The inevitable focus of a visit to Stereá Elládha is Delphi , 150km northwest of Athens. Buses cover the route from the capital several times a day, or they can be picked up at Livadhiá , the nearest rail terminus. However, if you're in no hurry and/or have your own transport, there are ample rewards in slowing your progress: take the "old road" to Thebes (Thíva), or detour from Livadhiá to the Byzantine monastery of Ósios Loukás or to Mycenaean Glas .

 

To the northeast of the Athens-Delphi road, traffic roars along National Road 1 towards Lárissa and Thessaloníki, skirting the coast for much of the way, with the long island of Évvia only a few kilometres across the gulf. Along this route there are ferries over to Évvia at Arkítsa, Áyios Konstandínos (where you can also pick up ferries or hydrofoils to the Sporades) and Glyfa .

Moving on from Delphi and Lamía, the town immediately north, two routes cross Thessaly: northwest to the Metéora, or northeast to Pílio. Another road leads southwest to the Gulf of Corinth, offering an approach to - or from - the Peloponnese , via the ferry services Andírio-Río or Áyios Nikólaos-Éyio, or the thinly populated province of Étolo-Akarnanía. A fourth, more remote route leads due west from Lamía to Karpeníssi and then across the southernmost extensions of the Píndhos mountains.