Delphi and Meteora: can you really do them in a day

Two places outside Athens are worth rearranging a trip for. Delphi, where the ancient world came to ask what would happen next, and Meteora, where monasteries sit on top of rock pillars three hundred metres above the plain. Both are sold as day trips from Athens. Only one of them really is.

Delphi works

It is about two and a half hours each way through the mountains, and the drive itself is handsome. You get the sanctuary, the stadium and the museum with the bronze charioteer, plus lunch in Arachova on the way back. A long day, ten to eleven hours door to door, but a complete one. Go early. The site is on a west facing slope and the afternoon sun there is fierce.

Meteora is a stretch

It is four to five hours each way by road. As a single day that is nine hours in a vehicle for perhaps three at the monasteries, and you will arrive at the worst hour for photographs and leave before the light turns. It is doable, and people do it, and most of them regret the drive. One overnight in Kalambaka changes it completely: sunset on the rocks, an early start ahead of the coaches, and the monasteries at the hour they were built for.

What to wear

The monasteries are working religious houses. Shoulders and knees covered, and men in long trousers. Wraps are lent at the door but it is a queue you do not need.

We run both as private day tours from Athens, and Meteora as a two day trip with the overnight, which is the version we would book ourselves.