Trekking in Meteora

Meteora looks structurally impossible in every photograph ever taken of it, and it is stranger still in person: a cluster of sheer sandstone pillars rising hundreds of metres out of the Thessalian plain, with Orthodox monasteries built improbably on their summits from the fourteenth century onward. Six are still active, and reaching them on foot is far better than driving the road between.

The hiking links the pillars by old monks' paths through oak forest and up cut-stone steps, so a few hours of walking threads several monasteries together with the rock towers looming overhead the whole way. It's a modest effort for a genuinely otherworldly landscape, and the sense of how these places were built — and defended — only sinks in properly once you've climbed to them yourself.

The monasteries enforce a modest dress code, so cover shoulders and knees. Go early to beat the tour buses, and time your day so you're out on the rocks for the low evening light.

Sheer sandstone pillars rising hundreds of metres out of the Thessalian plain, topped by Orthodox monasteries built from the fourteenth century onward — six still active.

The hiking links them by old monks' paths through oak forest and up cut-stone steps, so a few hours on foot threads several monasteries together with the towers looming overhead the whole way.

It is a modest effort — around seven kilometres and 300 metres of climbing — for a genuinely otherworldly landscape, and reaching the monasteries on foot rather than by road is what makes their scale land. The active monasteries enforce a modest dress code.

Base in Kalabaka at the foot of the rocks, reachable by train from Athens or Thessaloniki, and walk up the old monks' footpaths rather than driving the road between monasteries. No permit or guide is needed.

Go in spring or autumn — April–May or September–October — to avoid the summer heat, and start early to beat the tour buses. Cover shoulders and knees for the monastery dress code, and check which are open, as each keeps a rotating closing day.

Time your route so you are out on the rocks for the low evening light, the best of the day.