Northern Greece: Epirus, the Zagori Villages and the Vikos Gorge

1. Day 1: Arrive in Ioannina

   Ioannina airport (IOA) to your hotel by the castle

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ioannina
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ioannina, the capital of Epirus, about an hour from Athens by air; a driver meets you at the small airport and it is about ten minutes into town. Ioannina sits on the west shore of Lake Pamvotis, with the walls of its castle running down to the water and the mountains of the Pindus beyond. Our hotel is by the castle or on the lakefront, so the old town is on foot from the door. Spend the afternoon on the lakeside promenade under the plane trees, or in the lanes of the old bazaar, where silversmiths still work; Ioannina has been known for silver for centuries. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: the two gorge days and their easier options, what to pack for the mountains and how the days run. Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Epirus food at a local restaurant: pies, trout from the region and local cheeses.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Ioannina airport (IOA)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in Ioannina

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 4 pm; if you come by road from Thessaloniki or Athens instead, tell us and we arrange a meeting point.

2. Day 2: Ali Pasha's castle and the lake island

   Ioannina castle (Its Kale), then by boat to the island on Lake Pamvotis

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ioannina
   Day 2 details

   We start in the castle in the morning, while it is cool and quiet. Ioannina's walled old town is still lived in, and at its south-east corner stands Its Kale, the inner citadel where Ali Pasha ruled much of Epirus and Albania for the Ottomans in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Walk past the Fethiye Mosque and Ali Pasha's tomb to the Byzantine Museum, then down to the Aslan Pasha Mosque, which now holds the municipal ethnographic museum, with a view straight over the lake. Around midday a small boat takes about ten minutes to cross to the island, a car-free village of whitewashed houses and reed beds. Lunch is there, at a lakeside taverna. Afterwards we visit the Monastery of St Panteleimon, where Ali Pasha was killed in 1822; the cells hold a small museum of his story, with the bullet holes still in the floorboards. The boat brings us back mid-afternoon, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Guided walk of Ioannina castle: Its Kale, the Fethiye Mosque and Ali Pasha's tomb
   • Byzantine Museum and the Aslan Pasha Mosque ethnographic museum, entries included
   • Boat to the island and back
   • Lunch on the island
   • The Monastery of St Panteleimon and the Ali Pasha museum

   Easier option: Skip the castle walk's upper sections and meet the group at the Aslan Pasha Mosque.

   More active option: Walk the lakeside path north from the castle in the late afternoon, about 5 km there and back.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free; the Perama cave, a few kilometres from town, is an easy taxi ride if you want it

   Activity: About 4 km on foot over the day, on cobbles and some steps inside the castle.

   

3. Day 3: The stone bridges of Kipi, up to Monodendri

   Ioannina to the Kipi bridges, then Monodendri in central Zagori

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Monodendri
   Day 3 details

   A short morning drive, about an hour, climbs from the lake into the Zagori, a group of some 46 stone villages on the slopes of Mount Tymfi, joined for centuries by mule paths and arched stone bridges. We stop first near Kipi and walk an easy path along a dry riverbed to the triple-arched Kalogeriko bridge and the single high arch of the Kokkori bridge, both built in the 18th and 19th centuries with money from Zagori merchants abroad. Lunch is in a village taverna nearby. In the afternoon we reach Monodendri, our base for three nights, and settle into a stone guesthouse with slate roofs and wooden ceilings. Before dusk the guide walks the group a few minutes down a paved path to the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, built on the edge of the gorge, then drives up to the Oxya viewpoint for the first look down into the Vikos Gorge as the light goes. The evening is free in the village.

   Included

   • The Kalogeriko and Kokkori stone bridges near Kipi
   • Lunch in a Zagori village
   • The Monastery of Agia Paraskevi on the gorge edge at Monodendri
   • The Oxya viewpoint over the Vikos Gorge at dusk

   Easier option: Stay with the van between the bridges; both can be seen from the road with a few minutes' walk.

   More active option: Walk on from the Kokkori bridge on the old path to Koukouli village, about an hour, where the van collects you.

   Free time: Evening free in Monodendri

   Activity: About 2 hours of easy walking over the day.

   

4. Day 4: Through the Vikos Gorge on foot

   Monodendri down into the Vikos Gorge, then up to Vikos village

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Monodendri
   Day 4 details

   This is the day the trip is built around. After an early breakfast we set off from the guesthouse door by about 8:30, with a licensed walking guide as well as your See Sight Tours guide. A steep stone path with steps drops from Monodendri to the floor of the gorge, roughly 700 m or more, in about 45 minutes; the walls then rise hundreds of metres on both sides and the path runs through plane and maple woods beside the dry upper riverbed. We walk at a steady pace with long stops in the shade, about 12.5 km in all and 6 to 7 hours including stops. Near the end the gorge opens out, the Voidomatis appears, and a final climb of about an hour through the woods brings us to Vikos village, where our van is waiting by mid-afternoon. Lunch is late and well earned: a sit-down meal at a taverna in Vikos village, with snacks carried for the trail. The van then brings everyone back to Monodendri, about an hour, for a free evening.

