Meteora

Have you looked at the transit time? I consider it beyond day-tripping distance.

I did this trip in May. Yes it was a long day (7am - 11:30 pm), but I do not regret doing it. Upon arrival grabbed some to go food/snacks and then we stopped at 3 of the monastaries and had a short time before departure to grab a bite to eat. Be prepared to climb lots of steps. Take a book for the train ride!

Thank you for your response, Patti. Did you do the Viator tour? Did you feel you had enough time at the Monasteries you stopped at to enjoy them? Thanks!

Each of the three times I have been there I stayed two nights. It'd be great to see the place for a short time, I suppose, but there is such a vast amount of terrific sites that are one-hour, two-hour or three-hour drives from Athens why bother blowing past them to get to the one that's four hours away? I always tell myself to enjoy what I'm doing and not lament what I'm not doing. Rick taught me that.

I'd suggest you spend at least two nights in Meteora.

To answer your questions about time - yes I felt there was enough time at each one. The last was was easy to walk to and was smaller. The trip was booked through Viator.

We arrived in Athens and gave ourselves two days to recover from jet lag, then did the train to Kalambaka. The train arrived in Kalambaka around 11:30 a.m. From there, we took a very short taxi ride to the neighboring quaint village of Kastraki. Before leaving Ohio we booked the train, the hotel in Kastraki. (Boutique Holy Spirit) and two tours (Sunset and Sunrise) online. That worked out well. The Sunset tour did not begin until 4 p.m. so we had time to check into our hotel (Boutique Holy Spirit) and have lunch at the hotel's restaurant, Taverna Gardenia, then walk around the village and even rest a bit before being picked up at our hotel for the tour. The tour was through Visit Meteora and was very well run. Guide was knowledgeable and humorous. Bus was clean and comfortable. Tour groups are kept small. Tour ended at 8 p.m. with the bus returning us to our hotel and restaurant where we then had a fantastic dinner then shortly afterwards, to bed so we could get up for the Sunrise Tour which, if I remember correctly, ran from 8 to 12 or 9 to 1 (don't have my notes handy at the moment). The tours are similar but had enough differences that we did not regret booking both. The guides were different--both very knowledgeable and humorous but with their own personalities and take on things. Our tour mates were different as well. And the lighting, if you are into photography, was, of course, different , one being evening and the other morning light. We checked out of our hotel before departing on the tour and the manager stowed our luggage in his office. Upon being returned to the hotel following the sunrise tour, we had lunch at the hotel's restaurant, then took walks around the village and just relaxed until time to take the train back to Athens. At that point (around 3:30, I think it was). one of the workers at the restaurant volunteered to drive us to the Kalambaka train station. We loved spending the night in Kastraki. We loved the hotel and restaurant. Even the train ride (we booked first class but still not luxurious). was fun. We shared a car with one other couple and had interesting conversation with them, which, along with the scenery, made the trip seem to go fairly quickly.

SharLee, I love this hotel and the people! It has a new name this year and has been re-done it looks like.