Villages of Mount Ziria

The wonderful thing about spending your holidays here is that you can admire beautiful sea and mountain landscapes in the space of a few kilometers!

From Sykia take the road to Xylokastro and from there continue upwards towards Trikala. A string of picturesque villages awaits you all the way up to the top of mount Ziria. The most famous of all is Trikala. Thanks to the impetus provided by the concept of modern-age agrotourism (an impetus mainly provided by the European Union in the form of funding for the development of rural areas), Trikala has become a showcase of modern Greek stone building. In the summer, the village provides visitors with a respite from the heat of the coast, while in the winter it offers excursionists splendid views of the snowy peaks of Mount Ziria.

Continue on the same road to reach the “winter sport centre of Ziria”. A chalet and two small ski lifts await your visit here in the winter. In the summer, leave your car and follow any of the well-signed mountain paths, to explore the mountain. Try not to miss the “cave of Hermes” a legendary cave where Hermes is fabled to have hid the golden cows he stole from his brother the god Apollo.

Further ahead is the lake of Dasios. You can drive, hike or Nordic walk (if there is enough snow even Nordic ski) to this small lake. At the entrance of Trikala you will also find a horse riding centre and a playground for children with animals, basket ball and football courts.

On entering Trikala you can turn right towards the village of Karia. There is not much to see there, but the road takes you through a magnificent forest and eventually leads you to the villages of Feneos and Goura. In Feneos you can visit the artificial lake Doxa and the monastery of Saint George of Feneos. From Goura you have splendid views of the valley of Feneos beneath. From here there is a rough mountain road back to Trikala, as well as a road that takes you all around mount Ziria to Kiato back on the coast.

Closer to home you can visit the villages of Zemenos, where the annual grape festival takes place in early September and Manna, where the annual apple festival takes place in late September.