The hook
A cluster of grey-stone mountain villages in the remote northwest, linked by old packhorse trails and single-arch bridges, above a limestone gorge reckoned among the deepest in the world for its width.
01Why it's worth it
Zagori is a world away from the island Greece most people picture: forty-odd villages of slate-roofed stone houses scattered across the Pindus mountains of Epirus, historically isolated and semi-autonomous, connected by cobbled paths and graceful humpbacked stone bridges that still cross the rivers. At its heart the Vikos Gorge cuts a deep, narrow trench through the limestone, and by the measure of depth against width it is often cited as the deepest gorge on earth. You can hike its length through the canyon or look into it from viewpoints at Monodendri and Beloi, where the drop is genuinely alarming. The villages, Papingo and Vikos among them, offer stone guesthouses, hearty mountain food, and quiet. It is one of the best walking regions in Greece and still relatively little known abroad.
02How to experience it
Base in one of the stone villages like Papingo or Monodendri and walk: the Vikos gorge traverse for the committed, or the Beloi and Oxya viewpoints for the drop without the full descent. Seek out the old arched bridges, and settle in for a couple of slow mountain days rather than a quick look.