Lake country, Byzantine and wild
A slow loop through the quietest corner of mainland Greece, built around three very different lakes and the mountain village between them.
- Length
- 6 days · 6 nights
- Months
- May – June, September – October
- Stops
- 4
The route on a map
1 · 1 night
Thessaloniki
Arrival night before the long drive west; a market breakfast sets the pace.
2 · 2 nights
Kastoria
A peninsula town on its own lake, with seventy-odd Byzantine churches and a five-century fur trade.
3 · 1 night
Nymfaio
A restored stone village at 1,350 metres in beech forest, with the Arcturos bear sanctuary on its edge.
4 · 2 nights
Psarades, Prespa
A fishing hamlet on the Great Prespa lakeshore, with boats out to the painted hermitages.
Day by day
Day 1
Arrival in Thessaloniki
Sleep · Thessaloniki
Land and settle in; an early night ahead of the drive west.
Day 2
West to Kastoria
Sleep · Kastoria
Two and a half hours, arriving in time to walk the lakeside and the Byzantine churches of the old town.
Day 3
The lake and the fur town
Sleep · Kastoria
A morning boat to see the waterside frescoes, an afternoon in the fur workshops and at Dispilio.
Day 4
Up to Nymfaio
Sleep · Nymfaio
An hour into the mountains; the afternoon at the Arcturos bear sanctuary and the beech forest above.
Day 5
North to Prespa
Sleep · Psarades
An afternoon boat out to the cliff-face hermitages and the submerged Byzantine basilica.
Day 6
Pelicans and departure
Departure
A morning watching the pelican colonies before the long drive back to Thessaloniki airport.