Kalabaka, Thessaly, Greece – 2 Day Trip

The next stop on this road trip is Meteroa in Kalabaka to see the famous monasteries. I found these in my go-to travel book 1,000 Places to See Before you Die but I’m sure we would have stumbled across these anyway because as we left Athens it’s all anyone talked about that we ran into.

This was intended to be two half days, one overnight, to split the drive to Mount Olympus.

Day 1 – Drive to Kalabaka 07.04.2021

The drive from Delphi is 230 (144) km (mi) and takes about 3 hours. Up and around the mountains was a bit terrifying but since there were not too many drivers I was able to go at a comfortable pace. My brother and I didn’t make any stops on the way as we wanted to make sure we got to see as many monasteries as possible.

We arrived early in the afternoon at our hotel, Hotel Meteoritis. The hotel had a cool view of the rocks but from our room, we could not see any monasteries.

Driving up the main road, we stopped along the way to take pictures of the monasteries hanging on the cliffs. Which is stunning by the way. Looking at the clock we did not have much time so we decided to visit The Great Meteoron Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration the Saviour. The hours were 09:30 – 15:00 and they are not open to the public on Tuesdays during the summer period. Entry was EUR 3, cash only. Also a LOT of stairs, I overheard a guide saying 530 stairs to go up.

The views overlooking the city were unbelievable and the best part of the course was going through the church, where the interior paintings were done in the 1500s, no photos allowed inside the church.

Closing time and best to head back down to the hotel to rest. We ended up going out for a drink at Taverna Ziogas. Good place, no complaints.

Day 2 – One More Monastary & Off to Mount Olympus 07.05.2021

Today we wanted to go to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Meteora. We choose this one after driving up the road the night before. It looked like there was a bit of a hike to the stairs and thought this would be a good adventure. We parked at the top and walked down the cobblestone hiking path to the Monastery then up another 500 stairs (probably).

If you want you can hike to this one from a town, but we already checked out of the hotel. Once you get to the top of the monastery the cost is the same, but the schedules are different, I did not write this one down.

Off to Mount Olympus for Canyoning, Hiking, and more ancient Greek sites.

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