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Before RS tour...Crete or Meteora?

We are taking our first RS tour next year and will have two nights ( not including the one at tour hotel before the tour starts) and we would like to see a bit more of Greece. Should we fly to Crete for 2 nights or drive/ take a tour (?) to Meteora for 2 nights??

Posted by
11056 posts

If you fly to Crete, stay in Chania the whole time to enjoy this small, historic seaside city.
Meteora actually makes more sense. However, flying to Chania and back is rather easy.

Posted by
2455 posts

Yes, I took an overnight “tour” to Meteora last year, and enjoyed it.
It involved:
1. Train from Athens to Meteora (actually nearby Kalambaka) which left at 8:30 am and took about 6 hours.
2. Overnight with breakfast at a nice hotel in Kalambaka.
3. Sunset tour of several hours, to some of the monasteries and other sites.
4. Morning tour of more monasteries.
5. Return train at about 5:00 pm.
This left some free time for meals and to explore Kalambaka.
Can’t remember the price, but it was reasonable for all that.
Try www.visitmeteora.com or something like that..

Posted by
2252 posts

I haven't visited Crete but Meteora is awesome, intriguing and amazing. I am happy to see Larry has provided you with a source for a tour from Athens. For me, a re-visit would be worth whatever the cost and this includes quite a lot. I can imagine the train ride would be beautiful.

Posted by
22 posts

We went to Meteora following our RS tour in April of this year, I highly recommend it! I also debated between Crete and Meteora, but decided in Meteora's favor since we were visiting the island of Hydra during the tour, and Santorini after. I would, however, still love to go to Crete, but am very happy with my decision. Meteora was simply amazing and beautiful, the history of the sites is enthralling, we love it! The tour we took was with "Visit Meteora", they provided the train roundtrip from Athens, the hotel in Kalambaka, and the sightseeing tours with wonderful guides. The tour we did was the two day one that included a sunset tour and a 4 hour tour of the monasteries or a hiking tour the following day. We chose the 4 hour tour of the monasteries and were very happy with it. The train from Athens took 5 hours each way, it was comfortable (we chose 1st class, and they gave us window seats and USB charging), but slow. The people that shared our cabin did only a day tour, which I don't recommend at all. They spent 10 hours on the train and didn't have time to see much of Meteora. We were very happy with the "Visit Meteora", I booked on-line and everything went smoothly,& the guides were excellent. They also meet you at the train station in Kalambaka and drive you to your hotel in nice air conditioned vans.