Greece Athens & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) [Vinyl Bound]

Marc Dubin (Author), Robin Gauldie (Contributor), Mike Gerrard (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2007

A detailed travel guide for Greece with photos, illustrations, and maps. Publisher: DK Publishing Format: 352 pages, paperback ISBN: 9780756626365

Product Details

• Vinyl Bound: 352 pages
• Publisher: DK Travel; Revised Updated edition (January 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756626366
• ISBN-13: 978-0756626365
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Travel > Europe > Greece > Athens

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The color pictures make Eyewitness Travel Guides stand out, December 30, 2008

By 

orbops (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greece Athens & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Vinyl Bound)

This series has become the only travel guide I buy when traveling to a foreign country. What makes this guide stand out compared to the competition are the color pictures, color maps, and equivalent Greek spelling of a location, and street by street attraction descriptions. Long after the trip is over, looking at this guide is like looking back at the pictures taken during the trip. The cover is practically waterproof, and contains a fold out on the front and back so that you can bookmark 2 sections. There is a nice chapter on the history and culture of Greece, and then focuses on a geographic region of the mainland. It also contains recommended hotels, restaurants, shopping, and essential travel tips and local customs within the country. Additionally, it has a small language/phrase reference guide and country highway/road map in the back.

By using this travel guide, we've always created our own trip itinerary, and have never had the desire to those long guided bus tours that most people take.

Additional Notes: Remember this is mainly for Athens and the mainland - not for island hopping. Also, before traveling to the Greece, make sure you teach yourself to read the Greek alphabet so that you read/recognize the local signs. Even though many signs are in English - the spelling will not match English guidebooks and you'll be proud of yourself that you can actually recognize Greek characters!

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice pictures, but not enough information, August 2, 2007

By 

SuperSchtroumpf (Lyon, France) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Greece Athens & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Vinyl Bound)

I usually use Lonely Planet and Green Guide (Guide Vert) but I read a lot of negative reviews about LP, so I gave Eyewitness a try. The photos and diagrams were fantastic - they really helped me make some choices about what to see compared to LP. And I particularly appreciated the diagrams of how many of the ancient sites such as Corinth, Delphi, and Olympia used to look, because you need some help when you see these ruins. Neither LP or Green Guide had these consistently.

My main problem was that it didn't have a lot of useful information, or if it did it was hard to find. The book's organization isn't too good - for a given site or city it has information about the city in terms of tourism or practical all over the place. Green Guide has much better practical maps, which are in color and cover a larger geographic area. Eyewitness is great when you get to the site you want to see, but it is not so useful to find the sites.

Also, compared to LP and Green Guide it has a lot less historical and explanatory information. And in terms of total number of places covered, I have the impression that Eyewitness has less than others. There's a price for nice, glossy photos.

Finally, not that it's critical, but my binding broke within a day, though the book cover mostly kept the book together.

I think I will only buy Eyewitness again in special circumstances.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fan of Eyewitness Guides, March 19, 2009

By 

John Berry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greece Athens & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Vinyl Bound)

Greece Athens & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
I have bought several eyewitness books for traveling. For me when you have tour guide talking or as you are getting around on your own, the ability to get a short history of what you are looking at is very helpful. I don't care to read a long history at the scene, I usually do that before I travel. Eyewitness really helps for these trips.