The Agios Nikolaos Zaros monastery is located in the south of the Heraklion district. It can be reached via the route Agia Varvara - Gergeri - Zaros - exit to the monastery. The monastery is located about 3 kilometers north of the village of Zaros at the beginning of a gorge with the same name (the Agios Nikolaos gorge). The road to the monastery has now been completely paved. The monastery of Agios Nikolaos can also be reached via a walking route that starts at the lake of Zaros. Also if you walk back from the lake of Zaros over the unpaved road to the starting point, you will see the monastery in the distance.
Originally the monastery was a kind of a branch of the nearby Varsamonero monastery and it was eventually abandoned. Now the largest part of the Agios Nikolaos monastery is a modern affair. It is very large and the paint was still not dry when we visited in 2017. There were also parts that had not yet been built yet, so the monastery will eventually even be bigger. The monastery of Agios Nikolaos has a large and a number of smaller blue domes and it is decorated with beautiful mosaics. The bell tower is separate and has a number of clocks and a light blue dome that stands on pillars.
Behind the monastery and initially out of sight is the older part of the monastery with a row of cells for the monks and the original Byzantine Agios Nikolaos church, which dates back to the 14th century. The church stands on a courtyard, consists of two small houses and has a bell tower with three bells. Frescoes have been preserved inside the church. According to tradition it was built on the spot where there used to be a temple for Poseidon. To the east of Agios Nikolaos Monastery 500 meters away is the small Byzantine cave church of Agios Eftimios with more frescoes and an inscription from 1438.