Meteora Travel Forum

Would it be possible to explain a little bit about the entire Monastery tour. So if I want to do away with a two-day tour (1) take the train, or (2) hire a car - where exactly is the information on the monasteries? Is there a long road that leads to them? Does everyone select a monastery (sort of like we did with the catacombs in Rome) - please tell me how this works. Very grateful of all the tips, but extremely confused.
So - transportation (maybe stay near by one day) - and how to approach touring the monasteris. Thank you!

Regards,
Martha

martha hi!
the monasteries are close one to another, a few hundred meters each from next one. but since you are going to travel there by road, the distance can be a little more, just a few kilometers sometimes. then you have to walk for a few minutes from the parking space to the entrance of the monastery. and you also should allow some time in each monastery, depending on how closely you want to explore it, sth between 0.5-1 hour or more. you can get a map in the near by village of kalambaka and it will be easy to find the monasteries. kalambaka is very easy to be found on the map, too.
so, you can do it in a limmited time if you rent a car from athens, drive there, go around and come back. in that case you should be experienced with greek roads which are a little difficult and for sure it would be a very long and tiring day.
if you have 2 days then everything is easier.
also, you can book a tour from athens with a tourist-bus. they will take you there, show you some monasteries (the ones they want, but would be the most important ones), explain the history, what you see etc (important), and get you back. much less tiring and should be in a reasonable price.
i hope it helps.
nice trip
nikos

Thank you Nikos! Regards, Martha

Hi Martha ,
perhaps this comes a bit late but we are just back from a 6 weeks
trip to Greece . this was our 6th trip to Greece but first time in Meteora
area and we did not quite know what to expect .
We stayed in Kalabaka at a small hotel located right under the rocks and by the footpath leading to most of the Monestaries that are open to the public .
The place is called Koka Roka , it has less than 10 rooms and is run by a greek lady named Ekaterina and her son Athanasio ( Arthur ).They also operate a restaurant where most dishes are simple and cooked on fireplace grill. The family lived for many years in Australia so they speak perfect
English with an Aussie accent .It's a great place . kokaroka@yahoo.com