Meals in Meteora belong to two neighbouring settlements at the foot of the rock pillars: Kalabaka, the market town, and Kastraki, the smaller village pressed against the cliffs. Both are lined with family-run tavernas cooking Thessalian mountain food, from slow-roast lamb to wild greens and oven casseroles. Lunch slots neatly between two monastery visits, and … Read more
Meteora rewards photographers who plan around light and weather. Six monasteries sit on conglomerate pillars that rise 300 metres above the Thessalian plain, and their silhouettes change hour by hour as the sun sweeps across the sandstone. Sunrise sends warm light onto the eastern faces, sunset backlights the towers, and mist after rain lifts between … Read more
Rock climbing in Meteora draws climbers to a cluster of rounded conglomerate towers that rise straight from the Thessalian plain in central Greece. The rock is a natural cement of pebbles and cobbles fused into vertical pillars, and its rough, pocketed surface rewards balance and friction over brute pulling. German pioneers, led by Dietrich Hasse, … Read more
Kastraki sits directly at the foot of the Meteora rock pillars, a traditional stone village of narrow lanes and red-tiled roofs that seems to grow out of the conglomerate towers rising above it. Roughly 2 kilometres northwest of Kalabaka, in the Thessalian plain of central Greece, it is the closest inhabited settlement to the sandstone … Read more
Kalabaka is the town that sits directly beneath the towering sandstone pillars of Meteora, in the Thessaly plain of central Greece. Sometimes written Kalampaka, it spreads across the flat ground where the plain meets the rock, so the monasteries rise roughly 1 to 2 kilometres above the last streets. The town is the natural base … Read more
St Nicholas Anapausas is a small monastery perched on a narrow rock pillar above the village of Kastraki in central Greece. It stands as the first monastery reached on the winding road up from Kastraki toward the Meteora complex. The monastery holds an intimate scale that sets it apart from its larger neighbours. Its katholikon … Read more
Meteora rewards travellers who stay for the last hour of daylight. Low golden light warms the grey sandstone pillars, and the clifftop monasteries turn to dark silhouettes above the plain of Thessaly. The viewpoints along the monastery road fill with visitors who came for exactly this moment, cameras ready and jackets on for the cooling … Read more
Meteora rises above two settlements that hold almost every bed near the rock pillars. Kalabaka and Kastraki sit at the foot of the towering sandstone columns, minutes from the monasteries above. Kalabaka is the larger town, with a railway station, restaurants and hotels across all budgets. Kastraki is a smaller, quieter village pressed right against … Read more
Kastraki Beach is one of the longest and calmest stretches of white sand on Naxos, lying along the island’s southwest coast between the headlands of Mikri Vigla and Alyko. It draws travellers who want space, clear shallow water and a wild, undeveloped landscape rather than sunbeds packed row on row. The sand is fine and … Read more