July/August 2024

The area west of Thessaloniki up to the Ionian Sea is well worth visiting because Greece is not just a beach destination. The mountains are breathtaking and the history is rich. After all this is where Greek legends were born and Alexander the Great built his vast empire.     

After completing a 2 week Halkidiki and Thassos Island itinerary (see previous blog) we drove west past Thessaloniki.

Mount Olympus

After about 3 hours driving we arrived to Litohoro, a lovely mountain town and got a room in Hotel Aphrodite right on the main square with a room facing the Olympus.

The area around the mountain is very beautiful and we spent a whole day driving around Olympus area.  First Agios Dionysus Monastery, then coffee with amazing views at Stavros refuge and then up to the beginning of the Prionia trek to Enipeas waterfall which is actually very small and swimming is not allowed.  Next we drove thru Dion to Orleas waterfall, a much bigger, better and swimmable.  After cooling at the waterfall we drove to charming Palaios Panteleimonas Village.  It’s a pedestrian village which was nowhere mentioned so it took some time to find the entrance to the village. The effort was rewarded and we ate in restaurant Agnanti with amazing view and good food for very reasonable/cheap prices.

In Litohoro we ate in excellent Meze Meze and had drinks down by the river, a surprisingly lively scene with several bars and restaurants, at Disco Romeriko.

For the next 2 nights we stayed up in Leptokarya because BF went hiking up Mt. Olympus and I preferred to be near a beach. Leptokarya is very lively and busy, but the beach is so- so, a little dirty and the shade by numerous beach restaurants/bars is not very good.

We stayed in a beachfront Hotel12 having a good sea view and a terrace.

Meteora

The next day mountain adventure continued as we drove south west to Meteora. In this part of Greece the highways are very good and it took us less than 2 hrs to get to Kalabaka, a good base to visit Meteora. (One word about the highways, they are very good except for frequent toll stations that slow you down. Would be much better to have one station and take all the money at once).

Meteora area is a series of amazing rock formations with 6 working monasteries, two of which are nunneries. Each monastery is closed once a week on different days and all are open on weekend. We climbed to see two inside and took pics in front of the Grand Meteora, the most beautiful of them all.  At this point we decided that there is no need to visit all six monasteries unless you are a devout Orthodox since it’s pretty much the same inside. Instead, we took many pictures on various rocks and view points and couldn’t stop admiring the view.

We stayed over for a night in Antoniadis Hotel with a pool which was a must since the heat was unbearable. We chose to stay in Kalambaka and not Kastraki because Kalambaka has bigger variety of accommodations and restaurants. We had dinner at Feel the Rocks, good upscale food with magnificent views. But we were somewhat surprised to be charged a cover charge. When we asked the waiter said it’s for serving the table with plates and cutlery…I know restaurants charge cover for bread, but there was no complimentary food or bread served… We tried to joke with him whether we had a choice to eat off the table with our hands instead but the joke went over his head…

We also tried to visit a Liakou winery but it was closed even though the website said it should be open. We didn’t mind an hour detour because the drive there and the views were magnificent.

Ioannina

From there we continued west to Ioannina which surprised us as a lovely quiet large town, 4^th in size in Greece. The town is famous for silver smiting, Turkish influence and food, mainly grilled meats and cheese. Here we finally got to do laundry (so far we didn’t find any coin operated Laundromats), the town is very lively and has sites worthwhile seeing.

We took a free walking tour with lovely Sofia followed by a short boat ride to a “little Island” where we visited a former residence of Ali Pasha. He was a very interesting character worthwhile looking into. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Pasha_of_Ioannina. On one hand a successful ruler visited by European dignitaries including Lord Byron on the other hand ruthless and cruel who once executed by drowning a high society woman suspected of having an affair with his son, together with 16 other suspected adulteresses. .. But karma caught up with him and he was later assassinated in this very house. 

We also visited the very informative Silversmithing museum, but their gift shop was not inspiring which is unfortunate because after the beautiful things in the museum you really want to buy some nice silver items. In Ioannina we had dinners at Serios Kouzina: good food in a nice garden with good background music; in popular Balsamico and a restaurant next to Balsamico which name I cannot pronounce nor write it since it’s in Greek. We also had drinks at Route 66 with our guide Sofia and happy hour Aperols on the town’s pedestrian street. Happy hours are very popular in Ioannina; for 6 Euro you get a drink and lots of complimentary appetizers.

We also visited the Perama cave with a couple we met on the free walking tour. As most caves this one is nice but actually we have seen many and this was not the best.  The cool air though was very refreshing.

Metsovo

Another good mountain area is the Pindus Mountains. We only had time to visit one traditional village of Metsovo, which turned out to be the cutest but overrun with tourist town situated in Epirus area.  I suggest spending several days exploring the area and other villages or yet going on a hiking trip between the villages. Unfortunately we only had time for coffee which we drank on a terrace of Metrobitico with gorgeous mountain views.    

Vergina

To finish this inland loop we went to the UNESCO Archeological Site of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, located in Vergina just north west of Thessaloniki. The museum houses 3 burial tombs including one of Alexander the Great’s father, Philip II of Macedonia.  The visit takes about an hour and has lots of interesting history of the period and Macedonia. However, it was a little challenging to find it. The ticket also includes entrance to the Polycentric Museum of Aigai-Vergina which I found less interesting.