Customer Reviews

Greece, Athens, & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am taking along the Eyewitness Travel Guide for "Greece: Athens & The Mainland" on our trip to Greece today because it shows us everything we are not going to see (Hang on, this will make sense). These DK volumes pride themselves on being "The guides that show you what others only tell you," being filled with over 1,000 photographs, illustrations, and maps. There are cutaways and floor plans of all the major sites that we are seeing, just as the Parthenon and the monastery of Varlaam. But in a week in Greece there is only so much you can see and if we not have time to visit everything in Athens and are only visiting two of the monasteries of Meteora, then this DK Eyewitness Travel Guide will show us something of what we are missing. There are sections on Ancient Greece and then Area by Area sections on Athens and Mainland Greece, along with a section on Travellers' Needs and a Surival Guide. So all the basic are covered along with the profuse illustrations.

Of course there are also sections on where to eat, where to stay, and how to get around. I especially liked the pages devoted to various types of local cuisine, which shows you what you would find on the classic Greek menu as well as the different type of dishes you should try in Central Greece versus the Peloponese. You can use this guide to scope out what you will find when you visit places like Mycenae, Olympia, and Delphi, but you might want to use it more as a reminder of what you have seen than spoiling some of the ancient treasures in store for you at these sites. For example, "discovering" the golden mask of Agamemnon or the statue of Hermes by Praxiteles might work better as a complete surprise. Then again, you would hate to miss some of these things. Of course, we compromise: I know what there is to see and my wife gets to be surprised. It works for us.

P.S. Back from Greece and everybody wanted to borrow our guidebook. Several are going to pick it up when they get back home because it serves as a nice reminder of what we saw (and what we did not see).

The colorful photos and diagrams found in the DK travel books are a big plus for some and a major detraction for others. Personally I think this is a great book to use while making preliminary travel plans because it's very difficult to decide where to go if you can't see pictures of it first. Then once you narrow down your choices you'll want a more comprehensive travel guide, such as the Lonely Planet guides, which contain better maps, travel information, hotels, etc, but which have very few photos. I'm holding off on giving this book 5 stars because it lacks that kind of detail. However, I still pull it off my shelf frequently when I want to look up someplace on the Greek mainland I have not visited before.

I was sent this book before setting off for Greece (where I spent 3 weeks in Athens and the Peloponnese). I read through it, and it did give me a fairly good understanding of what it was going to be like when I got there. Fortunately, I was not solely dependent on the book for seeing interesting things, as I had several friends to travel with (2 of whom were Greek).

One of the interesting things that I noticed about Greece (being such an ancient country) was that there are various ruins around much of the country, and quite a few in Athens. Many of the locals don't know what specific ruins are, especially when you get far afield from their hometowns. From that perspective, this book does provide a good source of information on what many of the ruins actually are/were.

Also, it has a really good section on how to get around the various sections in Athens, and what items of interest are in each area. I would take note of things that you especially want to see, because you will find that there are statues, objects, ruins and artifacts all over the place, and unless you have some idea of what you are interested in, you can spend days just walking around looking at various objects of very little interest or importance.

As with any foreign country or culture (or even other cities in your own country) you will never get to the really good hole in the wall restaurants and see some of the cooler sites (such as exclusive nightclubs on the coast in Athens) without the help and guidance of a local companion, so don't think for a moment that this book is a replacement for someone who REALLY knows what they are doing.

On a 10-day driving trip around mainland Greece this guide proved a disappointment. There aren't enough city maps so you need to buy a Lonely Planet guide as well. I love the DK guides to London and Paris where the neighborhoods and sights are so intricate that the DK diagrams and walking tours are immensely helpful. The restaurant recommendations turned out to be rather poor from the DK guide. Frommer's and Lonely Planet were a lot more reliable.

If you want a guide that will help you sort out what's worth seeing, try the Michelin Neos instead.

This is another portable, soft cover, coffee-table book with the same high standards as the one on the the Greek islands! It is beautifully crafted, with exquisite pictures, maps and diagrams of ancient buildings and modern towns. The book takes you on a cultural journey through Greece and its history. If you haven't visited Greece, it's a motivator. If you have, it brings back wonderful memories. This book is a broad sweep, you will need supplemental information, but it is unique in providing a visual overview of a beautiful and enchanting land! It is particularly nice that with the exception of the cultural history part, this book is basically not redundant with the Island book, covering the mainland as the title indicates.

Reviewed by David Lundberg, author of Olympic Wandering: Time Travel Through Greece

Here Eyewitness hit its stride. We traveled throughout Peloponesia extensively, and in each city we visited, the book was right on about what we could expect to see and learn about. My regret is only that the Athens city detailed maps were rather awkward to deal with -- particularly when one does not exactly know how to pronounce the names of streets, etc. As always, the practical information was current.

I purchase this book in preparation for my 2 weeks trip in Greece and unlike most tourists who head to the islands I travelled extensively in the Pelpolonese region as far south as Mani and also went north to Meteora. I found it to be very comprehensive with a lot of pictures that helped you plan. It also was a good reference when I actually got to Greece.

Also this was not the only guide book that I used in Greece, I also purchased the Loney Planet book and the other maps for me to drive extensively in Greece.

I would say that this was the most pictorial book to relate to places and points of interest.

We just returned home from our trip to Athens, and I was very pleased with this book. The set up of the book was easy to follow and the information was very current and generally comprehensive. You do seem to sacrifice some detail for more pictures. That being said, the book is very easy to read and I enjoyed the images. This is not the book to get if you want a read long history of every site, but there is good general information. The maps within the book, and the city map included in the back were a huge help. We were able to navigate the city with ease.

Beautiful pictures and good maps, but very light on information about how to get from place to place. Places to eat and stay are high end choices-little or nothing for the budget traveler.

Through its photos, this book presents a great visual image of Greece, which is overwhelmed by its distinct lack of navigable directions. Information on how to travel around Greece (by bus, metro, rail, or ferry) is also limited. Possibly because the Greek transportation systems do not follow regimented schedules and in some cases vary their destinations.