A Zagori itinerary: stone bridges, a gorge

Four days lets you do the rim, the floor and the bridges without rushing any of them. This plan assumes a car and reasonable legs. Everything else is in the Zagori guide.

Before you go: which villages, and when

The villages divide loosely into central Zagori around Monodendri, western Zagori around Papingo under the Astraka towers, and eastern Zagori, which is quieter still. Most visitors base in one cluster and drive between them.

Season matters more here than on the coast. Spring and autumn are the walking seasons; summer is hot on the exposed rim and the river is at its lowest; winter brings snow to the passes and closes some of the higher routes. Check conditions rather than assuming.

Athens to Ioannina covers the approach, and Ioannina is the gateway city below.

Day 1: Monodendri and the rim

Base in central Zagori and start at the edge. Monodendri is the village most people arrive at, stone-built with a monastery, Agia Paraskevi, perched right on the lip of the gorge.

The Vikos gorge is a limestone canyon whose depth relative to its width has it cited as one of the deepest in the world. From the monastery terrace and from the Oxya viewpoint a short drive on, you see it properly for the first time, and the scale takes a moment to register.

Walk the short paths along the rim in the late afternoon. Save the descent for a day of its own.

Day 2: the stone bridges

The gentlest and most photogenic day. Around Kipoi and the villages near it stands a set of arched packhorse bridges, single, double and triple-arched, built where the old mule routes crossed the rivers.

Several sit within a short drive of each other, and a morning going between them with a swim in a river pool below one is one of the more pleasant half days in northern Greece. Kokkorou and the triple-arched Plakidas bridge are the two everyone photographs.

Spend the afternoon in the villages themselves: Dilofo and Kapesovo are among the least altered, and the pleasure is stone lanes and a square under a tree rather than any particular sight.

Day 3: the gorge floor

The main event, and a full day. The route from Monodendri down to the floor of the Vikos gorge and out to Vikos village or Papingo is the signature walk of northern Greece.

It is a long day on rough ground with a serious descent and a serious climb, and it needs an early start, water and proper footwear. Arrange transport at the far end rather than walking back.

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. That swim at the end is the reward.

Day 4: Papingo and the Astraka towers

West, under the bare limestone towers of Astraka, sit Megalo and Mikro Papingo, two of the best-known villages in the region and the base for the walk up to the mountain refuge and the Drakolimni tarn.

The full climb is a serious mountain day. If you have already done the gorge, take the villages, the rock pools at Papingo and a shorter path instead, and look up rather than climbing.

How to adapt this

Two days. The rim at Monodendri on one, the bridges and villages on the other. No gorge floor, no Astraka.

Without a car. Very difficult. Zagori is a scatter of villages across a mountain region and buses do not usefully connect them.

As a day trip from Ioannina. Take a viewpoint and two villages. That is the honest limit of a day, and it is what day trips from Ioannina covers.

In winter. Snow, stone villages, fires and almost nobody. Some passes and paths close, so check.

Where this leaves you

Four days in Zagori: the rim at Monodendri on the first, the arched bridges and the villages on the second, the gorge floor on the third, and Papingo under the Astraka towers on the fourth. Take a car, come in spring or autumn if the walking matters, and give the gorge descent a whole day rather than an afternoon.

Quick answers

How many days do you need in Zagori?

Four if you want to walk the gorge floor as well as see it from the rim. Two days covers the viewpoints, the stone bridges and a few villages, which is a good introduction and misses the best walk.

Is the Vikos gorge walk hard?

It is a long day on rough ground with a serious descent and climb, and it needs an early start, water and proper footwear. Arrange transport at the far end rather than planning to walk back. It is not a stroll and it is the best walk in northern Greece.

What are the Zagori bridges?

Arched stone packhorse bridges, single, double and triple-arched, built where the old mule routes crossed the rivers. Several stand within a short drive of each other around Kipoi, and going between them makes an easy and very photogenic morning.

Do you need a car in Zagori?

Yes. It is a region of forty-six villages scattered across mountains, and the bus service does not usefully connect them. Without a car you are limited to one village and whatever you can walk to from it.