Hi
So I'm going to Greece for a week and the itinerary I initially had in mind was
Landing in Athens on 17th sept then 20th leave Athens for oia santorini...spend two nights there then 22nd to 24th Fira and on 24th depart Greece
Now I also want to fit in a trip to meteora somewhere
My question is should I reduce time from my stay in Athens and make a day trip or overnight trip to meteora
Or take out a day from Fira and do meteora instead
Please help!
Many of us think it is best to get out to your first island as soon as you arrive in Athens. You need an hour and a half perhaps two hours to catch a connecting flight. That way you can be back in Athens a few days before your return flight. Sometimes stuff happens. We watched as several people scrambled to change return flights to South Africa, US, France and UK because our flight back to Athens was delayed.
So after your two nights in Santorini fly back to Athens. Now you have all that time to plan what you want to do. Meteora is a very long day trip because it takes about 5 hours to get there. Which only leaves you about 3 hours to actually get into the monasteries.
Then you will ahve a 5 hour commute back again. You really should plan on a night in Meteora. Of course you would need to stay either in Kalambeka or Sastraki. You can probably hire a taxi to get you around.
Meteora is at the end of this album
Olympia Delphi Meteora https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157645469717811/
Athens http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632121475515/
Hi stanbr
Thank you for the detailed response
I do like the idea of getting done with islands better however there's a slight problem
I plan to leave the 17th of this month and I have my hotels pre booked for santorini and Athens
Now the problem is even though the booking is free cancellation etc how ever if I try to change dates around in order to do the islands in the beginning then Athens the hotels of my choice aren't available so basically the only option I can think of now is either doing meteora right in the beginning like the next day of us landing in Athens or either taking one day out from santorini and using it for meteora
Also yes I figured after some research the meteora day trip will be a bad idea and will have to do an over night one
Now I can either take time out from my Athens part of the trip which is from 17th-20th
Say landing Athens on 17th going to meteora on the 18th and getting back on 19th
Or getting back earlier from Oia and Fira santorini which I initially planned for 20th-24th
So that would leave me with two days in oia and one in Fira
However I feel like that will make my trip mor hectic id have to leave Fira on 23rd get to Athens then get to meteora from Athens then back to Athens on 24th and depart same day for home
I hope I'm making sense lol
That idea you had "However I feel like that will make my trip more hectic i'd have to leave Fira on 23rd get to Athens then get to meteora from Athens then back to Athens on 24th and depart same day for home" is a very bad idea. I would say your best option is to take a couple of days from Athens or just skip Meteroa. There is lots to do in Athens you won't feel bored there.
Thinking of taking a day off from Athens and replacing with meteora
The thing is I know Athens has a lot of history etc that needs a lot of time to check out how wet I went to Italy last year in winter and in two three days I was over the historical buildings etc which is why I was thinking I might get over Athens after like two days lol and probably check out meteora instead
My next question is are their any good reliable companies for tours in Greece that I could book?
Is there a specific reason you want to shift lodgings while on Santorini? Fira and Oia are only about 7 mi. (11 km.) apart.
Your decision to spend only a modest amount of time in Athens may work for you.
Acraven
My reason is kinda dumb...I liked two hotels a lot and couldn't pick one lol also I heard although they're close but both are different in the sense that oia is more of a luxury and peaceful area and less crowded while fira is more lively so I wanted a bit of both
So I've decided to take one day out of Athens in the beginning and do meteora
Now I want to decide if I should go for one of those tour packages that include meteora tour train tickets and accommodation...if yes then need suggestions for good companies for that
Or if I should just book my own hotel for meteora and get around in meteora ourselves instead of a guided tour
I'm more inclined towards a guided package including everything
So I did some more research on meteora and basically I don't really care about visiting every single monastery
I mostly want to go for hiking around and views of the hills and the pillars and only see like two monasteries properly and rest just from far I guess
So would all of this still require an overnight trip
Or can we leave early morning from Athens and come back
By the time you reach Meteora from Athens you will have about three hours max before you have to catch your return transportation. So the round trip of 12 to 14 hours gives you a three hour experience. Keep in mind if you do public transportation train or bus they only go to Kalambaka. You still have to take a taxi to Meteora and back again. Practically you need an overnight or don't do it at all.
Okay over night it is
Actually I'm really indecisive
Delphi looks good too so if I had to pick between Delphi or meteora which would be better
Delphi is an excellent ancient site. You can certainly imagine people making a pilgrimage there. The bonus is you can do it in one day. It is quite different from Meteora but if I were in your shoes I would choose Delphi.
