Day trips from Ioannina: the Pindus opens

We name the trips and say what each is. We print no drive times, opening hours or prices, because those change and mountain roads defeat any figure. Check conditions in winter, when the passes carry snow.

Zagori and the Vikos gorge

The best day out from Ioannina and one of the best in Greece. Zagori is a region rather than a place: forty-six villages scattered across the Pindus north of the city, built of grey stone with slate roofs, connected by cobbled paths and arched bridges.

The Vikos gorge cuts through the middle of it, a limestone canyon whose depth relative to its width has it cited as one of the deepest in the world. The river at the bottom runs dry for much of the year and appears again at the springs of Voidomatis, which is the coldest water most visitors will ever swim in.

For a day, take a viewpoint and two villages. Monodendri and the Oxya viewpoint are the standard combination, and Papingo further round sits under the Astraka towers. The gorge floor is a full-day walk in its own right and should not be attempted as an afternoon.

If any of this appeals, two nights up there beats a day trip comfortably.

The stone bridges

Worth its own paragraph because it is the thing people remember. Zagori and the country around it hold a set of arched stone packhorse bridges, single, double and triple-arched, built where the old mule routes crossed the rivers.

Several are within a short drive of each other around Kipoi, and a morning going between them with a swim in the river below one is one of the more pleasant half days in northern Greece.

Ancient Dodona

Close to the city and unaccountably quiet. Dodona was an oracle older than Delphi, where the priests read the rustling of a sacred oak, and its theatre is one of the largest in Greece, set in a valley under bare hills.

It gets a fraction of the visitors that the southern sites get, which is most of the pleasure. It is a half day, and it pairs with a Zagori trip badly and with a lazy morning well.

Metsovo

East, on the road over the Pindus, Metsovo is a stone mountain town of red roofs stacked down a steep slope, with a distinct Vlach culture, a cheese and wine tradition and a museum in a restored mansion.

It is a comfortable half day with a good lunch attached, and it sits on the route east if you are heading towards Meteora or Thessaloniki afterwards.

Meteora, east

Meteora is a longer day: monasteries on top of sandstone pillars on the Thessaly plain, reached by the road over the Pindus.

It is a drive each way and you arrive when the coaches do, so it works far better as the next stop than as a return trip. Meteora vs Delphi sets out how it fits a mainland itinerary.

Where this leaves you

From Ioannina: Zagori and the Vikos gorge is the day to plan around, the stone bridges are the gentlest half day, Dodona is an ancient oracle with nobody in it, and Metsovo is lunch and a mountain town on the way east. Meteora deserves to be the next stop rather than a day trip. The order for the city itself is in the Ioannina itinerary.

Quick answers

What is the best day trip from Ioannina?

Zagori and the Vikos gorge. It is stone villages with slate roofs, arched packhorse bridges and a limestone canyon cited as one of the deepest in the world relative to its width, all within an hour or so of the city.

Can you walk the Vikos gorge in a day trip?

The gorge floor is a full-day walk in itself and should not be attempted as an afternoon from Ioannina. For a day trip, take a viewpoint such as Oxya or Beloi and a village or two instead.

What is Dodona?

An ancient oracle older than Delphi, close to Ioannina, where priests read the rustling of a sacred oak. Its theatre is one of the largest in Greece and it receives a fraction of the visitors that the southern sites do.

Do you need a car for day trips from Ioannina?

Yes. Everything here is a mountain drive, and Zagori in particular is a scatter of villages across the Pindus that cannot be reached usefully by bus.