2-days rail trip from Athens to Meteora
Recommended by 97% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Meteora, Greece
- 2 days (approx.)
- Group discounts
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Overview
Hop aboard a train in Athens and head out to Kalabaka with this overnight tour led by a local guide. ON your first day, you'll take a sunset tour through the area, visiting six monasteries, a hermitage, and a Byzantine church before relaxing in your hotel. On your second day, you'll visit Meteora, seeing cave dwellings once used by hermits and learning about the monks who constructed this incredible site before returning to Athens via an early-evening train.
- Accommodation in a three-star hotel is included
- Travel in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle
- See the Greek countryside with a round-trip train journey
- Local guides will provide commentary
What's Included
- Breakfast
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- WiFi on board
- Bottled water
- Round trip train tickets
- Luxury mini-bus transportation
- Local English-speaking tour leader
- Choose second days tour
- See and visit monasteries,hidden gems and hermitages
- Entrance fee - Monasteries entrance fee which are 5€ per person for each monastery€5.00 per person
- Entrance fee - Byzantine church€2.00 per person
- State Licensed guide, inside the monasteries
- Dinner,lunch
- Stay over hotel tax paid personally in reception (3€/room
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- KalambakaKalabaka 422 00, Greece
Head to Athens railway station by your own and you must be there at 06.40 am in order to complete the boarding procedure on time.The train departs at 06:58 AM.At approximately 09:45 AM, the train will make a stop at Paleofarsalos, where you should exit and catch the connecting bus. to Kalampaka.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Operating hours.7:00 am
Itinerary
Day 1
Indulge in history of Kalambaka and enjoy the breath-taking sunset
2 Stops
1
Meteora
4 hours • Admission Ticket Not Included
2
Byzantine Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
Accommodation: Overnight in a 3 star hotel
Meals: Not included
Day 2
Explore the amazing...Tour around Meteora
1 Stop
1
Meteora
4 hours • Admission Ticket Not Included
Accommodation: Not included
Meals: Breakfast
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Infant seats available
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Most travelers can participate
- Pets are not allowed to enter the monasteries.
- You will receive an e-mail with the train e-tickets a few days before the tour.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 16 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.9
based on 37 reviews
Noemi_C, Nov 2025
There some unexpected issues such as the train strike that affected our return by train but the company handled everything for us, kept us infirmaded all the time, offered options, and got us the return bus tickets. Besides that everything was great! The guides Vasilis and Chris were a well of information, history, and curiosities. The small group tour is a wonderful way to go and my utmost recommendation. We had 3 tourists in the tour with Vasilis and just 2 of us with Chris (the guide) on the second day. The place is amazing and worth of every moment there. We stayed for 1 night, but if I ever come back, I will sure extend the trip for at least one more day, and do a couple of the hikes. We visited all the 6 monasteries that are still open, unfortunately I was only able to climb the steps to 3 of them...there are tons of them but my knees don't like them very much mowadays :-( . However, I still enjoyed the experience as much as if I had climbed. The paths, the views, the little hidden peak-a-boo perspective has lots to offer. I highly recommend Meteora Rocks to anyone planning to visit Meteora.
Cynthia_C, Nov 2025
Well organized. When I did have trouble, the host was easily accessible. My train tickets did not download properly. They resent and all was good.
Daniel_B, Oct 2025
What a beautiful town. Our guide Panos was excellent! We had so much fun with him. He was very knowledgeable and accommodating.
Chris_G, Sep 2025
What a wonderful experience! Panos and Christos were amazing guides! They were informative, generous and brought the history of Kalambaka and Meteora to life! The city and the monasteries were absolutely beautiful! Highly recommend booking with Panos! It’s a once in a lifetime experience!
Chienming_P, Sep 2025
The whole schedule processed smoothly as described, the local guide has rich historical knowledge and tour guide experience, thus bring us the best view and the best time to visit the monastery.
Jennifer_K, Jul 2025
We stayed overnight at a small hotel in Kalambaka, which was very clean, about a 3-star standard, and included breakfast. The town itself is absolutely charming — small, cute, and safe — perfect for wandering after the day’s sightseeing.
The real highlight of our experience was our guide, Panos. He was incredible: a local guide, young, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and genuinely committed to ensuring we had the best experience possible despite less-than-ideal weather. He took us to all the best viewpoints and monasteries and even gave excellent dining recommendations in Kalambaka.
