Best Ways of Getting Around Meteora Monasteries

I did a Google search on "Kalambaka-Meteora bus" and found quite a bit of information.

So for our trip a couple of years ago, I knew that I wanted to see each monastery, despite lots of stories about how you only need to see two or three at most. I love that kind of architecture and I loved the pictures of the buildings perched on the spires. I looked at bus tours, private transportation and trying to use the local buses.

In the end, we hired a company to drive us up from Athens and we spent a couple of nights near Meteora. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance to a monastery and then waited somewhere nearby and came back to pick us up when we were done at each place.

Our pace, our schedule. Perfect. This was not the cheapest way to do this but we, like you, have some mobility issues and, as hard of a lesson as it was, I’ve learned that I have to spend a bit more now - but it means I still get out there and see stuff!

Keep in mind that, even with a private driver waiting for you, there’s a lot of uneven walking at most of the monasteries. Like some pretty challenging (but scenic!) pathways and switchbacks. See if you can find a YouTube video of the walk up to some of them and make sure they’re ok.

At any rate - I loved that we did it and it was completely worth it! We used Private Greece Tours. I can’t give you a price for a one night trip to Meteora because we priced something longer with them. https://www.privategreecetours.com/

Been a while, but I took the bus up to the Great Meteoron, and walked down the main road, from which I believe you can hit 4 of the 6. As someone else noted, I do not think you can rely on the bus as a hop-on-hop off tool. For the other two, I would look at a taxi or private driver.

If cost is not an issue, then sure, hire a private driver or guided tour.

Thanks for all the replies! Yes, I was mostly interested in knowing if the bus could be used as a sort of hop-on hop-off. The brochure says you can buy an all-day ticket and lists all the stops, but doesn't specify what time the bus is at each stop. None of the online Meteora guides I've read go into any sort of detail about this bus either... timetables, whether or not they recommend it, etc. Which I thought was odd, and probably an indicator that it's not very convenient for tourists to use.

What we'll probably do is book a tour on the first day, then take a taxi or rental car the next day to hit anywhere else we want to go. Again, thanks for the info.

Is there such a thing as a taxi stand at any of the monasteries? Basically what I'm asking is, if you get dropped off at one monastery and you don't tell the driver to wait for you, is there a way to get back to Kalambaka? Or would you have to wait for the local bus?