Meteora Monasteries: A Fascinating Place (+ Photo Guide)

Have you ever heard about the Meteora Monasteries? No? Don't worry, neither did we!

But this was a mind-blowing experience and one that we absolutely wanted to share with you!

So here it is: our guide for a visit to the fascinating Meteora Monasteries.

Find out how to visit Meteora, how to get to the monasteries, which monasteries are the best to visit and where to experience the most magical sunsets and sunrises.

We even show you the best photo-spots in Meteora!

Where and what is Meteora?

In Kalabaka, next to the Pindos Mountains in central Greece, there is this one particular area where giant rock columns seem to rise from the ground: Meteora.

The name means 'lofty' or 'elevated' and stems from the fact that the area hosts the Meteora Monasteries, built on top of these natural boulders.

As this place is so surreal (look at that satellite view on Google Maps below!!), we spent a total of five days driving up and down the rocks because every single view was incredible.

So incredible that Linkin Park named one of their albums after this place 🙂 

I think I haven't been blown away by a place like this ever since I've been road tripping through Patagonia a year ago or when I visited my bucket-list-item Easter Island!

Meteora in a nutshell

Where to stay when visiting Meteora?

The town of Kalabaka: the popular one

The rock formations are located in the town of Kalabaka and this is essentially where everyone will stay and from where the tours will start.

While it is strategically the best place to be, especially since some of the tours can't pick you up elsewhere, expect the prices to be accordingly.

There are several options, though, in different price ranges. Take a look at the deals below*:

The village of Kastraki: the better option

We stayed in the little village of Kastraki, right next to Kalabaka. There are only a few small shops and restaurants here.

But the prices are a little better as you get more value for your money and it's a lot quieter than Kalabaka.

While we stayed at this cute little AirBnB run by a family from Kastraki and would have loved to link it to you, they are unfortunately not on Booking. 

But here are some deals that could be interesting in that same area*:

The hosts were so sweet, they came to drop off breakfast every morning on the terrace without waking us. 

And they brought us tomatoes and cucumbers from their own garden.

AND they showed us the best sunset-spots on Meteora!! Read on to get a map and our personal recommendations for these epic sunset-photo-spots!

*Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate-links which means that we earn a tiny commission if you book through our link at no additional cost to you at all - you're just helping us 🙂

How to visit the Meteora Monasteries

Bus, hike or car?

There are three possibilities to visit the monasteries*:

*Disclaimer: these are affiliate-links which means that we earn a tiny commission if you book through our link with no additional cost to you at all

Important things to know before visiting the Meteora Monasteries

Get there early

Although we were travelling in Covid19-times, there were still quite a lot of people appearing after 10 am.

Apparently, in normal times, long queues form on the roads leading to the monasteries and the parking spots are full pretty early.

So we would recommend, if the monastery you choose to visit opens at 9.30 am for example (read on to know why this is important!), get there at 8.30 at the latest.

You won't mind waiting around for a bit as the general scenery surrounding the monasteries is so breathtaking, you won't notice the time passing by.

You probably know by now that we are always early, be it to get the best photo-lighting at the amphitheatre in Pula or seeing the Namib Deadvlei without people spoiling the pictures.

In this case, it's the same thing, haha.

Bring water, snacks and sunscreen

If you plan on staying the whole day, it is essential that you pack lots of water (especially if you hike), something to eat and sunscreen.

While there are little souvenir-trucks outside of every monastery selling water and snacks as well, they are generally totally over-priced.

So get your supplies down in Kalabaka or Kastraki before heading up.

Oh, and in summer it gets super hot up there! And you tend to forget that you're in the blazing sun when gazing at the marvelous scenery: sunscreen all the way!

Dress modestly: no shorts at all, no pants for women

This is something I honestly always struggle with when travelling and visiting 'holy' places.. I'm a scientist and a little feminist.

So yeah, when I hear things like 'women are not allowed to wear pants' (you know, like in pre-Vatican II - times), it always makes me cringing my teeth.

But well, those are the rules they set. So I'm abiding by them. 

In Meteora, this means:

Opening hours and closing-days are different for each monastery

This is very important, especially when your time is limited and you have a few top-monasteries you absolutely want to visit!

Each monastery has their own opening hours, some even close during lunch-time.

And then there are different closing-days as well. While one might be closed on Thursdays, the other one is on Tuesdays for example. 

Be sure to get all the information at visit-meteora.travel. 

The best monasteries to visit in Meteora

Great Meteoron or Megálo Metéoro or Metamórphosis

This is the biggest and most popular one. It's also the oldest monastery, founded in the 14th century by Athanasios the Meteorite.

Being the largest one doesn't mean the most populated one: in 2015, only three monks were registered as residents. 

Transformations occurred in the 15th and 16th century and it hosts a museum with religious artefacts and icons of different eras.

Unfortunately, we encountered the problem I was talking about earlier: while we made sure to check the opening hours on the board at the entrance of the monastery and chose the right day to visit it, we didn't get in.

This was the day the monks decided to spontaneously close for the rest of the week. Exactly the days we were in Meteora.

