The following monasteries can be visited and are located nearby the road circuiting Meteora. Clockwise you'll find:

• Agiou Nikolaou monastery (St. Nickolas Anapausas)
• Agias Varvaras Rousanou monastery (St. Barbara)
• Varlaam monastery
• Megalou Meteorou monastery (Great Meteoron)
• Agias Triados monastery (Holy Trinity)
• Agiou Stefanou monastery (St. Stephen, the only monastery for women)

An entrance fee is expected by some monasteries which might be about € 2. Inexpensive, mass produced icons may be purchased in the monasteries for as little as € 1. They do not have the variety of the factories, however.

The opening hours for visiting are (as of 2009):

• Varlaam monastery: 09:00 - 16:00
• Megalou Meteorou monastery: 09:00 - 17:00
• Agias Triados monastery: 09:00 - 17:00
• Agias Varvaras Rousanou monastery: 09:00 - 18:00

The monasteries were not originally built for tourism. Tourism, essential to the monasteries survival, has also destroyed their character. They are no longer contemplative.

By ground transportation

From Athens you can take either a train or a bus up to Meteora. The trains servicing the northern part of Greece leave from the Larissa station, while the buses serving that part of the country leave from Terminal B, at Liossion Street. Train schedules can be obtained from OSC website and buses usually leave once every two hours. Both rides are long (about 4.5 to 5 hours) so make sure to bring a good book.

By plane

You can fly from Central Europe to Volos, Central Greece airport [1] which is located in Nea Anchialos and then travel by car for approximately two hours to Meteora.

You can hire a taxi right at the train station to take you to all the monasteries for about 30-40 euros(in 2005). However, reaching the spires by foot gives visitors a much more tangible feeling of the Meteora's majesty. It is a difficult hike, but experiencing the sanctuaries like the monks did a few hundred years ago only increases its wonder. In the summer, be prepared for the Greek heat, and as the hike takes a whole day, bring a few liters of water.