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Holiday itinerary
Eleven days from the Thessaloniki waterfront into the mountains of Epirus and back down to the foot of Olympus. The road climbs past the royal tombs of Vergina and the waterfalls of Edessa to lake-ringed Kastoria, crosses the Pindus to stone-built Metsovo and Ioannina on its lake, then winds through the arched bridges and slate villages of Zagori to the rim of the Vikos Gorge. From there it turns east to the monasteries balanced on the rocks of Meteora, threads the Vale of Tempi and ends among the ruins of Dion beneath Olympus. Tesla Superchargers in Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Larissa and an ElpeFuture DC by the lake at Kastoria carry the long legs; in the villages, plan on hotel sockets and a full battery before the mountain roads.
Season: Best from May to mid-October. In late spring the Zagori meadows are green and the Voidomatis runs full; in October the beech woods around Metsovo turn copper. July and August bring heat to the Thessalian plain and crowds to Meteora, so start early. Each Meteora monastery closes one day a week and asks for covered shoulders and knees. Mountain villages have very few public chargers: leave Ioannina for Zagori with a full battery.
Landmarks
MeteoraPhoto: Сергей Черный / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
ThessalonikiPhoto: Hermann Hammer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Edessa waterfallsPhoto: Ευαγγελία Κατή / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Kastoria and Lake OrestiadaPhoto: Annatsach / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
MetsovoPhoto: Natalia / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Ioannina and Lake PamvotidaPhoto: Pudelek / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Plakida bridge, KipoiPhoto: Erik1980 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Vikos GorgePhoto: Pudelek / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Papingo and AstrakaPhoto: Aneza Palaiou / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Olympus above LitochoroPhoto: Falk2 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Holiday itinerary
- Day 1 · Thessaloniki
Begin on the waterfront as the light turns gold: walk from the White Tower along the sea wall to Zongolopoulos’s Umbrellas, then climb through the steep lanes of Ano Poli to the old walls, where the whole gulf opens below and, on clear evenings, Olympus rises over the far shore. The Rotunda and the Arch of Galerius are on the way down to dinner in Ladadika. Top up at the city’s Tesla Supercharger before heading west.
- Day 2 · Edessa
Leave early for Vergina, where the royal tombs of Aigai lie inside the great burial mound itself: in the dim, hushed hall, the tomb of Philip II and its gold larnax are the most moving museum of the whole journey. Continue through the orchards below Mount Vermio to Edessa, a town on the lip of a cliff where the Karanos waterfall drops some seventy metres toward the plain. Walk the path behind the falling water, then the quiet Varosi quarter at dusk. Hotel socket overnight.
- Day 3 · Kastoria
A short drive past Lake Vegoritida and the vineyards of Amyntaio, known for rosé made from Xinomavro, brings you to Kastoria, packed onto a peninsula in Lake Orestiada. Charge first at the ElpeFuture DC at Dispilio, by the lake, then spend the late afternoon on the shore road round the peninsula: fishing boats, pelicans, tiny Byzantine churches and the tall fur merchants’ mansions of the Doltso quarter mirrored in still water. The Dragon’s Cave on the waterfront is worth an hour.
- Day 4 · Metsovo
The Egnatia motorway crosses the Pindus in a chain of tunnels and viaducts; leave it for the last stretch and Metsovo appears as grey stone roofs stacked on a slope at about 1,150 metres. Spend the afternoon in the Averoff Gallery of Greek painting, taste the red wines of Katogi Averoff and the smoked metsovone cheese, and walk down to the small monastery of Agios Nikolaos below the village. In the evening the square smells of wood smoke. Hotel socket overnight; tomorrow’s road to Ioannina runs downhill.
- Day 5 · Ioannina
Ioannina sits on Lake Pamvotida beneath bare mountains. Walk through the walled Its Kale, where the Fethiye Mosque stands beside the tomb of Ali Pasha and the Silversmithing Museum recalls the craft that made the town famous, then take the little boat to the island village, whose monastery of Agios Panteleimon keeps the room where Ali Pasha met his end in 1822. Back on shore, eat by the water as the lights come on. Before bed, charge to about ninety per cent at the Tesla Supercharger on the Igoumenitsa road: Zagori has almost no public chargers.
- Day 6 · Monodendri
Central Zagori is a day of stone. Stop at Kipoi for the three-arched Plakida bridge and the single arch of the Kokkori bridge over a dry riverbed, then wander Kapesovo and climb the cobbled stair of Vradeto, once the only way into the village. A short walk from there leads to the Beloi viewpoint, where the Vikos Gorge opens almost a kilometre deep. In Monodendri, follow the path to the monastery of Agia Paraskevi clinging to the gorge edge, and drive up to the Oxya viewpoint in the late light. Supper is Zagori pies, leek, cheese, nettles. Guesthouse socket overnight.
- Day 7 · Papingo
From Aristi the road falls in tight switchbacks to the stone bridge over the Voidomatis, where the water runs so clear and cold that the plane trees look painted on it; stop, walk a little way along the river, and listen. Then the road climbs again toward the grey towers of Astraka and the two Papingos. Leave the car in Megalo Papingo and walk the stone path to the natural rock pools between the villages, then come back for the pink light on the cliffs at sunset. There are no chargers here; yesterday’s Ioannina charge covers this short day.
- Day 8 · Kalambaka
Drive back down through Ioannina for a top-up at the Supercharger, then east on the Egnatia across the Pindus. In summer you can instead take the old road over the Katara pass at about 1,700 metres, slow, empty and full of high pasture. In the afternoon the plain of Thessaly opens and the rocks of Meteora rise out of it like something that should not be there. Check in at Kalambaka and go up for sunset on the rocks between Holy Trinity and St Stephen, where the whole valley turns gold. Hotel socket overnight.
- Day 9 · Kalambaka
A whole day for Meteora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. Six monasteries are still lived in: the Great Meteoron, Varlaam, Roussanou, Holy Trinity, St Stephen and St Nicholas Anapafsas. Each closes one day a week, so check before you go, and cover shoulders and knees. Start early at the Great Meteoron for its frescoes and the old winch tower that once hauled monks up in a net, walk the old footpath down to Kastraki, and save Roussanou, perched on its narrow pinnacle, for the late light. Hotel socket overnight; the Larissa Supercharger is first thing tomorrow.
- Day 10 · Litochoro
Charge at the Larissa Supercharger by the Fashion City Outlet, then follow the Pineios into the Vale of Tempi, a narrow green cleft between Olympus and Ossa. Stop where a swaying suspension footbridge crosses the river to the cave chapel of Agia Paraskevi, with a holy spring in the rock. By early afternoon you are in Litochoro, a stone town at the foot of Olympus. Drive up the mountain road to Prionia, where the asphalt ends at about 1,100 metres among black pines and a small waterfall, and walk part of the trail down the Enipeas gorge, all green pools and white stone. Hotel socket overnight.
- Day 11 · Thessaloniki
On the way back, stop at Dion, the sacred city of the Macedonians, where the sanctuaries of Isis and Demeter lie among springs and reeds and frogs call from the flooded temple floors. The museum keeps fine mosaics and the hydraulis, an ancient water organ. Then follow the coast north to Thessaloniki, charge at the Supercharger on the edge of the city, and end the trip as it began: an ouzo and small plates in the lanes of Ladadika by the port, with the evening breeze off the gulf.