Our 3-day visit to Mt. Athos in Northern Greece turned out to be one of the most memorable travel experiences of our lives. This important center of Eastern Orthodox monasticism is breathtaking, astounding, mystifying, and transcendent. A trip to Mt. Athos is a very special experience. It is not to be missed.
What is Mt. Athos
Mt. Athos is a self-governed, autonomous region in northeast Greece on the Athos peninsula. The region contains 20 monasteries and several “Sketes” and “Cells” (i.e., compounds) that are associated with the monasteries. About 2000 monks, mostly from Greece but to a lesser extent from other eastern European countries, reside there. In fact, 17 of the monasteries are Greek Orthodox and the other 3 are Serbian, Russian, and Bulgarian. Essentially, these monks live an ascetic life, isolated from the rest of the world. Their days revolve around prayer, work and meals.
Only males are allowed to enter Mt. Athos. Even female animals (except chickens and cats) are not permitted on the peninsula. While Mt. Athos is part of the European Union, the EU granted it special permission to regulate its admission policy.
The Belief…
Eastern Orthodox religion teaches that the Holy Virgin and St. John the Evangelist were sailing to Cyprus to visit Lazarus. The ship was blown off course and forced to anchor in Mt. Athos, close to the present monastery of Iviron. The Holy Virgin was overwhelmed by the beauty of the mountain, which she blessed. She asked her son for it to be her garden. A voice was then heard saying “Let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved.” From then on, Mt. Athos was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and was out of bounds to all other women.
In 963, St. Athanasius formally founded the first monastery in Mt. Athos, the Great Lavra. It is still one of the largest and most prominent of the 20 monasteries.
Mt. Athos is also the name of the steep, densely forested mountain on the peninsula, which has extensive foot paths and is ideal for hiking. Indeed, hiking is one of the major attractions of a journey to this very special place.
Visiting Mt. Athos
A visit to Mt. Athos takes some planning. Daily visitors to Mt. Athos are restricted to 100 lay Orthodox and 10 non-lay Orthodox male pilgrims. If you work through a tour guide, as we did, he can arrange for an invitation from one of the monasteries, so your visit is not included in this quota.
Regardless, everyone must apply for special entrance from the Mt. Athos Pilgrims’ Bureau or the “diamonitrion”. Permits are obtained from the Mt. Athos office in Ouranoupoli after a brief personal interview. The permit is good for 3 days unless a monastery requests permission to extend it. Once you receive a permit, you can board the ferry to Mt. Athos, which is the only way to get there.
Eating at Mt. Athos
If you stay at the monasteries or are just passing by at the right time, you eat meals with the monks in the monastery’s refectory. The food is fresh and delicious, consisting mostly of vegetables, pasta, bread, cheese, eggs, fish, and fruit.
For drinks, on fasting days (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) only water is served. On non-fasting days, Greek wine and/or Greek retsina is available. If you happen to be on the monastery’s saint feast day, there is also a piece of sweet cake for dessert.
In order to eat at the monasteries, you must know their eating schedules. Dinner is after Vespers in the afternoon (at around 6 pm) and breakfast is after Divine Liturgy in the morning (at around 7 am). These times are not exact, so you should ask each monastery for the timetable, and if you arrive after eating times, you may ask the archontaris (guestmaster) for food.
The monks take pride in their cooking so it is highly likely that your meals will be healthy, fresh and memorable. Ours were. Considering that a huge portion of what was served to us was grown or made on the premises, the dining experience was a surprising highlight of our trip. Furthermore, eating in the monastery sometimes takes place with a monk reading aloud extracts from the Bible. Even though we didn’t understand the language, it was an interesting experience.
Attending Religious Activities
A trip to Mt. Athos is not complete without attending the Vesper service in the evening and the Matins or Orthos service (which blends into the Divine Liturgy) in the morning. Times for these services vary, but are usually at 5 pm and 4 am. For the morning service, we arrived at around 6 am. It is essential that you attend these services because they are an integral part of the Mt. Athos experience. There is nothing comparable to the time spent in such highly spiritual settings with the devout monks while immersed in so many magnificent, historic frescos, icons, art objects and relics.
After dinner, guests are usually invited to venerate the relics of the monastery. All of the monasteries have important relics and it is thrilling to attend the veneration of them. In our instance, after dinner, the monks lined up the relics (in spectacular gold and silver containers) on two tables in the chapel, as guests lined up one-by-one to pay their respects.
Take Minimal Luggage
You don’t need to take much for your visit to Mt. Athos. We packed a medium backpack containing a couple of t-shirts, a hoodie, 2 pairs of long pants, 3 pairs of underwear, and several socks. For shoes, we took a good pair of sneakers to hike in. Because it was hot, it was important to have a change of clean clothes after a shower. Be aware that no shorts or tank tops are allowed at any of the monasteries.
