Visiting the Meteora Monastries

There are six Meteora monasteries, each open to visits at slightly different hours and days. To see them all in a day, start early to take in Ayiou Nikolaou, Varlaam and Megalou Meteorou before 1pm, leaving the afternoon for Roussanou, Ayias Triadhos and Ayiou Stefanou.
The road from Kastraki to Ayiou Stefanou is just under 10km long, often narrow and dangerous with speeding cars; if you're on foot, we recommend you follow the hiking directions given below to spare you the tarmac as much as possible - by using the trails and dirt tracks available you can avoid most of the asphalt. Ayiou Stefanou is in a cul-de-sac for both drivers and hikers; the through road signposted Kalambaka just before Ayias Triadhos is a highly indirect 5km. In season there are a number of daily buses (most reliably at about 9am and 1pm) from Kalambaka up the road as far as Megalou Meteorou/Varlaam; even taken just part of the way they will give you the necessary head start to make a hiking day manageable. Hitching is also pretty straightforward.
You may want a local map , especially if you intend to leave the beaten track. A lot of dross is sold in Kalambaka, but the only two products worth having are sold at the newsagent on the upper platia. The Panoramic Map with Geology (co-produced by Karto Atelier, Switzerland and Trekking Hellas; ?4.50) is aerial-view art format, but fairly accurate and good enough to follow the main routes. Andonis Kaloyirou's Greek-only text booklet, with topographic map in back (Road Editions, ?11.80) is superior, and many will find the map alone worth the investment.
Before setting out it is worth buying food and drink to last the day; there are only a couple of drinks/fruit stands on the circuit, by Varlaam and Megalou Meteorou. And finally, don't forget to carry money with you: each monastery levies an admission charge - currently ?1.50, with students half price except at Ayias Triadhos.
For visits to all the monasteries, dress code is strict. For women this means wearing a skirt - not trousers; for men, long trousers. Both sexes must cover their shoulders. Skirts or simple wraps are often lent to female visitors, but it's best not to count on this. Finally, it's worth noting that photography and videoing are strictly forbidden in all of the monasteries.