For thirteen days between Christmas and Epiphany, the villages of Western Macedonia put on bells, goat skins and carved wooden masks and go from house to house. The Momoeria of the Kozani villages are on the UNESCO list; the Ragoutsaria fill the streets of Kastoria on 6, 7 and 8 January behind brass bands; and in March the fire pits of Kozani and the Genitsari of Naousa close the carnival. These are winter customs: they happen between October and April and not in summer.
This guide covers 1 October 2026 to 30 April 2027 across Kastoria, Kozani, Naousa, Florina and Prespes, Grevena and Nymfaio: what happens when, what is open, which roads need chains, and a phone number for every one of them.
When to go: the off-season month by month
October and November — the quiet approach. Thessaloniki runs the Dimitria festival through October, the lakes are still and full, and Kastoria's Byzantine churches and lakeside are quiet. First snow reaches the Vermio and Voras tops in November.
December — the ski centres open and the Momoeria begin on Christmas Day in the Kozani villages, running through to Epiphany. This is also when the Arcturos bears go into hibernation and their sanctuary closes; see the note below before you plan around it.
January — the month that carries the most dated events in the region. The Momoeria run to 5–6 January. The Ragoutsaria of Kastoria fall on 6, 7 and 8 January every year, fixed, with a carnival parade and brass bands through the old town. Deep snow on Vitsi, Vermio and Voras.
February — the quietest weeks and the deepest snow cover. The ski season is at its steadiest at Kaimaktsalan, 3-5 Pigadia, Vasilitsa and Seli. Wintering birds on the Prespa lakes.
March — carnival, late this year. Clean Monday 2027 falls on 15 March, so everything compresses into one week: Tsiknopempti on 4 March, then the fire pits of Kozani and the Genitsari and Boules of Naousa across the weekend of 13–14 March and into Clean Monday. Western Easter lands on 28 March, two weeks later.
April — thaw. The mountain roads clear, the Arcturos sanctuary reopens as the bears wake, and Greek Holy Week runs from Palm Sunday on 25 April through Good Friday on 30 April.
Getting there from Athens
Kastoria is 467 km and about 4 h 50 from Athens on the A1 and then the A2 Egnatia, with roughly €29 in tolls. Thessaloniki is 503 km and about 4 h 50, tolls around €37. That is a long first day, and most people treat the drive up as the trip's opening leg rather than something to squeeze around.
Once you are north, distances collapse. From Thessaloniki: Naousa about 1 h 10, Kozani about 1 h 30, Kastoria about 2 h 15. Kastoria to Florina is under an hour, Florina to the Prespes about 45 minutes, Kozani to Naousa about an hour. The whole of this article works as a loop out of one or two bases.
Snow and chains. This is the part of Greece where winter driving is a real consideration rather than a footnote. On one ordinary snow day in January 2026, the police required chains on the entire national and provincial network of Kastoria prefecture, on the A2 Egnatia and the A29 Siatista–Krystallopigi axis, on the Florina–Kastoria road over Vitsi, on the old Florina–Edessa road via Kelli, and on the Aetos–Nymfaio road — which is the access road to the Arcturos sanctuary. Under the 2022 ministerial decision, chains or an approved alternative (snow socks, or M+S winter tyres) are required from 1 October to April wherever the police have issued an order. For a rental, the supplier must provide chains only if they are requested in the contract, so ask for them when you book. Egnatia roadside assistance is 1077 from any mobile, free for broken-down vehicles, with 24/7 patrols. If you are flying in, our guide to 4×4 rental at Athens Airport covers pickup and delivery.
Towns and villages
Kastoria
Kastoria sits on a peninsula pushing into Lake Orestiada, with more than fifty surviving Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in a town of twelve thousand — the densest concentration in Greece outside Thessaloniki and Mystras. The lakeside road around the peninsula is a level 8 km walk or drive with pelicans and cormorants on the water, and the old mansions of the fur merchants stand in the Doltso and Apozari quarters. The Byzantine Museum keeps winter hours of 08:30–15:30, closed Tuesdays, €10, on +30 24670 26781.
In January the town is the centre of the whole region: the Ragoutsaria take over the streets for three days, and rooms go early.
Kozani and its villages
Kozani is a working city rather than a picturesque one, and its value here is what happens around it. Eight villages north and west of it — Agios Dimitrios, Tetralofos, Skiti, Alonakia, Protochori, Ryakio, Komnina and Asvestopetra — carry the Momoeria, a Pontic Greek custom brought by refugees from the Black Sea in the 1920s and inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016. Men in helmets and short kilts move through the villages between Christmas and Epiphany with a stylised sword dance, accompanied by a chorus of masked figures. Each village runs its own night; the Kozani municipal cultural organisation publishes the village-by-village programme each December.