AthosTours
We highly recommend using the services of AthosTours to plan your trip and to guide you while you are there. It is essential to be with someone who is knowledgeable about the monasteries, knows the people and operations of the peninsula, and who can obtain access into places that generally most visitors cannot get into or don’t know about. AthosTours provides outstanding services and are indispensable.
The Best Guides
Athos Tours is operated by the Bantis brothers, Nikolaos and Athanasios. We had the pleasure and honor of the guidance of Athanasios. His deep love and appreciation of Mt. Athos was contagious. His knowledge of the place is extensive, and his connections were impressive and crucial to ensuring that our experience was comprehensive and extraordinary. We really enjoyed spending time with Athanasios. He is personable, smart, funny, intuitive, and well-organized. We did not get a chance to meet Athanasios’s brother Nikolaos but our close friends had the pleasure of his services on their tour of Mt. Athos. They noted that Nikolaos was warm, kind and an outstanding guide.
A Special Thanks to Father Nikolaos
We really enjoyed meeting our driver, Father Nikolaos, who has lived his entire adult life on Mt. Athos. He is 74 and learned to drive 30 years ago. Kind, patient, and a great driver, Father Nikolaos is unforgettable. We are so grateful to Athanasios and AthosTours for introducing us to him and for using his services.
A Note About the Geography of Mt. Athos
Being a peninsula with a huge mountain in its center, Mt. Athos has dramatic landscape. It is one of the reasons it is so beautiful.
The monasteries and Sketes are spread throughout Mt. Athos. For our visit, we divided the peninsula into an upper and a lower portion. On the first day, we visited a number of the monasteries in the upper part of Mt. Athos. On the second day, we focused on the lower half.
Lots to Cover in Mt. Athos
As you will see below, we covered a lot of ground in 3 days. We did a lot of walking, which included climbing up and down very steep terrain. (In fact, we had to walk up almost 1000 steps to visit the New Skete.) We also had a driver (Father Nikolas) who took us to many of the sites. The distances are great from one monastery to another. Fortunately, there are a decent amount of well-paved roads in the upper part of the peninsula.
The lower half of the peninsula, however, does not have any roads. You have to walk on steep and uneven pathways and steps. Donkeys are used to transport luggage and all deliveries up the hills.
Our 3-Day Tour of Mt. Athos
Our 3-day tour was planned by AthosTour. It was excellent and highly recommended.
Day 1 – Morning
Our guide, Athanasios picked us up at our hotel in Thessaloniki. We drove 2 hours to the port of Ouranoupoli. At the Mt. Athos permit office, officials interviewed us and processed our permits for entry. We then boarded the ferry to Mt. Athos. The ride was lovely as we passed several gorgeous monasteries, beaches and lush forests.
We went to 3 monasteries in the morning: Xenophontos (with its 10th century chapel), Pantokratoros (where we spent the night), and Iviron – the third most important in Mt. Athos. Each one is magnificent and contains unique and extraordinary relics, objects, religious art, icons and frescoes.
Athanasios did an exceptional job of focusing on the essential items to see at each monastery and explaining their significance. He was even able to convince the doorkeepers (i.e., the monk who holds the key to the locked chapels) to let us visit rooms that were closed. That alone made Athanasios and AthosTours invaluable.
Administration Center
We then visited the major church at the village of Karyes (the Protaton), which is the Church of the Protaton or the president of the monastic community. The administrative offices for Mt. Athos are here and we toured those too. Because Koutloumousiou Monastery was very close to the center of Karyes, we stopped there also. Built in the 14th century, this monastery has elaborate wood carvings that took 20 years to complete. The craftsmanship by artisans from the Island of Chios is spectacular.
Day 1 – Afternoon
We then went to the Simonos Petras Monastery, a magnificent 16th century structure that sits on the top of a cliff. It has breathtaking views of mountains and the ocean. There, we were treated to a healthy and delicious lunch of orzo, lettuce, olives and apples, served with a local wine. After lunch, we stopped at the Skete of Profiti Illia (Prophet Elijah), to admire the stunning gold alter in its Russian church. All the icons present here came from Odessa. This Skete is actually subordinate to the Pantokratoros Monastery.
