Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to the Greek Islands - 5th Edition

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

 

 

Having just completed a 2 week sailing trip in the Greek Islands in September 2005 (Cyclades) I thoroughly endorse the Rough Guide to the Greek Islands. Several of my crewmates had a variety of guide books including the Lonely Planet, DK Eyewitness, Cadogan, and an outstanding Cyclades picture guide that seems only available in Greece. All were good and useful in different ways but overall, the Rough Guide proved itself to be the guide book of choice for information on each island (7) we visited whether tiny, small, medium or large. The intelligent opinions, overviews, brief history, listings and recommendations for each place were very good and up to date. The Rough Guide was much more useful than the rather weak Lonely Planet that I'd only give 3 stars (decent maps save it from 2 stars) that was consistently left behind. Rough Guide's maps were a bit simple (always) but each gave a good general overview that actually helped to understand each islands general type and layout at a glance. Of course a decent map from the tourist information office or scooter rental shop is always more useful for more thorough exploration especially on larger islands but the Rough Guide maps were a good start nonetheless - and sometimes better than the ad infested maps available for free. My one gripe is that I wish a section on Athens was included - most people use Athens to arrive and depart from and probably spend a couple of days there at the start or end of their trip. If you plan to spend time here it may be worth getting the Rough Guide to Greece which seems to contain the entire Greek Island text. However, for my purposes, the Greek Islands edition proved an excellent guide for my trip and proved indispensible time and again in guiding us to islands worth visiting and those less deserving of our time - tourist traps politely dismissed (Nousa on Paros for example was exactly on target). Anyway, once on an island, the Rough Guide was very good at selecting good places to eat and visit (we slept on board the boat but checked out a few of the accommodation listings out of interest - good). No guide book is perfect - it's always well worth taking a few for perspective, but I'd recommend the Rough Guide as your basic guide over the Lonely Planet any day of the week. Personally I love DK guides too for the visual overview of islands and sights but as I mentioned there's an even better pictorial guide with excellent history and details of each islands places of greatest interest. It may only be available in Greece (printed in Athens) but the Englisg translation is very good and it's definitely worth picking up over there. I also liked the Cadogan very much for it's history and guidance. But if I was only allowed one guide book (never!), it'd have to the Rough Guide

My 'rough guides' were very useful on a back-packing trip to Crete and several other Greek islands. Their practical advice is quite down-to-earth and helpful for someone travelling on a budget, not an itinerary.

My husband and I traveled to Greece in July. We have used the Rough Guide on may other trips, but thought the Greek Island Rough Guide was not very accurate and lacked necessary information. Many hotels were not included and prices were much higher than we were led to believe. There was not enough information about riding the ferry system, which is a huge part of traveling the Greek Isles. There were few restaurants listed. The book is so large and heavy, yet practically useless to us.

Even though I bought this when planning a trip to greece, I did not travel to the islands as originally panned and decided to stay in the mainland for 2 weeks. So its difficult for me to review this product without first hand experience ...