In March the city itself lights its fanoi — around fifteen neighbourhood fire pits, lit simultaneously on the eve of Carnival Sunday, each with its own crowd, wine and songs that run to dawn.
Naousa
An hour from Thessaloniki on the slopes of Vermio, Naousa is a wine town — the home of Xinomavro — and the keeper of the Genitsari and Boules, a masked carnival dance listed on Greece's national inventory of intangible heritage. Masked, silver-hung dancers move through the streets in pairs over the final Sundays of carnival and Clean Monday. The 3-5 Pigadia ski centre is twenty minutes above the town.
Florina, the Prespes and Nymfaio
Florina is the northern outpost, a town of neoclassical facades along a river, an hour from Kastoria. Beyond it the Prespa lakes straddle three borders; the floating causeway out to the island of Agios Achilleios and its ruined 10th-century basilica is walkable year-round, and the lakes hold wintering waterbirds. The Prespa National Park unit at Agios Germanos answers on +30 23850 51870, and the Society for the Protection of Prespa at Laimos on +30 23850 51211.
Nymfaio at 1,350 m is a stone village in beech forest, and the home of the Arcturos bear sanctuary. Read the next paragraph before building a day around it.
Arcturos and the bears — read this before you drive up
The Arcturos Bear Protection Centre at Nymfaio is the reason many visitors drive up to Nymfaio, and for the core of this window it is closed. The bears hibernate for roughly three months: the centre shut in late December in 2024 and stated it would remain closed until March, reopening in mid-March 2025 once the bears were awake, then running daily except Wednesdays, 10:00–17:00. So the sanctuary is a realistic stop in October and early December, and again from mid or late March — not in January or February.
What stays available in the middle of winter: the Wolf and Lynx Centre at Agrapidia and the Bear Information Centre in Nymfaio village itself. Tickets were €10 adult and €6 child in August 2026. Arcturos answers on +30 23860 41500 on weekdays and +30 23860 31155 at weekends — call before you drive, and remember the Aetos–Nymfaio access road is on the standard chain-requirement list.
Driving this yourself? The Vitsi crossing, the Prespes roads and the climb to Nymfaio are where a compact 4×4 with proper winter tyres earns its keep in these months. See what we run, or send us your dates on WhatsApp at +30 6988 766 204 and we are happy to suggest spots.
Snow, lakes and outdoors
The ski centres
Four run in this region, and their daily status boards tell you what the mountains are doing even if you never put boots on.
- Voras–Kaimaktsalan, 2,050–2,480 m with the summit at 2,524 m — the highest lift-served terrain in the region. +30 23810 32000
- 3-5 Pigadia above Naousa, lifts 09:00–16:00, with a live operating-status page. Its last logged snowfall in the 2025/26 season was 19 March, which tells you how long the Vermio season runs. +30 23321 02025
- Vasilitsa, Grevena — the national ski centre on the Pindos side. +30 24623 53530
- Seli, above Veria. +30 23310 49226
The Prespa lakes in winter
Great and Lesser Prespa hold wintering waterbirds, and the causeway to Agios Achilleios is a level walk in any weather. This is high, cold, border country — the roads in are on the chain list — and the reward is a landscape with almost nobody in it. The park unit and the Society for the Protection of Prespa, numbers above, are the people who know what the lakes are doing this week.
Kastoria's lake path
The road and path around the Kastoria peninsula is flat, surfaced and about 8 km all the way round, with the churches on one side and the water on the other. It is walkable in rain and in snow.
Cultural events, festivals and customs
Everything below was checked against at least two consecutive previous years and carries a number you can ring. The January customs are on fixed dates, which makes this region unusually easy to plan a year ahead. The March dates move with Orthodox Easter — and because Clean Monday 2027 is late, on 15 March, last year's carnival dates are no guide.
