JUNE 2023
One of the reasons why I decided to do a road trip on the Greek mainland was because I wanted to visit Meteora. Meteora is a region that has many monasteries built on top of a gigantic rock formation. Most monasteries are still in use and you are allowed to visit them. Somehow I don’t hear about Meteora a lot, which is a real shame as it was an amazing travel destination. In this blogpost I will share how to have the best time while visiting Meteora.
Practical information
You will find Meteora north of Athens, about a four hours drive. We rented a car on the airport of Athens and drove to Meteora via Delphi. This was quite a detour, but it featured beautiful scenery and mountain roads we absolutely loved. If you just drive directly to Meteora from Athens you will find that the roads are very modern and safe for driving. We did not incur issues at all, except that there were a lot of toll stops. We decided to stay in Meteora for two nights, which is enough if you do not want to do any hiking. Apparently the monasteries cost € 3 to enter, but we somehow managed to not pay this. Near most monasteries there is roadside parking, which can get a bit busy from 10AM on, but we managed to find a spot every time we wanted to stop anyway. When visiting a monastery you can get lucky with crowds, or have bad luck when a bus tour just stopped. We found that most bus tours visit the monasteries in the morning. The opening hours for the monasteries differ, on a Sunday most of them were open, check the official websites of the monasteries for the details. When entering the monasteries you have to be dressed modestly and for females it is obligatory to wear a skirt. We wore trousers that covered our knees, but we were gifted a “skirt” to wear over our trousers. Not all monasteries in Meteora are wheel/pushchair accessible, as you sometimes have to climb lots of stairs. Agios Stefanos is the easiest accessible from the road, which is why we chose to visit that one.
Where to stay
There are a few villages near Meteora, with Kalampaka being the main hub. We stayed in Alsos house in Kalampaka, where we had a 3-person room without breakfast for € 100 a night. We loved the big balcony from which you could see the sunset, but did not find the room very comfortable due to the bedding and because it did not have black out curtains. Kalampaka is a great place to stay though, with a charming city center with cozy restaurants, lots of shops and houses with flowery gardens; it definitely added to the holiday feel.
Kalampaka is not as trendy as the Greek islands, so you will find that the hotels look a little dated. Alsos House had a lovely location and good vibes and looked better than in the pictures.
Agios Stefanos
We visited the monastery Agios Stefanos because it was most accessible by road. It is still very actively used and it is being run by nuns. Make sure to wear a skirt if you are a female, or you have to use one of the loan skirts like I did. The little chapel of Agios Stefanos is absolutely gorgeous, but we were not allowed to photograph inside.
Meteora viewpoint
In google maps you will see a spot that is called “main observation desk of Meteora” which is the gorgeous viewpoint where you can take pictures of the monasteries from the rocks. You definitely don’t want to miss this spot. If you have a drone, I’d recommend to head here first in the morning for some epic shots.
Driving route
You can drive a little loop from Kalampaka to the upper monastery road and back down via Kastraki in about 30 minutes, this will give you views of all the monasteries. You will encounter many stops where you can park your car, so you can get out and take pictures.
Kalampaka church
In Kalampaka you can visit the Holy Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, which is something I would recommend taking some time for. From the church you get beautiful views over the surrounding countryside and the old paintings in the church are gorgeous as well. You can pay a small entrance fee to the nuns but you have to watch out that they don’t secretly adopt your child (see picture below).