   Included

   • Guided walk through the Vikos Gorge from Monodendri to Vikos village with a licensed walking guide
   • Van pick-up at Vikos village and transfer back to Monodendri
   • Trail snacks and a late sit-down lunch in Vikos village

   Easier option: Skip the gorge floor: drive with the van to the Beloi viewpoint above Vradeto for the view straight down the gorge, take a short walk on the rim, and meet the walkers for lunch in Vikos village.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 12.5 km and 6 to 7 hours including stops; a steep stepped descent of roughly 700 m or more, then a final climb of about an hour, on rocky, uneven paths that are not exposed. Exact figures are confirmed with the walking guide. If rain closes the path we swap days 4 and 5.

5. Day 5: The Voidomatis springs and Papingo

   Vikos village down to the Voidomatis springs, then along the lower gorge and up to Megalo Papingo

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Monodendri
   Day 5 details

   The van takes us back to Vikos village after breakfast, about an hour, and we walk down for about an hour to the springs of the Voidomatis, where the river rises cold and clear from under the rocks at the foot of the gorge. From there the path follows the lower gorge north and climbs to Megalo Papingo, about 10 km and 4 to 5 hours on foot in all, with the grey limestone Towers of Astraka standing over the village. Lunch is in Papingo, in one of its taverna courtyards. Afterwards there is time to walk the few minutes to the rock pools below the village, where the stream has carved round basins in the stone; in June you can paddle. The van brings us back to Monodendri in the late afternoon. Tonight is our last in the Zagori, and dinner is at the guesthouse: Epirus pies with wild greens and cheese, slow-cooked mountain lamb and local wine.

   Included

   • Guided walk from Vikos village via the Voidomatis springs to Megalo Papingo with a licensed walking guide
   • Lunch in Megalo Papingo
   • The Papingo rock pools
   • Van transfers to Vikos village and back from Papingo
   • Dinner at the guesthouse

   Easier option: Ride with the van to Papingo, walk to the rock pools, then take a gentle riverside path along the Voidomatis at the old stone bridge near Aristi, about an hour, before lunch with the group.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Monodendri

   Activity: About 10 km and 4 to 5 hours on foot on rocky paths, with a climb of about 300 m to Papingo at the end.

6. Day 6: Metsovo, then Meteora at sunset

   Monodendri to Metsovo across the Pindus, then over the Katara pass to Kalambaka

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kalambaka
   Day 6 details

   We leave the Zagori after breakfast and drive about an hour and a half east to Metsovo, a mountain town at about 1,150 m on the Pindus, with stone mansions, a square shaded by a huge plane tree and a strong Vlach heritage. Spend the late morning at the Averoff Museum, a collection of 19th and 20th century Greek painting given by the Averoff family, then a tasting at a local winery and of the town's smoked cheese, metsovone, before a sit-down lunch on the square. In the afternoon the road crosses the Katara pass and drops to the Thessaly plain, about an hour and a quarter, to Kalambaka. We go first to St Stephen's, a working nunnery that you walk into from the road (its hours are confirmed at booking), then to the viewpoints on the ridge as the sun sets over the Meteora rocks and the monasteries on their summits. Farewell dinner tonight is in Kalambaka.

   Included

   • Metsovo: the Averoff Museum, entry included
   • Wine and cheese tasting at a local winery in Metsovo
   • Lunch in Metsovo
   • St Stephen's Monastery at Meteora, entry included
   • Sunset from the Meteora viewpoints
   • Farewell dinner in Kalambaka

   Activity: Easy walking on cobbles in Metsovo and short paths at the viewpoints. Shoulders and knees covered at the monastery.

   

7. Day 7: A Meteora monastery at opening, on to Thessaloniki

   Meteora to Thessaloniki, with a drop at Thessaloniki airport (SKG)

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   We are at the gate of the Great Meteoron or Varlaam, whichever is open that day, when it opens at about 9 am, before the day coaches from Athens and Thessaloniki arrive. Meteora's monasteries were built on top of the sandstone pillars from the 14th century, and goods and monks were once hauled up in nets; the site has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1988. A climb of a few hundred rock-cut steps leads into the courtyard, the frescoed church and the old kitchens and cellars, with the plain far below. By about 11 we are on the road to Thessaloniki, about three hours across the Thessaly plain with Mount Olympus on the horizon, with a stop on the way. We reach Thessaloniki in the early afternoon. Your guide drops you at the airport, or in the city centre near Aristotelous Square if you are staying on, and says goodbye. Book a flight from Thessaloniki leaving after about 5 pm.

   Included

   • The Great Meteoron or Varlaam monastery at opening, entry included
   • Transfer to Thessaloniki, with a drop at the airport (SKG) or the city centre

   Easier option: Stay at the foot of the steps and see the monastery from the viewpoint across the gorge.

   Activity: Book a flight from Thessaloniki (SKG) after about 5 pm. If you are going on to Athens, we can drop you at Kalambaka station for the train instead (about 4.5 to 5 hours, with a change at Palaiofarsalos).

   

Wildlife and weather: May and June bring green slopes, wildflowers and a fuller Voidomatis; September and October are drier, with beech and plane trees turning gold in October. Rain can close the gorge path for a day, when we switch the walking days. Look for chamois on the cliffs and griffon vultures and other raptors over the gorge and the Meteora rocks.

• Ioannina2 nights
• Monodendri3 nights
• Kalambaka1 night