| Event | Where | When | Held annually | Confirm on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimitria festival — the city's long-running autumn arts programme | Thessaloniki | 1–24 October 2026 (61st edition; dates already published) | Continuous since 1966; 60th edition 2025 | +30 2313 318220 — Culture and Tourism Directorate, Municipality of Thessaloniki |
| Momoeria (Μωμόγεροι) — the Pontic sword dance and masked chorus, village by village | Eight villages around Kozani: Agios Dimitrios, Tetralofos, Skiti, Alonakia, Protochori, Ryakio, Komnina, Asvestopetra | 25 Dec 2026 – 5/6 Jan 2027; each village has its own night | Inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List in 2016; village programme published annually | +30 24610 29843 — Kozani municipal organisation for sport, culture and youth |
| Theophany — blessing of the waters at the port | Thessaloniki, Pier A | Wed 6 Jan 2027, c. 11:00 (liturgy from 07:00) | Held at the pier three consecutive years as of January 2026 | +30 2313 318220 — Municipality of Thessaloniki |
| Ragoutsaria (Ραγκουτσάρια) — three days of masked carnival through the old town behind brass bands | Kastoria | 6, 7 and 8 January 2027 — the same dates every year | Municipal programmes published 2024, 2025 and 2026 | +30 24673 51101 — Culture and Tourism Department, Municipality of Kastoria (switchboard +30 24673 51100) |
| Genitsari and Boules (Γενίτσαροι και Μπούλες) — the masked Naousa carnival dance | Naousa, Imathia | The final Sundays of carnival and Clean Monday, c. 4–15 March 2027 | On Greece's national intangible-heritage inventory; municipal programmes 2025 and 2026 | +30 23323 50300 — Municipality of Naousa |
| Kozani carnival and the fanoi — around fifteen neighbourhood fire pits, lit together on the eve of Carnival Sunday | Kozani | c. 4–15 March 2027; Tsiknopempti 4 Mar, parade Sun 14 Mar, Clean Monday 15 Mar | Detailed programmes published 2024, 2025 and 2026 | +30 24610 29843 — Kozani municipal organisation for sport, culture and youth |
| Ohi Day parades | Thessaloniki, Kastoria, Kozani, Florina | Wed 28 Oct 2026 (fixed) | National holiday; municipal programmes every year | Kastoria +30 24673 51101 · Kozani +30 24610 29843 |
The cultural associations
These customs are run by village associations working with their municipalities, and they know this year's programme first. The numbers to keep: the Municipality of Kastoria culture department on +30 24673 51101 for the Ragoutsaria, the Kozani municipal cultural organisation on +30 24610 29843 for both the Momoeria and the fanoi, the Municipality of Naousa on +30 23323 50300 for the Genitsari, and the Municipality of Thessaloniki culture directorate on +30 2313 318220. These are civil servants and volunteers rather than a tourist office, and the phone will be answered in Greek.
Easter and Holy Week 2027
- Western Easter Sunday: 28 March 2027 (Good Friday 26 March) — the one most visitors from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium and Austria travel on. In Greece it is an ordinary week, and it falls exactly two weeks after Clean Monday.
- Orthodox Easter Sunday: 2 May 2027 — two days outside this window. Greek Holy Week is inside it: Palm Sunday 25 April, and Good Friday 30 April, the night of the Epitaphios processions.
Museums and indoor days
Read this first. Greek state museums run a winter timetable set by ministerial decision, and the decision for winter 2026/27 had not been issued when this guide was written in August 2026. The hours below are the standing winter schedule, tracking 2025/26; the new one is expected around late October. Confirm on the numbers given.
- Byzantine Museum of Kastoria — 1 Nov–31 Mar: 08:30–15:30, closed Tuesdays. €10. +30 24670 26781
- Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki — 1 Nov–31 Mar: 09:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays. €10 / €5. +30 2313 310301
- Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki — 1 Nov–31 Mar: 08:30–15:30, closed Tuesdays. €5 in winter. +30 2313 306400
- The White Tower, Thessaloniki — winter 08:30–15:30. +30 2313 306422
- The Rotunda, Thessaloniki — 08:00–20:00, €6 / €3. +30 2310 204868
- War Museum of Thessaloniki — 1 Nov–31 Mar: 09:00–17:00, free on the first Sunday of the month. +30 2310 249803
Where to base yourself
Kastoria is the base for the January half of this article: it is the town the Ragoutsaria happen in, it has the churches and the lake on its doorstep, and Florina and the Prespes are within an hour. Kozani is the practical base for the Momoeria villages and for the March fanoi — central, with services and a motorway junction. Naousa works if your trip is built around the carnival and the Vermio ski centres.
Thessaloniki is the arrival city and the wet-weather insurance: everything in this guide is inside two and a quarter hours of it, and the museums, the food and the Dimitria programme keep a full winter timetable when the mountains are shut in.
Book well ahead for 6–8 January in Kastoria, for the carnival weekend of 13–15 March in Kozani and Naousa, and for Greek Holy Week. Midweek in February you can usually decide on the day.
For everything else on the road — service points, water, waste, parking and what other travellers have actually found on the ground — park4night's map of Western Macedonia is the tool most people driving Greece already have on their phone. Treat it as traveller intel rather than official information: entries go stale, winter changes everything, and it is always on you to check that a spot is one you are allowed to use.
