Meteora - Hikes between the towering rocks

  • Written by Portal Editor

Hiking is a wonderful activity in the nature, is relaxing and exciting at the same time, not only when the area is like Meteora and, in addition to medieval monasteries, also offering magnificent rock landscapes.

All well-known Meteora monasteries are within walking distance, especially the hiking trail from our starting point at Camping Vrachos to the monasteries Agia Triada and Agios Stefanos can easily be reached. The trail leads northwards through the interesting valley between the western and eastern mountain group to the monastery Agia Triada, the entrance to the hiking trail is not difficult to find, unfortunately only occasionally signposted. At all, the marking of trails can be significantly improved, even route plans are often so inaccurate that they do not really help.

The hiking trails to the other monasteries start from the nearby Kastráki, but lead off the roads to the destinations. Numerous circular hikes are also possible, which lead through the rocks away from the hustle and bustle of tourists. With only two hours of walking, we sometimes go on a round trip through the monasteries as a day trip.

Here is an example: From the campsite we first ascended to the monastery Nikolaos Anapafsas and visited the monastery. After the visit, we walked along the road a little way back towards Kastraki. Before the next rock, a road branches to the right which we followed. This path leads to a crossroad, which we follow to the right. After about 2km, a further road branches off to the right to the rocks, where you pass a barrier to climb the rocks.

On the right is the monastery Ipapanti built in the rock face in sight. Below the monastery you can go up stairs to the monastery, please check, it is only open at a certain time. At all, one should inform in advance about the visits of the various monasteries, although today there is an agreement between the monasteries that not all monasteries are closed on the same day.

Right after the monastery, the road forked, where we took the left-hand path. After a short attempt, the right path, after a few hundred meters, ended at the ruins of another monastery, which can be seen on the rock, but can not be reached from here. About 20 m after the fork, we reach a path, which branches off to the right of the road, where we can climb up to the monastery. Trial and Error, as daily life!

We should have followed the road to a monument on the left rock, but afterwards one is smarter. As already mentioned, the marking of the hiking trails is missing. You should stop at the monument, because the view of the monastery Ipapanti and the mountains is outstanding.
We then walked on the path in about 30 minutes to the monastery Megalo Meteoron, this route was marked by a marten. Other hikers had probably had to "try" themselves several times and accordingly marked the way for other hikers.

After the visit, the descent to the monastery of Varlaan branches off at the lowest point of the access road to the monastery and is marked by orange dots. The first part of the way is very steep and not very good to walk, who is not secure using his feet, should better walk on the road to the monastery Varlaan. At a fork at a bank, the path leads straight up to the Varlaan monastery. After the visit, we have descended to this point and then followed the path down to the valley, back to Camping Vrachos.

Overall, the distance was only 6.2 kilometers in length with 262 meters of climbing and 284 meters of descent, with guided visits and two extensive breaks, we were on the road for 7 hours.

Please read as well:

Meteora - Monasteries in the spectacular site of Kalambaka

The imposing Rotunda of Thessalonica

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