The day trip to Meteora starts at 08:00 am from the Conference Venue. 

We will board our bus which will take us through the national highway to Larisa-Trikala-Kalabaka. 

After a 2.5 hour drive during which our certified experienced guide will explain you the areas through which the bus is going and their history we arrive at our first stop which is the town of Kalabaka to visit a local industry for handmade souvenirs and icons. 

We continue by taking brief stops on the best breathtaking viewpoints of Meteora. We will then visit the hermit caves of Badovas. 

We continue our trip by visiting the holy sites such as the women’s Monastery of Agios Stefanos with its impressive wood-carved iconostasis, or the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, perched on the top of a rocky precipice over 400 meters high. Alternatively, we discover the tower of the old preserved net at the Monastery of Varlaam, or explore the largest of the monasteries at the Monastery of Great Meteoron. 

We then head to Kastraki to enjoy an optional traditional Greek lunch. At around 5 p.m. we board our bus and take the highway back to the Conference Venue.

In the 9th century, an ascetic group of hermit monks moved up to the stone forest.

They were the first people that occupied the caverns of Meteora since the Neolithic Era.

Caves in the vicinity of Meteora were inhabited continuously between 50,000 and 5,000 years ago.

However, the monasteries were built later, in the 14th century, when the monks tried to hide somewhere from the increasing number of Turkish attacks on Greece.

Of the 24 monasteries that were built, only 6 (five male, one female) are still functioning, with each housing fewer than 10 monks/nuns

Beside the Pindos Mountains, in the western region of Thessaly, these unique and enormous columns of rock rise precipitously from the ground. But their unusual form is not easy to explain geologically.

About 60 million years ago during the Paleogene period a series of earth movements pushed the seabed upwards, creating a high plateau and causing many vertical fault lines in the thick layer of sandstone.

It is unusual that this conglomerate formation and type of weathering are confined to a relatively localised area within the surrounding mountain formation

The rock monasteries of Meteora have been characterized by Unesco as a unique phenomenon of cultural heritage. Six monasteries are still functioning:

• The Monastery of Great Meteoron, which is the biggest of the Meteorite monasteries, founded in the middle of the 14th century.
• The Monastery of Varlaam which is the second, big in size monastery, founded in the middle of the 16th century.
• The Monastery of Rousanou, founded in the middle of the 16th century.
• The Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas, founded in the beginning of the 16th century.
• The Monastery of St. Stephen, which is one of the most attainable monasteries, founded in the middle of the 16th century.
• The Monastery of Holy Trinity, which is the most difficult to reach, founded in the middle of the 15th century.

• The bus trip duration from the Conference Venue to Meteora is 2.5 hours each way, including a short stop along the way to use the restroom and buy snacks.
• The monasteries have strict dress rules prohibiting entry to male visitors wearing shorts and female visitors with sleeveless sweatshirts
• Women need a long skirt/ dress to enter the monasteries. Women cannot enter the monasteries wearing trousers or jeans.
• To reach the monasteries, you will be required to climb stairs
• You will stop for an optional traditional Greek lunch in Kastraki.

• Round-trip transportation
• Official English Tour Guide
• Basic travel insurance

• Entrance fees to Monasteries
• Guided tour inside the monasteries and museums

Cost of lunch at Kastraki