The Meteora in Greece: practical tips to visit it. The Meteora is a place not to miss if you go to Greece. It’s in Thessaly and about 350 km far from Athens. We visited it during our on the road.
The Meteora in Greece practical tips to visit it
There are really many questions during the planning of the journey and often they have no answers. So today we try to help you in planning a visit to this wonderful place which has been bewitching tourist for centuries: indeed, it is the most visited place in Greece.
Visiting the Meteora out of season
This said, the first tip is to visit the Meteora out of season and this for many reasons.
Above all the incredible crowd will force you to long queues, not to fully enjoy the panoramic points and you cannot stop everywhere to take wonderful shots. Then for the really intolerable hot weather you’ll find here in August or however in the midsummer.
We visited it in October: wonderful sunny days, wonderful colours, perfect temperature and above all really few people.
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How much time is it necessary to visit it?
My tip is to arrive late in the afternoon or in the evening, so you will be able to admire the Meteora lighted.
Yeah, in the evening huge lights are directed at the mountain opposite the Kalambàka town and the sunset’s colours and the nightlights will leave you gaping.
The village is the best place to stay overnight with a wide hotel offer right on the main street.
If you have the possibility, require the room on the highest floors and turned to the Meteora, maybe with a little terrace to admire all over the evening the night view, as we did (spending ridiculous amounts, right because out of season).
The pinnacles are charming in these so strange and particular shapes. You will get lost in admiring them enchanted hour after hour.
If you are keen on trekking and decide to explore the Meteora on foot, you’ll need a lot of time
You can go through the monks’ paths, under the fresh of trees’ foliage and reach the several monasteries.
Among the paths there are really many churches and little churches, smaller hidden monasteries (some accessible, other ones in ruins). Then history and legends you can learn calmly and discovering this land little by little.
On the contrary, if you travel more comfortable like we do (and unfortunately faster, without have the time to explore everything as we would like to do), there are several possibilities by the public transport. But the best option is the rent car.
What’s the best way to #visit the #Meteora in #Greece? The car! #monasteries Click To Tweet
Keep in mind in Greece the amounts of the rent car can be really ridiculous, above all if you turn to a local company.
A handy asphalt road about 15km long relates them each other. The landscapes are really breathtaking at every bend.
All the hotels have a practical map of the area with the timetables and the closure days of each monastery (they can vary very often).
It’s very useful to plan the visit, since there is nothing trust-worthy and precise online at the moment except for the official website, which is quite updated.
Greece isn’t a destination particularly online, except for some specific realities: the connections travelling are quite instable and slow and the most of times planning in loco it’s the best thing, if you move out of season.
The monasteries, so similar and so unlike, have common features, like the wide central courtyard around which the life of monasteries turns.
The insides are full of all sorts of art works: the mean of the original spirituality is lost, of course, but the beauty of these architectures is priceless.
Above all if we think about the way they were realized, the goods and food supplying difficulties, the danger every single operation involved.
The buildings date back to the times of the first Turkish incursions and of the persecutions (10th century about) but dates and opinions are very disagreeing, like the exact number of monasteries, since some of them are in ruins and unrecognizable, instead other ones are restored transforming completely.
Apart from the most famous and biggest ones (they are in the list you are given everywhere) there are other smaller ones that often are not available for visit from the inside.
All the monasteries, all over the time, were modified, amplified, decorated, made them more practical as far as make them wonderful tourist attractions.
Monks seek refuge in these so rough rocks to escape from the attacks. Two of the main monasteries are nuns’.
The monasteries were reachable by long walks, rope ladders, winches, nets…everything very difficult but it guaranteed a sort of safety.
Today these a bit particular means of link still exist and they are used by friars, often only for tourist benefit.
Thanks to road, all is very simple: monasteries are restored with a masterly skill and the maintenance is non-stop to offer the best to the visitor.
You think few gorges of these rocks are still today inhabited, like you realize by these photos. Really incredible!
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In loco it’s possible to organize trekking with local guides to visit these gorges.
If you want to visit inside all the monasteries possible, one day won’t be enough.
Keep in mind that some of them are forbidden to women.
Personally, I advise you the visit inside one or two of them, not more, even though the entrance ticket costs few Euros, unless you are keen on art.
The beauty of the Meteora is the so took root architecture you admire from the outside.
Keep in mind there aren’t shops inside, apart from souvenirs’ shops.
In low season outside the monasteries you’ll find only a few kiosks less supplied and really many souvenirs and typical products’ stalls.
The Meteora at sunset when the rocks turned all red and orange shades are simply delightful.
There’s nothing better than parking the car in one of the provided spaces and sit there, on the rocks, to admire them while the sun is going down.
Above all if you spent the day up and down the endless steps of this place! Valeria! But are you not tired, yet?
Sometimes you can have some very particular encounters.
Useful information to visit the Meteora
The Meteora in Greece: practical tips to visit it.
The Summer timetable (wider than the Winter one) goes from April 1st to October 31st. Here you can find a panoramic of the opening timetables of the Meteora Monasteries, always to check.
The #Meteora in #Greece: a lot of useful info for the #visit. #monasteries Click To Tweet
Once a week each of them is closed.
Usually at the weekends they are all opened. Of course, the weekend is much more crowded and you must avoid it in the really high season. On Sunday it’s also possible to take part into a holy service.
The top to us is always this: sit and admire them. Enjoy the visit!
