Meteora tours

Can you describe what the "tour" part includes? Do you get special treatment at Meteora or are they just covering train, hotel, and perhaps meals?
Hiking and/or monasteries is great, no doubt about it. But, these things are also managed easily on your own which would seem to negate the value of a tour.
Might help to know more about your trip overall because it might be more efficient to include Meteora on a larger tour of the region. I'm a big fan of the car in Greece because it's all stunning but the roads are decent and it's easy to get from town to town.
I might suggest including Delphi, at least, to something like this. If you have time, I would also recommend spending more time away from the city.

willhays Thanks for your reply. I will actually be in Athens for 4 days before starting a 14 day Rick Steves Tour. I have always wanted to see Meteora, which is not included on the RS tour, and I thought that this two day tour sounded like a good opportunity. Along with train, hotel and breakfast the Meteora tour includes transfer to and from train station, guided minvan tour the first evening including 2 monasteries and a few sights in Kalabaka. Then on the second day you have a choice of the 4 hour hike with a guide or another minivan tour with guide. They are not specific about which monasteries you visit on each tour but they do say that they do not overlap with locations you have seen the night before. I was hoping to hear from someone who has taken this tour to see if the could recommend the hike or van tour. Here is the link if you want to check it out:
https://www.visitmeteora.travel/en/things-to-do/tours-to-meteora-by-train/two-days-rail-tour-to-meteora-from-athens

You probably won't find people who've done it before because I think this "train tour" is brand-new this year ... and high time, I say. Much more fun than bus. Go for it.

When are you thinking of doing this, Peggy? I have already signed up to take this 2-day tour on June 3 and 4, also before the RS Greece Tour. The tour I have signed up for includes train from Athens, hotel with breakfast in Kalabaka, sunset van tour to Meteora, morning van tour to Meteora (on Sunday, when evidently all 6 monasteries are open), then train back to Athens. I elected to pay 10 euros extra to upgrade my round-trip train ticket to 1st class, or deluxe, or whatever it is called, which was recommended. I don't think I was offered an optional hike. Wish I could give you feedback, but not yet. All I can say is that the staff of the office I was dealing with were very quick to communicate and very helpful.

Thanks Larry for your input. I am going March 25th and 26th. So I guess that I will have to let you know how it goes.

Looking forward to your report as we (2) have also signed up for this tour to Meteora with visitmeteora.com in October. We will have two nights in Meteora with the same tour options (I would like to be able to do the hike, but I'm not sure we can do 5 miles, so we have, so far, opted for the non-hike tour on day 2). Day 3 we train to close to Delphi, taxi to Delphi, time there, and then bus back to Athens. Yes, we pay a premium for this help, but seems worth it to us as we don't want to have to drive. Please be sure to post your experience. Thanks.

Hi,

Was looking into this train tour as well. Looks like you just took it. Any feedback?

Okay I realize the OP has already gone on the trip, but I can vouch for this company - "Visit Meteora." I did two hikes with them last year and it was great. NOTE: You will be rushing if you take the day trip via train from Athens, though they will take you to see the all sights in Meteora. If you have time, spend at least 1 night in Kalampaka, especially if you want to go hiking.

We are planning to sign up for this 2-day trip mid-June, but the info on the website only says that we start and finish at the Athens Railway Station. We need to find out how to get from Athens International Airport to that Railway station, and I'm having a tough time finding clear directions on the internet (even though I read and understand Greek!!). Any and all help would be appreciated.

I just took the tour last week and it was fantastic. I booked it on line through Visit Meteora. They picked me up at the train station dropped me at the hotel, then picked me up again for the van tours. I recommend that you go for at least over night. That one day tour is 5 hours up on the train and 5 hours back with only 4 hours in Meteora. The train was a half hour late the day I went so that cut into the tour time for the day trippers. The two day tours include a sunset tour on your day of arrival and a half day tour the next day. You see different things on each day and visit different monasteries each day then you have free time in Kalambaka before the return to Athens. I highly recommend this tour it was fasinating.

To the person who asked about how to get to the train station from the airport, you can take the Metro blue line from the airport into Athens then transfer at Syntagma Square to the red line and ride 4 stations north towards Anthoupoli to Larissa station which is the Athens train station.