serve it, travellers have a better chance at a more immersive tasting experience if they stay with a local family and try to trek to smaller, more remote villages from Theth or Valbona.
Hike the renowned Valbona-Theth Trail, which connects both valleys through the Albanian Alps. In Theth, visitors can hike to the Theth Blue Eye, a natural spring with a stunning turquoise colour, or head to the Grunas Waterfall as well as the Theth Church.
In Valbona, explore the Old Mill of Valbona and lakes such as Xhema Lake, or take a picturesque ferry ride on the Lake Koman Ferry.
Stay at Guesthouse Rrashkadoli in Theth, or at Guesthouse Lazer Cardaku in Valbona, which are both family-run, offering homemade meals.
Tuck into farmhouse dinners with wild mountain herbs, gjizë on fresh bread and byrek (savoury pies with spinach, cheese, meat or potatoes).
Caciocavallo Podolico, Italy
From Theth, drive or take a bus down to Durrës, before taking a ferry or train to Bari, Italy. Drive or take a train from Bari to Basilicata, for the next stop on this epic cheese journey.
Here, travellers can sample a highly seasonal and scarce Italian gem, the Caciocavallo Podolico cheese. This pear-shaped variety is made of milk from the rare and semi-wild Podolica cows, native to southern Italy.
Cheeses are tied with rope and hung from rafters to age, after going through a traditional pasta filata (stretched curd) process. The ageing process can take anywhere from three months to over two years.
Many of the cows roam wild for most of the year, meaning Caciocavallo Podolico is highly prized and quite rare, with travellers having to trek into mountain shepherd dairies or farms in and around Basilicata or Calabria to taste it fresh during the summer milking season.
The cheese has an intense, richly complex and spicy flavour, which champions the wild pastures filled with various grasses and herbs where the Podolica cows roam. It has savoury notes of herbs, smoke, and toast, balanced by fruitiness and tang.
Younger cheeses are more delicate and sweet, whereas older ones develop a uniquely tangy and spicy flavour and semi-hard texture with age.
Travellers can stay in mountain dairies or Italian farms known as agriturismos, around the Pollino National Park, for a taste of this elusive cheese.
Experience traditional rural Italian life by helping out with agricultural activities on a working farm, while also participating in things like olive oil production, wine tastings, truffle hunts and cooking classes.
Often dotted across remote, scenic locations across the southern Italian countryside, these farms and dairies provide a serene opportunity for slow travel and cultural immersion, with locally sourced, sustainable produce. Travellers also contribute to the preservation of these rural areas through their visits.
Pollino National Park also offers countless horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, canyoning, rafting and rock climbing opportunities, among other outdoor activities.
Ziger, Switzerland
From Basilicata, drive or take a bus or train to Naples, before taking a train to Milan. From there, travellers can take another train to Zurich, before driving to alpine villages in the Bernese Oberland region such as Grindelwald and Wengen.
Here, travellers can sample ziger, an ancient Swiss whey cheese, often flavoured with alpine herbs. It is made from leftover whey from other Swiss cheeses, such as Emmental, and was once considered a ‘peasant survival food’. It has a long, rich history, going back to the 8th century, when it first started being made in monasteries.
Ziger, specifically Glarner Schabziger, a particular type of ziger cheese, contains a lot of ground blue fenugreek, giving it a unique lime-green colour, a spicy, pungent flavour and a hard, gritty texture.
Rather than being eaten on its own as a standalone cheese, it is primarily used as a condiment, over potatoes and pasta, or mixed with butter as a spread.
Today, despite Glarner Schabziger being Switzerland’s oldest protected food brand, it is very little-known outside of specific Alpine regions, with its production having declined significantly.
This is mainly due to a shift away from whey-based diets, an increase in purchasing power and the rise of other Swiss cheeses. The cheese is also rarely exported and usually eaten by the farmers themselves.
Travellers can get ziger from little farmers’ markets in the Bernese Oberland region and Uri, as well as mountain dairies.
Grindelwald also offers many outdoor activities. Ride the gondola to First, where visitors can experience the First Cliff Walk by Tissot, which is a metal walkway along the cliffside with panoramic views and a suspension bridge.
