What's to see in Volos, Greece?

[Hot2Travel]

Anything of interest in Volos and surrounding area? :confused: Can we DIY or is a guide necessary?:cool:

[ab0si]

The first thing to do is get out of town.:) Volos is a commercial city with no history (it was established in the 19th century). There are some pretty villages near by and I hear some of the best beaches in Greece (I don't do beaches, so that is merely hearsay).

 

I don't know the local transportation situation, sorry. I had a car.

[cruisemom42]

I believe the main reason for stopping in Volos is probably to see the clifftop monasteries of Meteora.

 

http://www.greecetravel.com/meteora/monasteries.html

 

As I understand it they are a fair distance from Volos (more than an hour) so I don't know that you'd want to DIY without considerable research.

[Eileen G]

We stoped in Volos when we were on the Journey last Sept. We never take ship's excurisions prefering to DYI but we made an exception in Volos. We really wanted to see Meteora and there was really no way to see it on our own. Since the ship's tour wasn't too expensive we went with the tour. They only had two buses going so the tour filled up fast. It was an excellent tour. Here is a link to my pictures.

 

http://cid-1e98e90214e77bf9.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Med%20Cruise%20Sept%202009/IMG%5E_0464.jpg

[California Native]

We were in Greece on a land trip and I can vouch that Volos is for Meteora, but even though we love to DIY when we cruise...

I would not recommend that because of the port distance

You are driving on a 2 lane mountain road to the Monastaries

I would HIGHLY recommend that you take a shorex and DO NOT miss out on this experience!

If you would like to view our Meteora photos, they are on our personal travel journal website

Here's the link

http://ourpassportstamps.com/GreecePhotos1.html

[soccerref]

This is an extract from my review of our Black Sea cruise last summer. Volos was our first stop and we did the Princess excursion to the monasteries at Meteora .... fabulous.

 

We docked close to the centre of Volos which is quite a large port. People we talked to who walked around the town were somewhat disappointed that it was so industrialised and not a pretty Greek seaside resort.

Our tour was a full day trip and I was a bit apprehensive about whether it was the right choice – monasteries are not high on my list of interests – but it turned out to be a major highlight. The 2 hour journey was long and through a wide agricultural valley so there wasn’t a huge amount to see. In fact, I ended up sleeping for most of the time so caught up on what we had missed the day before.

The tour stopped for a 25 minute toilet/coffee break in a small town close to the mountains and there was a Lidl supermarket 100m down the road. My DH popped along and got a couple of litres of wine to drink in the cabin. This was really his only opportunity so I’m glad he had the foresight to get it!

The bus carried on for a few more kms and then these huge, towering rocky outcrops suddenly appeared in the distance rising straight up out of the flat valley floor. WOW!

As the bus got nearer and began to climb the foothills we could see these buildings perched right on top of the rocks. It was an amazing sight which got even more breathtaking as the bus drove further up. There are 6 separate monasteries, each balanced on top of its own individual sheer rock tower, and we visited 2 of them – one before lunch and one after. Fortunately the buses are able to get quite close but then there is a walk over a bridge and up several sets of steps to get to the actual monastery. We had time to explore each one and they were well worth it. The paintings and carvings were beautiful, the views were awe-inspiring and the little gift shops had some pretty objects and replicas at reasonable prices. Our guide told us that we were extremely lucky with the weather because it was clear and not too hot so there was no cloud or heat haze.

Our lunch was in a small Greek taverna at the bottom of the mountains and consisted of a set 3 course meal of Greek food plus water and wine.

TIP - Everyone needs to have shoulders and knees covered. Females must wear a skirt – you can borrow a sarong at the entrance.

Get to the tour meeting place early so you are on the 1st bus. We were on the last bus and had to wait for stragglers before we could leave the ship so we had less time at the venues than the people on the other 3 buses.

[KirkNC]

Shouldn't this be moved to the Greece forum.:rolleyes:

 

Kirk

[camNaud]

Thanks to cruisemom42 & Eileen G for sharing your wonderful photographs - we are docking in Volos on our Black Sea cruise next years and you have both convinced me that Meteora is a must see - can't wait. :)