Customer Reviews

Greek Islands Travel Guide

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The Eyewitness Guide was an invaluable resource in planning a combined Greek Island cruise and an extended stay on Santorini & Paros in 1999.With so many islands it is impossible to fully cover them all in a guide , let alone visit more than a fraction of them.The main islands of Rhodes,Mykynos,Santorini,Paros,Crete etc are well covered;but even the smallest also get a good mention.Overall well worth having in the backpack and looks great on the coffee-table as a momento.

I always buy an Eyewitness Travel Guide before I go anywhere and I have found the Greek Islands one to be very helpful - I'm about to use it on my second vacation there. The pictures and descriptions tell you so much more than a traditional guide book and it is a great help if you're trying to figure out where to go and want more than a text description. I get a better sense of the area and the attractions from the visuals in this book. That said, an Eyewitness Guide on its own is not enough - you should also get a "regular" guide book (for me, that's always Lonely Planet) for info on accommodations, dining out and the other practical stuff.

The photos are great, but it did not give me enough detail. I also found the book to be a bit outdated.

This book provides a good introduction to Greece and the Greek Islands. It covers lot of topics, from Greek history to common phrases and food, and touches on practically every island in the Greek archipelago, but it covers no topic in sufficient depth. It also has hundreds of beautiful photographs and illustrations. If you are planning a trip to the islands but know nothing about Greece and would like a quick introduction, this book can be useful.

But don't solely rely on this book to plan your trip. The list of hotels in this book is very small. For example, the book gives the names of only 2 hotels in Mykanos, one of the most popular Greek islands. The maps are small and very sketchy. Be prepared to buy a local map as soon as you reach a city. The book gives timings for major attractions, but be prepapred to double check them when you reach the city. For instance, the timings provided for the Athens Acropolis in the book are not up-to-date. Finally, if you are a backpacker and are worried about ounces, remember that this book is heavier than most others.

If you want a travel book about Greek Islands prefer the Fodor's Exploring of the Greek Islands. In this one, Greek history of the Alexander the Great era is completely distorted. Even though only a few sentences are used to refer to this era, the effort of the author(s) to present Macedonians as not Greeks is really obvious and at least inaccurate, since Macedonians were Greek people too. That's also why it was Greek(Hellenistic) the civilization spread througout Asia and Egypt and not Macedonian. It would be much better if they didn't mention history at all. And to be honest, I am sure that it won't be the only inaccuracy present.