Should we visit Athens? Part 5 – Meteora

Introduction

The purpose of this post is to investigate a trip from Athens to Meteora. As mentioned in part 2 of this series, I have wanted to visit Meteora ever since we watched “Francesco’s Mediterranean Voyage” which featured these cliff-top monasteries.

So, what are the motivating factors for a visit? First, it has unique geographical rock formations protruding from the ground. Secondly, these marvellous monasteries were built on the top of these formations; defying the belief that man could build some of these structures given their location, and the sheer cliff face positioning. Thirdly, the area offers an excellent opportunity to take some stunning photographs.

Given these motivating factors, we simply must visit Meteora.

Questions

Having decided to visit Meteora (if we go to Athens – that is) there are a bunch of questions to be answered:

1.  How do we get there?
2.  Exactly, what should we do at Meteora?
3.  How long should we stay?
4.  Should we visit anywhere else?
5.  How much will the trip cost?

Luckily, most of these questions can be answered by considering the tours available to Meteora from Athens.

Meteora Tours

Let’s start with the specialist Meteora travel sight: https://www.visitmeteora.travel/en/. This is a comprehensive website offering options related to What to See; Where to Stay; Things to Do; Where to Eat; and Getting to Meteora. Furthermore, detailed descriptions accompany these options. It is a worthwhile place to begin any investigation of a trip to Meteora.

There are two general tours: a sunset tour and a half-day tour.

The sunset tour is essentially a highlights tour of Meteora, including a monastery visit; a visit to the Byzantine Church of Virgin Mary in Kalambaka; and a tour into the Meteora region to capture the sunset across this special geographical area. Additional tours include food and wine, truffle hunting and lunch, the national history museum, and various private tours.

Other activities to consider are hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking and rafting.

The site suggests you can travel to Meteora by train, bus or driving. There are no less than 11 train tour options: They include trips from Athens and Thessaloniki with options to visit Delphi; and range in duration from one to four days.

We are increasingly turning to trains for travel because they are convenient, hassle-free, quite affordable, comfortable and enable views of the passing countryside.

Our pick is the two-day train tour from Athens. On the first day, you depart from Athens at 0830 and arrive in Kalambaka at 1330; transfer to your hotel; and join the Sunset Tour in the evening. The second day commences with the four-hour Half-Day Morning Tour. The afternoon is free until you are driven to the train station for the return journey to Athens (Approximately 1722 – 2215). This tour is priced at Euro 155/person.

Other Options

As always, Matt Barrett’s Greece Travel website is always worth a read. His “Getting There” page discusses a range of tours and activities. His Dolphin Hellas Travel link (which comes under his main URL!) has an interesting page on classical tours including Meteora and Delphi. Seemingly, Matt Barrett has a few fingers in a few pies, and it is difficult to tell which fingers and which pies!
As mentioned in Part 2, two other websites with tours are greeka and city-discovery.

Summary

As with most trips, your goals generally define the detail. In our case, we wanted to see and visit the Meteora monasteries and associated areas, and take some photographs. The two-day train trip to Meteora meets our goals.

However, should you wish to undertake other activities in the area or visit Delphi as well, there is plenty of information available on the websites identified above.

Next Post

One of the main goals for our visit to Athens/Greece was to experience a traditional Greek village. We certainly think that will help us understand the culture. To this end, we are hoping to identify a Greek island that will offer that experience.

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