Panoramic Morning Meteora and Monasteries Tour

I was joining the 29/10/23 Meteora Thrones Day Trip.
The trip was Excellent. I would like to thank our Tour Guide on that day ~ Clement from Canada. Feel to... read more Glad to have Clement as our Meteora Tour Guide. He is not only informative & Knowledgeable but also very patience to explain the History of Meteora. His explanation & sharing make use feel more appreciate more about Meteora ~ Monastery. His Summarised of the History is better than our High School's Teacher.
Easy to understand & memorise it even after the Trip. No Joke! Clement.you are the best:). This Tour is worth of time & money. Highly Recommended!

Very well organised tour and on time at the sunset rock!!
Giannis is very knowledgeable and explained everything in detail!

Great experience. It was fenomenal and Klement(Klime) was wonderful as a tour guide. We had a private tour, with multiple stops, explanations and stories. We definitely recommend it if you... read more are going to Meteora. Thank you!

Our train tickets arrived by email well before the tour, with assigned seats. Athens station was easy to navigate and find the train ok. Top tip there’s a station cafe... read more on the platform side that we only saw after getting to the platform!
The train was a little delayed, announcements kept coming on the platform which was ok, no actual information on the length of the delay tho!

Eleni and the driver (whose name I can’t recall, apologies) were both superb throughout the tour. They were waiting outside the station with a large sign with names listed below, no issue. We ended up on the largest of the coaches which was nice and a group of I think 16 people.
From the station we went to the main square in Kalambaka and stopped for 15 mins by a bakery to grab drinks and sandwiches/ pastries and bathroom stop, also goes to spot potential places for dinner after the tour.
The monasteries were stunning and lived up to all anticipation. there were 24 in Meteora, now only 8 and 2 uninhabited. 4 monks monasteries and 2 female. The first was the Holy Monastery of Grand Meteoran, be warned there are 275 steps down and up to get to the monastery and the same coming out. Superb, stunning frescoes, just magical views of the other monasteries too. Second was Varlaam, only 150 steps here, just as beautiful and the views were magnificent. En route fro here to the last monastery we saw the scenery used for a Games of Thrones scene and the monastery (occupied by one 53 yr old hermit monk) used in For shout Eyes Only.
The last monastery was the a holy Monastery of St Stephan, nuns here (priests at the the others two, none seen at the first one seen at the second with some serious ring kissing going on with visitors ).
St Stephan was way favourite of the three it is beautiful, the church itself is amazing, with incense to add to the ambiance. Beautiful lavender and rose gardens behind it with more stunning views over the valley and a sad dried up river bed (2022 drought).
A short stop at an icon workshop en route back to Kalambaka and ended up back in the central square.
We ate in the square at the Archontariki Taverna and the food was really good, service friendly too
The train trip back was smooth, just a long day but absolutely worth it it was phenomenal totally recommend it and the company they were superb

This has to be the best way to do a guided tour of Meteora. My wife and I are traveling the world and don’t do a lot of touristy group... read more activities but we only had a few days in Athens and Meteora Thrones made the experience very easy. Everything is booked for you and went according to the description. It’s a long train ride from Athens and that train is packed, no wifi and little service, so be sure to prepare for that. We were greeted by our guide at the train station and she was amazing. Personable, energetic and very knowledgeable. Please tip your guide if you have good service, we were the only people in our group to tip. As a rock climber, I’ve wanted to see Meteora for years and the views were better than the anticipation. We’re in our 30’s and active so we thought the walk/stair climbing was easy but some monasteries may be difficult for people with conditioning issues. Reviews said the monasteries accept credit card, but not really, we only entered 2/3 due to this so bring cash. One monastery let us pay by card in the souvenir shop. Unfortunately we missed Great Meteoron on a Friday due to a holiday prep, it’s usually open every day but Tuesday. If there are particular monasteries you want to see, check their schedule. IMO, each monastery has a different view and experience, worth going to each one. If you’re going to Meteora with a tour guide company, go with Meteora Thrones, they make the full day trip from Athens as easy and stress free as it could be. We left our apartment in Athens at 7 am and got home 11 pm. Sometimes the trains run late but best to be there 15 mins early.

Local travel agent was excellent going beyond what was expected to make sure I finally joined my tour after a harrowing experience getting to my destination. I could not... read more access my train tickets on the email sent to me by TripAdvisor so I had to buy my own tickets which got me to the destination 90 minutes after my tour started. Thank you to Chris at the local travel agency in Kalambaka who drove me up the mountain to join my tour so I only missed one monastery. Tour was excellent, great explanations of this unique area.

