We'll be visiting Meteora in late May. Several tour books and websites recommend taking a tour with either Vista Meteora.travel (https://www.visitmeteora.travel) or Meteora Thrones (http://meteora.com/tour/hiking-meteora-tour). Has anyone here had experience with either of these tour companies and, if so, do you have a recommendation.
We're also weighing the evening sunset tour vs. the morning tour vs. hiking tour vs. do-it-ourselves so any counsel there would be most appreciated.
Thank you.
Are you planning to drive?
We arrived Meteora in the early evening after a visit to Delphi. We drove up into the mountains and found the whole area virtually deserted. We spent about an hour just driving the route and taking pictures of the monasteries. That would be the equivalent of the evening sunset tour. It was certainly easy to do it ourselves. I think this is a must do thing because the next day the whole place is crowded with tourists and buses. Those vantage points where I took my photos were totally taken up by buses and people.
The Monasteries that were open that next day were very crowded and we only actually got into one of them before giving up. Again no need to take a tour its simple to DIY.
We stayed n Kastraki the village at the foot of the mountains, Its proximity meant that we could get to the Monasteries before the tour buses arrived.
On our second morning it was misty so we drove through again and got some lovely photos. I guess that would be the equivalent to the morning tour.
There a number of people who seemed to be walking from one Monastery to the next one. I am lazy the car is better.
Olympia Delphi Meteora https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157645469717811/
Thank you stanbr. Yes, we are driving. Like you, coming from Delphi. We generally aren't big on tours, and enjoy hiking, but there are times when they really do add value. With the right guide, we've found we can learn a lot more than we would have on our own for places like Meteora. Both these tour companies are rated highly in some guidebooks and on TripAdvisor. Just wondering if anyone here had any experience with them and could recommend one over the other. I do like your suggestion, if we go on our own, to go early to avoid the tour buses and mobs. Thanks.
We DIY'd it. I suggest not using a tour as visiting the monasteries is easy and most local hotels have excellent maps.
I would pick out the monastery that you want to visit the most, make sure it's open (each one closes on a different day) and get there right when it opens before the bus tours arrive. You should be able to get at least two in and frankly, after two they start to look the same.
My kids really wanted to see the James Bond monastery (Holy Trinity (?) I forget now) and the big one (Great).
The only nice thing about the tour is you may get to see the "caves". You don't need to have a tour guide but they are kind of hard to find and off the beaten path. We had a tour guide we met give us directions. Here is the location of the road you need to drive up to the Panagia Chruch to see the caves up close: https://www.google.com/maps/place/39%C2%B042'44.4%22N+21%C2%B037'05.1%22E/@39.712321,21.6175308,169m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d39.712321!4d21.618078
This was a helpful website on Meteora. https://www.visitmeteora.travel/.
Good luck!
Thank you Joe! Very helpful.
I did two hikes with Visit Meteora last year and really enjoyed it. Yes, you can DIY the monastery visits easily by car, and you can get hiking maps too. But I was traveling by myself, so it was nice to have someone to hike with. I can't comment on choosing between sunset tour vice morning tour as I was there off-season so they only did morning and afternoon tour.