Interacting With the Monks
We drove back to the Pantokratoros Monastery, which was our lodge for the night. Our room was clean and comfortable and contained 2 beds, 2 desks, and a private bathroom. After resting and washing up, the guests (around 10 men, including us) attended the Vesper Service, which lasted an hour. It was exceptionally spiritual and impressive. The chanting, rituals and venue were extremely memorable. The monks then treated us to a simple dinner of rice soup, freshy made rye bread, olives, marmalade, and apricots. After dinner, we walked along the grounds of the beautiful monastery as the sun slowly set.
The monks then invited us to pay homage to the monastery’s relics. In addition, at the request of our guide, one of the monks allowed us to visit a back room where olive oil was stored. He explained that the monastery has been storing olive oil there for hundreds of years. During an especially difficult period in the mid-nineteenth century when olive oil was not available, the monks prayed to the Holy Virgin, who miraculously filled their containers with oil. There is a fresco and icon in the room that pays homage to the event.
Amazing Hospitality
I can’t emphasize enough just how warmly the monks welcomed us at all of the monasteries. An important part of what makes Mt. Athos so special is the hospitality of the monks. Everywhere we went, we were greeted with smiles and gestures of generosity. For instance, at several of the monasteries that we visited, the monks invited us to sit with them to enjoy a glass of sherry, a piece of candy (usually a homemade Turkish delight) and a glass of water.
Day 2 – Morning
At 6 am, we caught the tail-end of the morning service which had started at 4 am. Many of the monks came and went so it was not a problem that we arrived late. We then took the ferry to the New Skete, which is in the lower half of the peninsula. The ferry left from the Port of Dafni, the main port of Mt. Athos, which houses offices for the Hellenic Coast Guard, Main Post Office and Customs Control. We decided not to stay for breakfast because we wanted to catch the early ferry. Instead, we had coffee and toast on the ferry. In addition to passengers, the ferry transported shipments, mules and donkeys. Our ride was beautiful passing several magnificent monasteries including the Monastery of St. Gregory.
Our Lodging at New Skete
Like many of the Sketes in Mt. Athos, New Skete is more like a compound or lodge, where 40 monks live in various “Cells” (houses with they own chapels) on the complex. It was founded in 1753, but most of it was constructed much later. The grounds are large, with an extensive garden, terraces, a main church and smaller chapels. It is on a very steep part of the peninsula so its views are spectacular. (As noted earlier, climbing 800 steps to reach the main building was challenging. The monks use donkeys for transportation.)
Upon arrival, we were taken to the St. Anargiri “Cell” (which was like a large private home) and shown to our rooms. This wing of the house was reserved for guests only. Our room was clean and simple, just fine for the amount of time we would be spending in it. We shared a bathroom and a living room with the other 6 rooms on the floor.
Our Morning Hike
We then walked to the beautiful St. Anne Skete, the largest and oldest skete in Mt. Athos. It was founded in the last decade of the 17th century to preserve the left foot of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin and brought to Mt. Athos in 1686. There are approximately 85 monks living there. The monks warmly welcomed us and invited us for coffee, water, biscuits and sweets.
We then returned to the New Skate where the monks hosted us for a delightful lunch of tortellini, fried fish, fried zucchini and salad. As with all of our meals in Mt. Athos, this one was fresh, healthy and filling.
Day 2 – Afternoon
After lunch, we toured the New Skete and then took a long hike to the spectacular Monastery of St. Paul, built into the cliffs on the side of the mountain by the sea. After visiting St. Paul and seeing its relics and its incredible 14th century chapel, we hiked back to the New Skete, where we attended the Vesper Service. The beautiful chapel, which was inside our “Cell”, was much smaller than those in the monasteries that we saw the day before. As a result, the service was more intimate. We then ate a light dinner of orzo and salad, after which we chatted with the monks.
The monks at the New Skete were exceptional – gracious, warm and welcoming. It was an honor and a privilege to be able to spend time with them and enjoy their incredible hospitality.
Day 3 – Morning
We woke up at 6:00 am, showered, dressed and went to the morning service, which ended at 7 am. Breakfast was a delicious homemade vegetable spanakopita, bread and coffee. We said our goodbyes and hiked 800 steps back down to the dock from which we boarded the ferry. The monks used their donkeys to carry our luggage down the steps. Once we got to Ouranoupoli, we jumped back into Athanasios’ car and drove two hours back to our hotel in Thessaloniki.
A Place of History, Traditions and Spirituality
Sometimes after an exceptional trip, you feel a bit changed – for the better – from the experience. Both of us felt this way after visiting Mt. Athos. It was an extraordinary experience. We were privileged to be welcomed by the monks, honored to be able to see these magnificent structures, art, relics, icons, and objects, and awed by Mt. Athos’s history, traditions, and spirituality. If you are fortunate enough to have an opportunity to go to Mt. Athos, by all means go there. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience not to be missed.