This tour is family-friendly, but travelers should expect a fair bit of walking and some stairs at the monasteries. Good shoes are a must, and it’s helpful to pack for variable weather.
Overall, we highly recommend this two-day excursion. It’s a fantastic way to see a unique part of Greece and escape the busyness of Athens for a couple of days — well worth the time and cost.
Lyn_H, Jun 2025
The tour turned out to be excellent, once we were able to finally get to Kalabaka. Our guide, Panos, was excellent (a native of the area with much knowledge and enthusiasm and able to keep the attention of four 16-17 year olds) and the driver of our van was excellent. We loved the area, teh tour, and the commentary. The only issue was NOT being able to get assistance from Viator, whom I contacted with, when we had no train tickets & needed to board the train in about an hour. It was incredibly stressful and difficult. I had no time to sort this out during the first 7 days of our tour. We finally found out after much consternation, that the train tickets had been sent by Whats App, which I rarely use. There should have been better/more communication between Viator and me in the 7-8 days leading up to the tour. This was a small part of a larger tour that i planned for our group - 9 people - so there were many logistics to track, and Viator was very hard to work with - unhelpful, and when i used the app to get HELP, all i got was advertisements for other tours!!! Awful. They expected me to get any help via "frequently asked questions!" Very difficult. I finally was bale to waste 1/2 an hour to finally get a phone number to call for help. I plan trips regularly for my groups, and I will think twice before using Viator or Trip Advisor again. My other tour operators (Tours by Locals) were much easier to work with. All it takes is a HUMAN and some actual "customer service" to make this work well. Again, though, the tour itself was really great and i highly recommend it. If there is a way to get this tour in a way not using Viator or Trip Advisor, that would be perfect.
JiaLing_L, Jun 2025
wonderful trip. excellent tour guides. nice hotel stay. magnificent views with amazing sunset. nice town with delicious food.
Cindy_J, Apr 2025
This tour was great! Our guide Panos was perfect: friendly, local, and knowledgeable. He had stories about growing up in the area and visiting these sites with his friends and family. The sunset was beautiful, but getting to go into the monasteries was the real treat. By spending the night, we were able to get into some of the monasteries before the crowds arrived.
Margie_C, Nov 2024
We are SO glad we went on this excursion! Meteora is like no place else on Earth. Our guides could not have been better. They offered lots of interesting facts about the monasteries and the area. We were picked up on time in a Mercedes van ~ this is not a big-bus tour. The hotel was charming and very “local style”. We were very happy with our choice of this tour!
Susan_H, Aug 2024
Meteora is not to be missed! The rock formations are a marvel and the monasteries were fascinating. What a beautiful scenic place to visit.
Raymond_S, Aug 2024
The tour guide Andreas and driver Steve were very good timely, friendly, prompt!
The train does not go to Kalambaka directly so makes this excursion much more difficult navigating the train and buses. Both transportations very hot as well since it was August. Sites can be done in 1 day but worth seeing.
VincentL, Aug 2024
Very well organized, everything is informed before hand. Experience guides, wonderful scenery and nice & comfortable hotel. We took a 2pm train ride back to Athens and reached around 7pm. Thank you all.
ThomasR_S, Aug 2024
Best trip ever. Both guides amazing. Great value. Pick up and coordinate outstanding
The views and visits incredible. Hotel stay was quaint. Good service and great location at horel
Claire_B, Jun 2024
We loved the convenience of having everything arranged for us, from the train/bus tickets, to the hotel booking and both of the tours. The sunset tour with Meteora Rocks was the highlight for us with Antonis our excellent local guide who has so much knowledge and passion for his place of birth. We were fortunate to have him to ourselves and in a new, very comfortable van. The Hotel Rex was great, with a balcony view of Meteora and included breakfast. The staff were super friendly and helpful and the whole village has a lovely feel to it. The haf day morning tour with Meteora Thrones was a lot more crowded and rushed but still worthwhile. You do need a relative amount of fitness to climb the many steps to the monasteries but the scenery and history is extraordinary. The train/bus journey takes about 6 hours but Meteora is a must see which we highly recommend.
jhankard, May 2024
Meteora is just amazing and feels out of the real world.
