Full-Day Trip to Meteora from Thessaloniki

Our overall experience on the trip to Meteora was fantastic! We had the chance to visit two monasteries perched high on the mountains and enjoy the breathtaking scenery. Our guide, Eva, was wonderful, she explained everything about Meteora’s history in great detail and also shared helpful recommendations for places to eat and things to do in Thessaloniki. The only downside was that we didn’t have much time to fully explore the monasteries. Also, the restaurant we were dropped off at, Meteoron Panorama, was extremely overpriced. If you’re planning to take this trip, walk a bit further down the road to Charama Restaurant. The prices there are much more reasonable, and the food was delicious!

It’s great for people who are fond of visiting ancient monasteries. As for me, I came for the view. A lot of walking and climbing stairs so come prepared. Our guide Eva was great and we enjoyed our lunch at Meteoron Panorama Restaurant. Food was really delicious especially their baby lamb specialty and the mushroom soup.

Great tour and fantastic view from the monasteries. Driver and guide were excellent. Truly recommended.

It was very nice trip. I think Meteora is a must do when you are visiting Thessaloniki. The beautiful view from the top on the rocks is awesome, you see all the monasteries and the village down and the mountains. I think visiting two of 6 monasteries is enough. Our guide was perfect, she was very very nice and funny. We even get free water from her.

Excellent way to see the monastories without staying locally. The bus trip is long but much better than trying to do it using local transport. We visited 2 of the 6 active monastories and gained good insights into their functioning. It would be good if the lunch stop could be somewhere where those who did not want to use the taverna on the dge of town could sit in shade as there was nothing around at all, but that was a minor thing. Highly recommended.

Meteora is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. This is a must see for natural beauty lovers and anyone interested in seeing the magnificent monasteries.

We didn’t get enough assurance that we would get back in time for our boat to depart so we had to cancel. It also seemed like alot of driving

Unfortunately, this trip was disappointing. The bus ride was extremely long (around 7 hours), especially compared to the short amount of time we had to explore Meteora. The ride itself was dull, as the guide shared very limited information—maybe 30 minutes total—and her English was quite average, which made it hard to follow in the beginning. It also didn’t feel like a proper group tour. Aside from a bottle of water, it was essentially just a long bus ride with minimal guidance. They took the group to a very expensive restaurant for lunch, which I thankfully skipped. Overall, the experience felt overpriced at €65 for what we received. I wouldn’t recommend this tour.

The trip from Thessaloniki to Meteora was very well organized and the landscapes were breathtaking. Our guide Eleni was very kind and knowledgeable and gave us so much useful information both about the Meteora monasteries and the places we were passing by. Very much recommended, great value for money.

The full-day trip from Thessaloniki to Meteora was hands down the most unforgettable experience of our stay in northern Greece. The coach departed just after 8am. We had an excellent guide who shared just the right amount of history and cultural insight to keep things interesting. The driver was calm and capable throughout. We also appreciated the refreshment and toilet stops—one in each direction—which broke up the journey nicely and helped everyone stay comfortable. Our first stop in Meteora was the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen, a convent that is easily accessible via a small footbridge. We were given around 40 minutes here. The atmosphere was calm and spiritual. Photography is not allowed inside the church. These beautiful places are sacred to practising Christians. Inside the museum was a display of beautifully preserved hand-written Bibles dating back to 1498. Next, we had a 15-minute stop at a fantastic viewpoint where five of the Meteora monasteries could be seen. Photo opportunities here were incredible. Our second monastery visit was to Varlaam, where we had 50 minutes to explore. It does involve some effort: approximately 120 steps to the ticket point and another 20 up to the monastery itself. With temperatures around 30°C, it was a bit of a workout, so a fair level of mobility is needed—but once you're at the top, the views and sense of history are worth it. We stopped for lunch at Meteora Panorama, a local restaurant with generous portions of delicious food and views of the rock pillars. It was the perfect place to sit back and reflect on everything we’d seen. We returned to Thessaloniki around 6:45 pm. Meteora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for a reason: these “monasteries in the sky” are architectural wonders and spiritual havens rolled into one.