7-Day Northern Greece Tour: Zagori, Meteora, Pelion and Delphi

This is a private, 7-day tour of northern Greece from Athens, a multi-day trip through the part of the mainland most visitors never reach. Over the week you travel from Ioannina into the stone villages of Zagori, on to the wine town of Metsovo, the monasteries of Meteora, the forests of Pelion, and finally Delphi, before returning to Athens. Same driver and vehicle throughout. We have run this route since 2010.

Day 1: Athens to Ioannina, and the Island on Lake Pamvotida

• Your northern Greece tour begins with a morning pickup from your Athens hotel. The drive to Ioannina is about 430 kilometers, close to five hours on the Ionia Odos motorway with two stops, so you arrive with the afternoon still ahead of you. After checking into your stone-built hotel in the old town, we take the ten minute boat crossing to the island on Lake Pamvotida, which locals simply call Nisi. No cars are allowed, and its lanes run between whitewashed houses and five Byzantine monasteries. At Agios Panteleimon you can still see the spot where Ali Pasha was shot in 1822. The rest of the afternoon is for the walled Kastro district, the strongest Ottoman quarter in Greece. Overnight in Ioannina.

Day 2: Into Zagori, and a Day at the Loom

• The Zagori leg of the tour starts here. Ioannina to Zagori takes under an hour, climbing into the Pindus range, and you settle into your guesthouse in one of the stone villages. The middle of the day is spent in a working textile studio, learning the loom from the ground up, from dressing the warp to building a piece by hand in wool, silk, and dyed yarn, with a felting component too. No experience is needed, groups stay small, and you keep what you make. Weaving here is not a tourist invention: every household in Zagori had a loom within living memory. The afternoon is free for the village. Overnight in Zagori.

Day 3: Zagori Villages Tour, Kipi, Koukouli, and Papigo

• A full day exploring the Zagori villages, linked by cobbled paths and the stone arched bridges built by traveling masons in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Around Kipi three of the finest stand close together, including the Plakidas bridge, known locally as Kalogeriko. In Koukouli we visit the Lazaridis house and its herbarium of Pindus medicinal plants, then stop at a viewpoint over Vikos Gorge, one of the steepest in the world relative to its width. The road climbs to Papigo, beneath the Astraka Towers, where the rock pools above the village are swimmable in the warmer months. The afternoon brings either a cooking session with Zagori pies and mountain greens, or, from September through November, a guided mushroom foraging walk. Overnight in Zagori.

Day 4: Metsovo, Wine, Cheese, and Mountain Culture

• An hour east through the Egnatia tunnels brings you to Metsovo, at 1,150 meters, the alpine heart of this multi-day mainland Greece itinerary. This is a Vlach town with its own language and architecture, built on the wealth of nineteenth century merchant families. We tour the Katogi Averoff winery, founded in 1959 by Evangelos Averoff, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon at an altitude everyone called impossible, ending in a tasting. Nearby, the Averoff Gallery holds a serious collection of Greek painting. Metsovone, the town's smoked cheese, is made in the dairy below. The afternoon is yours, and dinner is at a taverna on the square. Overnight in Metsovo.

Day 5: Metsovo to Pelion by Way of Meteora

• Today links Meteora and Pelion on the way south, the longest driving day of the week at roughly four hours split by a major stop. Metsovo to Kalambaka takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. The Meteora monasteries stand on sandstone pillars rising straight out of the plain; six of the original twenty four are still active, each closed on a different day, so we plan around whichever are open on your date and usually visit two. Shoulders and knees must be covered, and wraps are available at the gates. From Kalambaka it is a further two hours and fifteen minutes to Pelion, where the mountain drops through forest into the Pagasetic Gulf. You check into a hotel in the Portaria or Makrinitsa area. Overnight in Pelion.

Day 6: Pelion, a Farmhouse Kitchen, and South to Delphi

• The Pelion day opens with an optional walk on one of the old kalderimia, the stone mule paths that linked the villages before there were roads, shaded and opening onto the gulf. (Optional) Late morning is the farmhouse cooking session, working with whatever the farm has that week rather than a fixed menu, and you eat what you cook. The drive to the Delphi area then takes about three and a quarter hours, down the coast and inland through Lamia. We schedule the day so you arrive with daylight left. Overnight near Delphi.

Day 7: Delphi, the Olive Grove of Amfissa, and Back to Athens

• The tour closes at Delphi, reached early before the coaches from Athens arrive. The Sacred Way climbs past the treasuries to the Temple of Apollo, where the oracle spoke, then the theater, and a short further climb most visitors skip brings you to the stadium, the best preserved in Greece. The museum beside the site holds the Charioteer, cast in bronze in 470 BC. Afterward we stop at Arachova, on the flank of Parnassus, then head down to the Amfissa plain below for an olive oil tasting and lunch at a working farm. The plain holds well over a million olive trees and has been cultivated since antiquity. Return to Athens takes about two and a half hours, dropping you at your hotel or the airport.