METEORA - The tour was amazing , wonderful. It worth the trip from Athens by train.Thomas the guide was a very prepared guide, very kind and friendly

Worth the trip! - Wonderful trip, very well organized, puntual, good transportation and excellent tour guide and driver. Long trip each way but the stop for bathroom and food half way is convenient. Meteora... read more is worth the trip!

Wonderful. Best tour I have ever been on. - This is a great tour. The tour guide is excellent, and the tour had some amazing sites, and great information. The pace is excellent, and you can easily choose the... read more right level of activity for each individual. What an amazing place, too! Meteora is simply beautiful, and worth visiting for anyone!

This trip was a long day but completely worth it! The train was comfortable and travelled through some beautiful scenery and meeting Ria (apologies if this is spelt incorrectly!) at... read more the station was quick and easy! We stopped first in the main square of Kalabaka at a cafe qhich is good for a bathroom break and good snacks / food should you wish but absolutely no pressure to buy. You stop there at the end so good for any purchases for the train back too. There is also a nearby supermarket and many good restaurants which Ria will show you. After this stop then onto the first monastery. Be advised that some monasteries have A LOT of steps / steep slopes to get to them so something to keep in mind. On our trip we visited St Nicholas, Varlaam and the nunnery at St Stephan - All of which are breathtaking....both inside and the views outside. Ria was so knowledgeable and friendly, you were always interested to hear the next pieces of information. It was intriguing to learn how the first monks got to the monasteries, how they built them and especially how they got up / down! Ideally, you would want to spend at least a couple of days in the area to fully explore (I'm sure they'd have a trip for that too!) but if one day is all the time you have then I cannot recommend this trip enough! I would certainly book again.

I joined a half-day private tour, a sunset tour, and a 5-hour day tour. The tours were very well organized. The guides Thomas, Elena and Christos were professional, knowledgeable, and... read more kind. There was so much to learn and the delivery by the tour guides was impeccable. The area was amazing and the tours were well priced and worth the money. The monasteries and the Byzantine church of Virgin Mary are absolutely beautiful and rich in history. I highly recommend visiting the area at least once and joining these tours.

We did the sunset tour and morning tour. All staff were friendly, knowledgeable, and stopped at some good places for pictures. They seemed to take pride in where they lived... read more as well, which I think made them such great guides. I did get inured on one of my tours and they did not have a first aid kit, so my only recommendation is they have a fully stocked one since there is the possibility of getting injured (very slim and I am sometimes a klutz, but you are touring older areas with steep inclines and declines, etc, which means it could happen). They did offer to stop by the pharmacy but that would have cut into everyone's tour time. I highly recommend them and would do it again.

An unforgettable family experience. Well organized, the tour guide Christos was friendly, informative and willing to share his knowledge

Meteora Thrones Agency - Worth visiting site with this agency - We (two) went on Meteora tour from Thessaloniki with train and we were picked up by agency at Kalabaka (Meteora city). Tickets were organized by Meteora Thrones agency and sent... read more to me by mail a few days before tour. We took 1st class, what is worth spending if you like to have a reserved seat in comfortable coupe with electrical plugs for PC/mobile. Second class has lower comfort, no reservation and no plugs.
Tour was absolutelly very well organized in time and as well for the guide which said many interesting facts. The van was comfortable, and the points we were let go for exploring were so close to entrances that we did not have to walk many stairs.
The only problem on this tour is getting right information on trainstations, as we had to change train in one town ..... There are no displays showing any info of the forcoming trains; there is no display/sign on the train itself where it is going; there is no large visual sign/display on the trainstation with the name of the station/city; people working at suburban train station do not speak english; infomation of forthcoming stations in train are only in greek; ... all-in-all train service in Greece is a very badly organized disaster!
On opposite, Meteora Thrones Agency worked perfectlly well. Worth taking.

Everything was just perfect and well organized. We had a wonderful time during our daily trip to Meteora. Highly recommended!

We were fortunate enough to have a private tour with Chris, as other people had cancelled due to bad weather. The wealth of information he shared with us, more than... read more made up for the lack of sunset!

Amazing experience. Really good organisation - we had nothing to worry about. The train trip was also exciting, a chance to see the non-tourist Greece from the comfort of a... read more train seat (with A/C on).
If you get Dimitris as your guide - be prepared for an awesome day full of knowledge and giggles.
Highly recommend!

Wonderful tour - It was a wonderful experience! The tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. We stopped at 3 monasteries and stopped at all the great picture locations. Meteora was an amazing... read more place. We are so happy to have taken this tour.
Even though a major train accident occured in Greece about 2 weeks ago, they provided us with a great tour. All the trains were cancelled in the country, but they still chartered a luxurious bus to Kalabaka. They communicated about the transfer change very smoothly.
We highly recommend this tour!!!