English language travel guides to the Greek Islands and mainland Greece

Norsk utgave (Norwegian edition)

This is also a guide that presents the islands with a nice combination of text and pictures. Her can be found a quantity of recent colour photos and maps. This book has a relatively modern layout and is printed on smooth quality paper. There is a listing of hotels and taverns in the back of the book. The islands are described in a satisfactory manner and the general information pages are also satisfactory. The cover has flaps to use as bookmarks. There are good colour maps included in a plastic pocket. The amount of information about each place on each island can not be expected to be extensive in a book of only 288 pages, but all the same there is a good taste of what can be expected on each island. There is also a Norwegian version of this guide.

This is also a guide that combines text and photos, even though there are relatively few photos and these are unfortunately often rather old. There is an amount of good practical and general information. Many islands and places are described, though not always so much about each place. However what I feel is impractical about this guide is that places on the mainland and the islands are discussed together and listed in alphabetical order, this is not the case in other guides, which take area for area. This means that one must know what the place is called in order to find information, instead of, for example being able look up the Cyclades and the islands there, without knowing what they are called before opening the guide.

As with most other Berlitz pocket guides, this is printed on shiny white paper. It combines text and fine photos in a good manner. The islands included are described in a satisfactory manner, though it is obvious that there can’t be room for much information in this, the smallest of my travel guides. It gives however a good description of Greek history and the general information is good. The cover has flaps and these can be used as bookmarks, I find this practical.

This is a large and good travel guide with a reasonable description of many islands. No photographs, but nice little drawings from time to time. The general information is satisfactory and it gives a short but reasonable introduction to Greek history. There are recommendations for overnight and eating places with telephone numbers included. I like this guide a lot. As opposed to most other guides, it is printed in large type, which makes for easy reading. Since it contains so much information, it is understandably large and heavy and one is reluctant to have it along on an island hopping trip. But it is a good guide to use when planning a trip.

This is a good updated edition of a good guide. A good deal of the text is revised and several more islands have been included. They have also found room for a bit more information about most places and updated information is included where this has been found necessary. The new guide has the same layout as it’s predecessor however it is still a little different and more interesting than many others.

This is a guide that first published in 1963 and comprises of information collected as far back as the 1950s. It contains about 20 black and white photographs from that time. It has been updated several times, however it rather gives an impression of what island hopping was in the 50s and 60s. Luckily the islands have not changed very much though access is easier and there are naturally quite a lot more tourists but the description of the islands is still as we can experience today. The book is printed on high quality paper, which makes it heavy, a little too heavy to have along on the trip but it is still a good book to read when planning your next trip. It should also be said that not all the islands are equally well described, several are given just a few lines. This is the guide we paid most for.

This is a travel guide that uses stylish graphical method, a modern layout and a good mixture of text, photos, maps and drawings. There are actually more than 750 colour photos in the book. The book is printed on smooth, quality paper. Yes, this is without doubt the best guidebook with photographs that we have ever seen, and it does say on the cover, "The guides that show you what others only tell you". I addition the descriptions are comprehensive and good. The guide includes a listing of all the hotels and taverns it recommends, in the back pages. The general information pages are also good. This guide too is available in Norwegian.

This guide distinguishes itself with relatively few, but good maps with a great deal of information. Though there could have been a little more contrast so they were easier to read. The places that are described in the book are each numbered and can be found again on the map of the of the area in discussion, this is a practical and straightforward method of doing it. There is used a relatively large amount of space to describe details of eating places and hotels on each island or locality. After reading a little in this guide, it would seem that it offers exciting alternatives that are not among the most expensive places either. Though it is a rather large and expensive guide, it mentions rather few islands and localities, but gives rather good information about the ones it does.

This is a guide in which at least 50% of the pages are devoted to information about hotels and eating places, in addition it gives a lot of practical information about communication, banks, opening times, and prices for other attractions. The rest of the guide tells about the things one can experience at these places. There are few maps and these are rather simple. The selection of islands is fairly good, but a far cry from the larger guides devoted to the islands.

This is happily not just a copy of the pages about the Greek Islands, taken from the main guide about Greece ("Greece from $50 a Day"). The islands it covers are described in different words and more detail. It is such a big and specialised guide but it covers fewer islands than the main guide about all of Greece. The guide devotes a fair bit of space for inclusions about hotels, eating places and other practical information. In this also there are only a few maps and these are rather simple.

A little travel guide in a plastic cover and a satisfactory map in pocket in the cover (scale 1:1,600,000). In such a little book that touches on so many islands, there can only be limited information on each, however there are many good photos in the book. It doesn’t do much more than stir up the desire to take holidays in Greece, but that’s important in itself.

