Cliff Top Monasteries

I had never heard of Meteora until my husband Cameron started talking about it. He kept telling me about a scene from a James Bond movie that was filmed in Greece, and there were cliffs. It was not a lot to go on, but we discovered Meteora once we started our online search.

It looked interesting, so we put it on our agenda. Meteora is the main reason we didn’t drive a loop from Athens and back. Instead, we flew in to Thessaloniki, in the northeast part of mainland Greece. Meteora is a three-hour drive from the airport, so that was reasonable. We had a SIM card and used the phone to direct us. It was easy.

We stayed in the little town just before you get to the monasteries. It’s called Kastraki. Kalabaka is larger with lots of restaurants and more nightlife. We enjoyed the restaurants in Kastraki, and it was very quiet at night.

There are five monasteries and one nunnery that can be visited. They all close for one day each week, and it’s a different day for each place. These monasteries and nunnery are on the top of seemingly inaccessible cliff tops. That these were built in the 1500s is a remarkable architectural and engineering feat.

You can drive around all the monasteries on a one-way road and stop and visit the ones you want. You can also walk from monastery to monastery. Warning, it would be a long walk with lots of ups and downs.

The views are beautiful, and many people come out to see the sunset each day. It’s a very peaceful place.

KastrakiMeteoraMonasteriesNunnery