A six-day winter route
Built around the January customs, with driving kept moderate after the first day and dark by about 17:30 in midwinter factored in.
Day 1 — Athens to Kastoria, 467 km and about 4 h 50. A long day; arrive, walk the lakeside, eat. If the weather turns: it is a motorway day either way.
Day 2 — Kastoria. The Byzantine churches, the Doltso quarter, the peninsula circuit. If it rains: the Byzantine Museum, closed Tuesdays.
Day 3 — Florina, the Prespes and Nymfaio, about 2 h 30 of driving in total. The causeway to Agios Achilleios, then Nymfaio — checking first whether the bears are awake. If snow closes Vitsi: stay low and do Florina and the Kastoria fur quarter instead.
Day 4 — Kozani, about 1 h 30. The Momoeria villages in the evening if you are here between Christmas and Epiphany; otherwise Kozani's museums and the Aliakmon reservoir road. If it rains: Kozani town.
Day 5 — Naousa and Vermio, about an hour. The town, the Xinomavro wineries, and 3-5 Pigadia twenty minutes above. If it rains: a winery visit, booked ahead.
Day 6 — Thessaloniki, then home — about 1 h 10 to the city, then 503 km south. Or stay a night and use the museums.
In January, anchor the whole thing on Kastoria for 6–8 January and let everything else move around it. For the regions south of here, our guides to Epirus and Zagori in winter, Sterea Ellada and the Peloponnese run on the same calendar, and overlanding mainland Greece links them, and east of here Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in winter covers the masked customs of the Drama villages, Lake Kerkini and the Dadia forest.
What to know before you go
The drive up is the trip's first day. Nearly five hours to Kastoria on motorway. Plan it as a day, not as a morning.
Chains are not optional here. This is the one region in our guides where the police routinely issue chain orders across a whole prefecture. Ask for chains in the rental contract, carry them from December to March, and check before crossing Vitsi or climbing to Nymfaio or the Prespes.
Daylight. Dark by about 17:30 in midwinter, and this is the northernmost part of Greece — the afternoons go earlier than they do in the Peloponnese. The January customs run in the evening, which is a reason to be based in the town they are happening in rather than driving to them.
What the 4×4 buys you. Not the motorway or the towns. It is the village roads to the Momoeria villages on a snowy evening, the Vitsi crossing, the climb to Nymfaio and the Prespes roads — the places where a chain order and a steep approach meet. Our fleet is set up for this.
We also run a small number of guided multi-day trips in Greece. If that suits you better than driving it yourself, you can join the waitlist and we will let you know when dates open.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Ragoutsaria of Kastoria?
A three-day masked carnival held on 6, 7 and 8 January every year — the dates do not move. Groups in masks and costumes move through the old town behind brass bands, and the town fills. The Municipality of Kastoria publishes the parade programme each December: +30 24673 51101.
What are the Momoeria?
A Pontic Greek New Year custom carried by refugees from the Black Sea in the 1920s and performed in eight villages around Kozani between Christmas Day and Epiphany. Men in helmets and short kilts perform a stylised sword dance with a masked chorus. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016. Each village has its own night; the programme comes out in December.
Can you visit the Arcturos bears in winter?
Not in the middle of it. The bears hibernate for around three months, and the Bear Protection Centre at Nymfaio closes from roughly late December until mid or late March. October, early December and late March onwards are realistic. The Wolf and Lynx Centre at Agrapidia and the information centre in Nymfaio village stay available. Call +30 23860 41500 on a weekday before driving up.
Do I need a 4×4 in Western Macedonia in winter?
The motorways and towns are cleared, but this is the part of Greece where chain orders are issued across whole prefectures on ordinary snow days — including the Florina–Kastoria road over Vitsi and the access road to Nymfaio. Chains or winter tyres can be legally required between October and April, and for a rental they are supplied only if requested in the contract, so ask when you book.
Before you go
This guide was compiled in August 2026 from municipal and UNESCO sources, the operators' own pages and the Ministry of Culture's published timetables. Opening hours, event programmes and road conditions in Greece are set season by season and can change at short notice, which is why every entry above carries a phone number — a call the week before confirms a programme, and the day before confirms a road. Greece reissues the winter museum timetable each late October, and mountain roads can be restricted at any time.
If you find that something here has changed, we would like to know — info@camperjimny.com. We keep this guide updated.
Ready to go
CamperJimny rents 4×4s set up for winter travel in northern Greece. Bases at Agios Stefanos and Marathon, pickup between 10:00 and 20:00, and Athens Airport delivery if you are flying in. Ask for chains when you book an October-to-April trip.
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