Soak in the crisp and pristine Alpine surroundings on a hike to the picturesque Bachalpsee Lake, or try ziplining with the First Flyer zipline. Rent a mountain cart or trotti bike and race down the slopes from First in summer or explore the Glacier Canyon for stunning views from the Mӓnnlichen viewpoint.
In Grindelwald, travellers can stay at the Hotel Belvedere for breathtaking views or at Romantik Hotel Schweizerhof for more luxury and tuck into traditional Swiss delicacies such as rösti, ziger cheesecake and alpine cured meats.
Milbenkäse, Germany
From Zurich, take a direct overnight train to Leipzig, Germany, before driving to Würchwitz in Saxony-Anhalt. This tiny village is the only place adventurous travellers can taste a little-known German cheese, milbenkäse.
This ancient cheese dates back to the Middle Ages. Quark cheese balls, flavoured with salt and caraway, are aged in wooden boxes with cheese mites and rye flour for at least three months, and even up to a year.
These live microscopic cheese mites, which are eaten with the cheese, burrow through the quark and excrete digestive enzymes, helping it ferment and ripen. The rind turns yellow after about a month, becoming reddish-brown and then black, depending on how long the cheese is aged.
It has a sharp and tangy taste, with a zesty, bitter aftertaste, similar to Harzer cheese, with a distinctive aroma and semi-soft to firm texture, depending on the age of the cheese.
The Würchwitz Milbenkäse Manufaktur is the only commercial producer of milbenkäse today, with the entire village revolving around the cheese and its history.
Travellers can also see the Mite Cheese Museum and cheese mite memorial, which is a statue in the town centre, further celebrating this deep-rooted medieval survival food practice. Head to the historic village hall (Rathaus) or go to the St. Michaeliskirche church for more insight into local architecture.
Another nearby attraction is the Unterirdisches Zeitz (Underground Zeitz), a unique wartime and medieval underground tunnel system, mainly made up of beer cellars, which were also used as air-raid shelters during World War 2.
Stay in hotels like Lumiere Boutique Hotel in Leipzig, only about 45 minutes from Würchwitz. Don’t forget to dine at the local inns, known as Gasthäuser near Würchwitz, where you can get rye bread with Milbenkäse , beer and wurst.
Urgelia, Spain
From Leipzig, take a high-speed train to Paris, then another train to Barcelona, before driving up into the Alt Urgell valleys, to La Seu d’Urgell, in the middle of Spain’s Catalan Pyrenees.
Here, travellers can try the last cheese on this epic journey- a Pyrenean rarity called urgelia cheese. This is a soft washed-rind cheese, only found in a few Pyrenean valleys.
It is currently only available from the Cadí Cooperative, a cheese and dairy cooperative in La Seu d’Urgell. It sources milk from over 200 small farms in and around La Seu d’Urgell, the Alt Urgell region and Andorran borderlands.
This is the only Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese from Catalonia and is also a prizewinning Spanish cheese. It is made by curdling pasteurised cow milk with rennet, then pressing the curds into moulds. The wheels are aged for at least 45 days after brining, during which the rind is washed many times with a yeast brine.
It has a slightly salty, robustly buttery taste with an occasional hint of acidity or bitterness and underlying nutty and fruity notes. The orange-brown rind gives urgelia a mild mushroomy or earthy aroma, too.
Travellers can also hike along ancient Pyrenean cheese routes to smaller and more remote farms for a more authentic and immersive cheese adventure.
The Alt Urgell region provides outstanding adventure sports, such as kayaking and white water rafting, as well as mountain biking, hiking and skiing in the winter.
Travellers can visit La Seu d’Urgell’s historic cathedral or visit the Diocesan Museum for religious artefacts. Explore the charming old town with its many cafes and bars and narrow streets, or take a day trip to nearby Andorra.
Stay at Parador De La Seu d’Urgell for some luxury, or at the Hotel Restaurante La Glorieta for a riverside experience with a pool.
Don’t skip traditional delicacies like fregit, a pork and beans dish, and mantequilla de l’Alt Urgell, a slow-ripened butter with a unique flavour and aroma.
