Greece, Athens and the Mainland (DK Eyewitness Travel Guide) (Paperback)

by Marc S. Dubin (Editor) "OCCUPYING THE SOUTHERNMOST TIP of the Balkan peninsula, Greece divides into over 2,000 islands stretching from the Ionian Sea in the west to the Aegean..." (more)
Key Phrases: main public hots, main public hols, tourist police, Archaeological Museum, Peloponnese Road, Mount Athos (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'"A pleasurable read with ravishing photography plus maps and plans of supreme quality."' - The Observer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
This guidebook offers cut-aways of landmarks and town-by-town information on everything from food to festivals to help readers experience the real Greece. The text also features discussions of mythology, history, and flora and fauna.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd; 3rd edition (February 6, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0751348384
• ISBN-13: 978-0751348385
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,250,180 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Travel Guide for what you will NOT see in Greece..., March 14, 2003

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Greece, Athens, & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

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).

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great overview, but you'll need a more detailed guide, February 11, 2005

By	AcornMan (Manhattan, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greece, Athens, & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

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.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars love the photos but it needs more maps, September 30, 2004

By	Philip Greenspun (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Greece, Athens, & the Mainland (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Paperback)

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.