Well planned trip. Specially the evening trip to monasteries with our fantastic guide Antonios were amazing.
He explained with great patience all the history and helped us to understand the beauty of Meteora. Thanks a lot.
Liz_C, May 2024
Oh goodness … what an amazing tour… Antonios was an excellent guide. Very informative, fun, and taught us so much about the local area and monasteries! … Thank you! We loved it! Highly recommend this trip… plus delicious supper and lunch restaurants recommendations that we wouldn’t have gone to… thank you x a million!
Crystal_H, Sep 2023
It starts with a four hour train ride from Athens. Roundtrip tickets are issued electronically. No problems. Sthatis, my driver, met me at the station and dropped me off at Hotel Alexiou, which was included. Nice hotel with gorgeous views of Meteora from the balcony. A light breakfast the next morning is included. You are right in town,walking distance from shopping, cafes, etc. I had lunch at Valia Calda, recommended by the hotel. Food was excellent, reasonably priced, with large portions, and great service. I was picked up at the hotel for a sunset tour. Xrisa was our guide, who spoke excellent English and is very knowledgeable. We had a small group, only two others on day one. Only one other person on day two, so we were able to personalize the tour to what we wanted to see and do. I chose the afternoon tour for the second day. Got to know Xrisa even better. Hotel pickup on the second day was timely and drop off at the train station for return to Athens was prompt. I would highly recommend this tour without hesitation! The sights you will see and the knowledge gained will be well worth it.
Thomas_L, Jul 2023
The most beautiful place we've ever been! We took the two-day tour from Athens on the train - which we preferred to driving - and were promptly picked up from the train station in a very nice luxury van and delivered to our nice, cozy hotel overlooking Meteora. We had a bit of time to explore before being picked up for the evening part of our tour. There are no words to describe the beauty of Meteora at sunset - it's magnificent and definitely the way to experience this beautiful landscape. We also toured a number of other monasteries and stopped for plenty of photo opps.
The second day of the tour was more active - glad we wore comfy shoes! We had plenty of time to visit the monasteries and experience the area before being delivered back to the train station.
We thought Krissa (I know I spelled it wrong) was super lively and knowledgeable and made the trip most enjoyable, in particular.
If I had to give any recommendations, I would suggest more detailed information be posted or shared in advance. Thanks to so many excellent reviews I trusted all would fall into place, but it would have been nice to receive the train information when I scheduled the trip versus when I emailed to request it and more specifics about exactly when and where we should go in advance. This was no big deal and I'm sure some of it varies from one trip to the next - just a preference as I like to plan ahead. That said, they were very responsive when I reached out and absolutely wonderful to work with. Definitely would recommend!
Morten_S, Sep 2022
All logistics worked very well, efficient with digital train-tickets. A nice four hour train-ride from Athen to Kalabaka (in Meteora county). We were picked up at station in Kalabaka and taken to the hotel. We had a couple of hours to relax and eat lunch until the guide Dimitri took us for a four hour afternoon and sun-set tour where we saw the fantastic landscape, its monastries, and with his excelent explaination of the history and the area.
Day #2; We were picked up from the hotel for a three-four hour morning tour where we visited several monastries. The driver was nice, though he didn’t explain or tell anything and his English was rather limited despite being a english tour.
It was a nice two-day tour which we are happy to recommend. Very good logistics, and if I had questions then Viator were easily available via the app to respond. The lack of guiding on day #2 was a big disappointment, but day #1 was very good, so it is fair to give an oversll 4* rating.
Maria_L, Apr 2022
The view of all the Monasteries and the outlaying Mountain areas are nothing but breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to have two great tour guides and driver that made the experience even more pleasant with all their knowledge and positive attitude. Even throwing in the occasional joke to keep us on Our toes and a little trivia.
We highly recommend this tour for anybody that is looking to be educated of the area and take in all the beautiful landscapes.
Response from Host, May 2022
We appreciate the time you spent to write all this kind words. We are happy you enjoyed it!
Silvia_R, Oct 2021
I really enjoyed the tour! It was amazing to visiti the monasteries, the sunset at Meteora, and all the interesting explanacions of the guides... Really worth It!
Response from Host, Oct 2021
Dear Silvia, thanks for your review! We are glad that the tour experience with our agency was quite enjoyable!
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