The Rough Guide to Crete 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

John Fisher (Author), Geoff Garvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2004 | Series: Rough Guide Travel Guides

The Rough Guide to Crete is the biggest, most detailed and most comprehensive guide to Crete available. Established leader in its field, now in its sixth edition. Knowledgeable yet accessible coverage of the famous sites, with historical background on the island''s Minoan past, including recent discoveries. It also illustrates Crete''s place in ancient Greek myth. The guide includes the lesser-known beaches and stretches of coastline and gives unrivalled detail on the mountains – including walking routes and unspoilt mountain villages. Sound coverage on wildlife and the environment, on Crete in literature, and on the island''s traditional music. It also includes all the practical information Rough Guides are so highly regarded for - full details of how to get there, how to get around – including local buses and boats – where to stay, and what to eat.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Fisher was one of the authors of the first ever Rough Guide - to Greece - in 1981, and has been inextricably linked with the series, and with Crete ever since. Geoff Garvey first visited Crete as a student of ancient history and developed a great affection for the island and its people. He is also the co-author of the Rough Guide to Andalucia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 6 edition (September 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843532921
• ISBN-13: 978-1843532927
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,560,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Travel > Europe > Greece > Crete

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By far the best Crete guide, November 11, 2004

By 

AcornMan (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Rough Guide to Crete 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

It's unbelievable how much detailed information is in this book. The organization of the book is very convenient and there are page references throughout the book to the topics being discussed. This makes it extremely easy to either read the book from front to back or to pick out a narrow topic and read about it. My only complaints are that I wish it had more color photos and a better map, but the information is more important than photos anyway. This book will definitely make planning your trip to Crete a lot easier. And it's much, much better than the Lonely Planet Crete guide. Lonely Planet publishes some great books, but its Crete guide is not one of them.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent guide, some things missing, June 19, 2006

By 

jancola (Encino, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Crete 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Crete is huge -- you can't even picture how huge until you see it from the air. Crete is 160 miles from end to end, and that is why it is very useful to buy a separate book to help you find your way. I chose this book because it was the first tour guide that I found that explored Crete by bus, instead of insisting that a foreign traveller go through the troublesome ordeal of renting a car. This book is very good in that area -- it offers detailed bus and ferry schedules and acceptable maps for every city.

This guide offers tremendous hotel reviews, covering most of the obvious budget hotels and showing you how to get to them. It also provides extensive historical information on some of the more interesting sites, such as Knossos and Moni Arkadi. There are some important details, however, that this book overlooks. I feel like perhaps the writers didn't take notes on the names of things as they were travelling; in Iraklion, the book gave general descriptions of tavernas they recommended, instead of just saying their name. This made it kind of hard to figure out what they were talking about.

As with some other tour guides, the maps skimped on street names, which made them very difficult to use; they also never give the Greek letters for places, making it sometimes hard to translate what you read in the book to what you see on signs. I was also disappointed in this and other tour guides, in that they didn't mention some very critical basic information, such as how to deal with tipping, or local etiquette; Greeks have very specific expectations regarding their hospitality. I would also have liked to have read that I was not allowed to flush toilet paper down the drain -- not every facility has a warning sign about this, and it would have been useful to read about it rather than discover this oddity through experience.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good even if a bit dated., July 2, 2006

By 

Sneezer Tulane - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Crete 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

This is a good, extensive guide to Crete, even if this 2004 version is now a bit dated in 2006, though the majority of the recommendations are still good -- except for the recommendation for car rental from "Motor Club" which was a disaster.