Meteora Warnings and Dangers

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When you are staying at the viewing points in Meteora avoid falling into precipices which are gaping down 100-200m! Sometimes I was afraid to drop my cameras down and lose incredible views of Meteora, ha-ha! And nobody would see my brilliant photos and videos, ha-ha!

Please step aside the precipice and keep yourself for VT sake!

Check the site www.kalampaka.com to see the visiting hrs
But have in mind that when I visited Meteora this summer I found out that most of them were open to public from 9.00 till 17.00 except St.Nicolas that closes at 15.30 and St.Stephane that closes at 13.00 and opens again at 15.30 so when you visit the first monastery you can ask there about the correct timetable.

If you want to visit the monasteries in Meteora you have to be careful of what you are wearing.
Women:long skirts and blouses with sleeves (at the entrance of the monasteries you can find long skirts)
men:long trousers

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By a hot and sunny day, I was driving on a dirt road, next to the Meteora, in the direction of Mount Olympus, along a dry river bed when suddenly, I saw water flowing while a few seconds earlier, there was nothing. I realized that it was a flash flood and made a U-turn as fast as possible in order to drive down faster that the front of the flood, to see it arriving. Luckily, one kilometer downstream, the road passed over the river on a small bridge and we arrived there before the flood.

The first photo shows the front of the flash flood arriving.

On the second photo, the water has now filled two arms in the river bed.

The third photo shows the full flood, at its peak.

That was actually a small flash flood : the front was not more than 10-15cm high and it did not last more than 15 minutes. Anyway, you get a strange feeling when on a clear and sunny day (once you know it, you might spot that in the background that a part of the sky was cloudy) you see such a phenomenon. In desert areas, it can occur at much larger scale and be a major life threat.

Unfortunately the tourist world has found Meteora. Therefore expect loads of bus tour groups to slow things down as you attempt to visit each monastery. I set out at 8:30am to visit the monasteries hoping to beat the mad rush of tour groups but alas I failed. By noon when I visited the Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron the hordes had arrived. I had to wait in a lineup for about 45 minutes to get into the monastery.

You should get ready for quite a lot of walking. The monastries of Meteora have their parking lots for tourist coaches but that doesn't mean that a bus is going to take you all the way up those steep hills ;)

The plain of Thessaly, where the rocks are located is one of the hottest places in Greece. The climate in this region is continental with cold winters and very hot summers. It's not my favorite thing about Meteora, my organism heavily bear such heat, especially when I have to climb to the monasteries.
So, if you have possibilities, it's better to come here winter. First of all ,you'll not be exhousted and second - the views are more impressive in winter - snow on the tops, clearer view, clouds come down on the rocks....

(By the way, some people say that summers in Meteora are cool. I don't know where these people live... but I can't agree).

Appropriate clothing is required to visit the monasteries. Sleeveless clothing and shorts are prohibited. Skirts and shawls are available at the entrance for those who are deemed to be unacceptably dressed (including men wearing shorts and tank tops). Otherwise, you'll get that funny skirts from monks.