This is a guide for those who like lots of photos, more than half the guide comprises of photos. Many fine big photos which cover two pages, often illustrating a theme and the atmosphere rather than how a place looks. The book is divided into two sections, one half giving practical information and the other half describing all of Greece, including the islands. When we write that the book describes at least 33 islands, this is a half truth, because the coverage of an island can range from one line to several pages. The maps are rather simple. This guide is big and heavy and it is printed on quality paper. The same guide is put out by several publishers and therefore it can have several ISBN numbers.

A total of 135 from all of Greece

The main change in this revised edition is that the print is larger than before. The problem then, was how to include all the previous information without increasing the total number of pages. The solution has been to take out information that is not considered so important now, also most of the maps were reduced in size. Mostly they have cut out the small exciting things that can be experienced when one leaves the beaten track. Luckily a few new islands have been included and some new information on others is taken in. The guide is extended with 50 pages, but generally a good amount of information from the previous edition is removed. Naturally ferry information, prices and such are updated as far as possible. The guide is printed on even whiter paper and with larger type so it is much easier to read and fortunately contains a remarkable amount of good information about the whole of Greece. It will therefore continue to be one of our most well used guides.

About 105

This is a completely new guide from Lonely Planet. It covers the islands but includes a little about Athens, plus some general information. In fact it is exactly the same information as in the book above, yes even the layout is the same. The book is 1 cm thinner and being lighter is easier to have along on strolling trip. It is expensive though compared with the main book that costs jut £1 more. But the information is comprehensive and good. An exciting new publication from Lonely Planet, especially suited to those who do not need information about all of Greece.

This is one of the thinner guides, about 5 mm thick, although giving fairly good information. It is printed on fine white paper and includes many nice coloured pictures. Naturally the information on the islands is somewhat limited. When I say it covers 37 islands, well many of the islands (21 of them) are only described in 10 to 20 lines a column wide, and each page has two columns, in other words, they hardly get a mention. 16 other islands get fairly good coverage. The practical information is reasonable. The cover has flaps to use as bookmarks, that’s practical too.

To say it straight out, we don’t have too much good to say about this guide. It is physically large guide of more than 400 pages, which should cover the islands, but has only managed to cover 16 of them. Normally the guides use small type and close spacing to get in as much information as possible, but this one is actually the opposite, big type wide spacing, almost bigger than in a novel. Much column space is also used to describe eating and overnight places. There are only 4 maps that are generally area maps with just an outline and the name of each island. Of all the guides we have about the Greek islands, this is the most disappointing of all.

This is a fairly good revision in comparison to the previous edition. The maps are just about the same but have now new and better symbols. Looking quickly through the book, it appears to be very similar to the previous one, similar it is, but when one examines it closer it can be seen that every page has been revised and there is more information and updated descriptions of many of the locations. This has increased the total number of pages by 60 and this is noticeable.

This is actually a very similar edition as that from 1998. The same number of islands and maps. 90% 0f all the information about the places is exactly the same the last 10% is just changed a little, and just a little updated. The 48 new pages are general information, as well as a bit of new information. In addition there are several more overnight and eating places described and there is a more extensive coverage of communication routs from island to island. Otherwise the new edition is printed on whiter paper than the last, this gives the maps better contrast and together with the use of symbols, they are easier to read and understand. This is also, as in previous years, exactly the same information as in the main book about Greece, the 2000 edition of course. Credit shall be given for the fact that they have reviewed every page and updated and written new text wherever necessary.

512 including 8 colour pages

This is a guide that is limited to a particular area, and which I thought would have gone into extra detail about. It does this, but not to the extent that I would have expected. Here they use 500 pages on what they use about half the number in the edition on the Greek islands. One definitely doesn’t get twice the amount of information, because in this edition they use wide margins and line spacing in addition to more headings over the columns. This gives more than 100 extra pages, but with that said, there is more interesting and detailed information, and more maps of the islands in this area. In addition it has place names written in big and small Greek letters, this can prove useful as one searches for a place. The general information pages are good. If one is only going to holiday in this area, the guide can absolutely be recommended.

672 plus 48 colour pages

Actually, still most of the text and information is the same as in the last years editions but this is a very good guidebook about the Greek islands, maybe the best one. I buy this guide every year and have this whit me when I travel around from one island to another one. Here you can find a lot of information's about whatever which Greek island you want to visit. And this year editions even tell a little about the Olympic games