Oh well, this gives us another reason to come back and check out that monastery! 

The Monastery of Varlaam

Built in 1541, it is the second largest of the monasteries. And also the one with the greatest number of monks: seven (also counted in 2015). 

It's foundation dates back to the 14th century, though. Only back then, it was an hermitage, not the monastery it is today.

The museum is very interesting not only because of the artefacts but because it's located in the old refectory (if you like old architecture-styles).

The Monastery of Roussanu or St Barbara

Founded in the 16th century, the monastery had been abandoned by 1940.

In the 1950s, renovation works began and it was converted into a nunnery, the most active today with 13 nuns in residence (counting of 2015, I think I heard something about 15 in 2020).

Very friendly ones, too!

The Monastery of St Stephen

It is known as the 'royal' one, as the byzantine emperor Andronikos III visited it in 1333 and gifted them lands and money because he was so touched by their sympathy.

Founded in the 14th century, this monastery is also a nunnery today with 28 nuns in residence in 2015. 

The Monastery of the Holy Trinity

The 15th century Monastery of the Holy Trinity is the least accessible of the inhabited ones.

You actually have to walk down a path several hundred meter, before climbing up the 146 steps (I counted!) to the entrance of the monastery.

It has several icons on display and they kept the windlass with the net in place which shows how the monks used to be hauled up before there were stairs.

This is also the most famous one in Hollywood, as it served as a set for the 1981 James Bond 'For Your Eyes Only' with Roger Moore (I must admit, not a huge fan of these JBs - give me Sean Connery!!).

Monasteries that are closed to the public

There are a few monasteries that have been restored in the last few years but serve as true hermitages nowadays.

If you google them, the official info will probably be that they are still in ruins. That's because even Wikipedia hasn't updated their page yet...

They are closed to the public but we wanted to cite them nonetheless as it is worth checking them out from the outside.

Monastery of Saint Nicholas Badovas

Founded in the 14th century, this monastery is officially known as still being in ruins although it has been renovated. 

It is not inhabited, though. Anyone up for some isolation-time? The views from up there must be incredible! 

The monastery is located in the canyon between Kastraki and Kalapaka and has been built into a cave in the rock. 

Ágios Andónios Monastery

Located right next to Saint Nicholas Badovas, this monastery is a dependency of the Holy Trinity Monastery.

It is said to be in ruins and uninhabited but we did see people on the balconies...

Ypapanti Monastery

While the official site states that it is indeed open to the public while being the least accessible one, we were standing in front of closed doors after the 30 minute long walk.

And the information board actually stated that the monastery would remain closed. No opening days anymore.

This monastery founded in 1367 has also been restored to its original state but remains uninhabited.

It belongs to the Great Meteoron Monastery and would have been really cool to visit...

The best photo-spots in Meteora

Photography-gear

The two red spots were our favourites for the sunrise. This meant getting up there at 6 am but it was obviously far less crowded and the lighting totally different.

Plus: we brought our mugs and a jar of coffee, so this was pretty cool.

And here are the pictures in full quality (okay, slightly resized for upload-purposes):

Sunset-spots

Spot 1:

This is the most famous one and, naturally, the most crowded one as well. Especially at sunset!

It is still the best spot to get the full view of the valley with several of the Meteora Monasteries in sight!

Spot 2:

This is what people call the 'sunrise-rock' although we didn't actually take pictures at sunrise as the view was not THAT great.

It's still beautiful, though! But I'd say this is a good alternative if Spot 1 gets too crowded at sunset.

Spot 3

This is a very cool one as well as you get a great view on the Holy Trinity Monastery, perched on a lone pillar with the town in the valley behind.

It really looks like it's floating! 

Spot 4:

We did this spot twice, once at sunset (pictured here), another time in the morning.

It gives you a beautiful view on the Varlaam Monastery and there's usually nobody there. 

Spot 5:

This is from the parking lot at the foot of the Roussanu Monastery. 

It gives you an impressive view from below to the two biggest monasteries but also a nice one on the St Nikolaos Anapafsas Monastery, the only one we did not visit.

Sunrise-spots

Spot 1:

It's the exact same one as the first of our sunset-spots.

Only the light in the morning is so different and there's nobody here!

So we couldn't help taking a few silly pictures on the rocks as well, haha!

Spot 2:

And this is almost the same as the Sunset-spot nr 4 only a bit further down below.

Sebi had to climb a pretty high rock to get that angle! So that's only for the daredevils among you, haha.

Another view on Meteora

If you drive past St Stephen Monastery to the East, you get some really nice views on the surrounding area besides the rock pillars!

There's not much more to see except for a few restaurants that advertise 'magnificent views' (it's true, though! But we didn't eat there so we don't know about the food quality) but it's worth the little detour as it gets you another view on Meteora.

And here we are again: this is it!

Our guide on how to visit the magnificent Meteora Monasteries!

We hope you had fun reading and found it useful.

Feel free to comment, share and pin this post!

As ever

xx

Cyn

Don't forget to subscribe to get our latest blogposts, useful travel hacks or just some entertaining stuff!