Hotel Review: Tsikeli in Kastraki, Greece

Arriving to the small city of Kalambaka by bus, we stepped down and paused at the sight of the towering stones. “We have to walk up those?” As intimidating as it looked, we carried on , dragging our backpacks toward the even tinier city of Kastraki, about 1.5 km down the road.

The views are simply spectacular. Wherever you are, the rocks are part of the background. Kastraki is mostly made up of tourist accommodation due to Meteora, and there are signs for accommodation everywhere.

But as we learned, you shouldn’t rely on Google maps to get you anywhere in villages.  Asking locals is much more effective. Stopping to ask directions… twice… we managed to find Hotel Tsikeli.

The rocks are definitely everywhere to see!

Tsikeli is a small, charming, family-run hotel (Tsikeli being their name) conveniently seated at the start of the journey up the road to the monasteries. Our room was small, clean and had a beautiful balcony view. Dumping our packs and ruining the cleanliness, we headed downstairs to find out more about the monasteries.

The owners were very helpful, pointing us in the right direction (“just follow the road all the way, and you can’t miss them”) and making sure we took note of the posted schedule, so we could track which were open and which were not.

View from the balcony of Hotel Tsikeli

Looking from a distance the monasteries seem impossibly far. In reality, it took us less than half an hour to reach the first, St Nicholas. In all, we visited 3 of the 4 open monasteries, being too exhausted to reach the last (there are a total of 6, but on any given day one or two are closed). Each one charges a 3€ entry and boast beautiful paintings inside and even more gorgeous views outside.

However, females be aware; you aren’t allowed in wearing jeans, pants or shorts. Come prepared or rent a skirt to wrap around your jeans at the monastery ticket booth. It’s also a good idea to wear leggings under your skirt, assuming you aren’t renting, as it’s very windy that high up and I’m guessing it’s frowned on to see a woman’s underwear in a monastery.

“No entry to men wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts or to women wearing trousers, shorts and short sleeve shirts.”

By the time we made it down the rocks and road, back to our room, 4.5 hours had passed. Not bad considering the distance and the pausing for endless photos both inside and out of the monasteries. We had a nice cup of coffee in the hotel dining room next to the cheerful fireplace before collapsing in a heap in our beds until dinnertime.

That being said, props to the tour group buses and people who rented cars for the journey – my legs are still jealous. Tsikeli had plenty of parking, so we could conceivably have rented, but this way we earned our dinner of baklava (and saganaki and moussaka and souvlaki and oh my god, Greek food).

Having our fill, we returned to the Hotel for a desperately needed shower. This proved to be more of a water park experience as the bathroom had no shower curtain and the nozzle is hand-held: good times! We promptly went to bed, legs aching, so we could get up early to check out and make our way to the bus, and regretfully, to the next city. Tsikeli proved to be clean, friendly and convenient – a cozy space to enjoy on any trip to Meteora, Greece.

HOTEL TSIKELI

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Katie has been living and teaching in Madrid, Spain for three years and traveling all the while- in fact, she just hit country number 30! She will soon start her Master’s in Spanish in the USA.  If you took away her
e-reader she might not survive. Also, she’s highly responsible, punctual, and not paying me to write this.
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Disclaimer: Tsikeli is also dog-friendly. During our stay, there was a little white dog across the hall. None of its noise reached our room and I may not have noticed it at all if not for the balcony. If you are allergic, take note.