Beloi Hike in the Vikos Gorge

Wow. I'm so glad I saw this in my guidebook, Rough Guides Greece. It's so much better than Lonely Planet. They used to be the Travel Bible, and now they're just fluff.

The Vikos Gorge is in a national park in the Zagori region about an hour north of Ionnina. We got up early to beat the heat and hike the Beloi trail to this amazing, deep gorge. It rivals the Samaria Gorge in Crete and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. It was breathtaking.

We stopped at a mountain cafe afterwards for our new favorite drink. It's the Freddo Cappuccino, or iced cappuccino. We got some hiking advice from a nice Greek family, but skipped their recommended waterfall hike and drove to some small villages on the other side of the gorge. We visited Vitsa and had a great lunch under a large tree on the main square in Monodendri.

We were back in our room by 4 to rest up and relax in the AC. We like the area so much, we'll spend 3 nights in Ioannina instead of 2.

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