Greece Guide Books

We used his Athens guide from the website (under Best Destinations/Greece/Athens), but I don't believe he ever published a guidebook to Greece. However, I did read at the top of his Athens page that his "Athens and the Peloponnesian Peninsula" guidebook is "scheduled to be published in early 2009".

Susan,

You might have a look at the Lonely Planet Guidebooks, as I believe they have a Greece edition.

Cheers!

A promise of a Greece guidebook has appeared and then dissappeared several times. with a date now of May 2009 for the Athens and Peloponnese book (Sorry, would not include the islands). This is roughly the area covered in the Rick Steves Greece Tour, so I guess it would not be a chore to keep updated, which is usually the reason given when asked about books covering new areas. As for other guidebooks, consider three: Lonely Planet covers nearly every corner of Greece in a business like manner, Frommers is good, covers the major areas plus focuses on the top sights and a mid-range budget. It gives preferences besides just listing food, sights, and lodging. My favorite for Greece is Let's Go. They give a good range of lodging and restaurants from cheap to pricey, plus preferences and things not to miss. Good transportation info, plus where supermarkets, laundry, post office, etc. is in each town.

Hi Susan,

RS is a tease when it comes to Greece. I've written them about it. The answer I received was basically that they were too busy to do the guide. I know that Rick relies on selected local 'helpers' to assist him with the writing and the updates so perhaps he has just never found the person he wants for Greece. He does produce excellent guides so his point of view must be respected.

In any case, it is a shame the there is no RS guide to Greece. I think that Greece is a destination that many RS travelers would like very much.

Another guide to consider is the Michelin Green Guide, available (along with the others mentioned) at Amazon.

I believe the best guide book for the Greek islands is

Greek Island Hopping 2008: "The Island Hopper's Bible"

Hello Susan. I travelled in Greece, in the year 2005. I think a travel guide book on Greece written by Rick Steves is not needed. I think the very best travel guide book on Greece is "GREECE" written by Dana Facaros and Linda Theodorou. Both of them are Greek people who resided in the U.S.A. and in Greece. That book was published by Cadogan Guides. Copyright 2003. (There might be a newer edition of it). Distributed in the U.S.A. by The Globe Pequot Press at Guilford, Connecticut. 844 pages, plus an index. An other book, very similar to it, is "THE ROUGH GUIDE TO GREECE". I think the Lonely Planet book "Greece" (6th Edition) is adequate for being the only book to read for planning a trip to Greece. I especially like that book's chapter on the Cyclades islands, it was written by Des Hannigan (in the 6th Edition). If you want to go to the Cyclades islands (at the Agean Sea) I recommend read that book and the Greek Island Hopping book from Thomas Cook. The book "Frommer's Greece" has descriptions of many places, but I do not agree with the Frommer's book's writers' opinions of what are the best places in Greece. If you read that book, I suggest : totally ignore the "Best of" section at the front of the book. In the Lonely Planet book on Greece: on the maps of Athens, some of the street names were not spelled correctly. In the Frommers books the maps are very inferior.

Kalimera!

We are traveling to Greece in April/May and have been using Lonely Planet, DK Eyewitness Top Ten Athens, and Matt Barrett's website.

Along with other websites ...

We have found these books and Matt Barrett to give us an extensive amount of information for our entire trip!

We had also seen the "tease" about a Rick Steves guidebook, but have yet to see actually materialize!

Have a wonderful journey!

I like the books from the DK collection. They are very colorful and have a lot of details.
They are not like RS's books where you can read information for the beginner traveler. They mostly emphasize on the major sites.
Also you can try Fodor's or Frommer's. Those books have other type of information besides isghtseeings, like visa, money, phone numbers etc.

Matt Barrett's site http://www.greecetravel.com/ was my primary source of info and it was excellent. I also had a Lonely Planet which didn't come in handy nearly as much (mostly because it doesn't have many opinions and writes about every single place as if it's worth visiting, which isn't too helpful).

I think guidebooks are useful for different purposes & appeal to different age and income groups as well:

INITIAL OVERVIEW- I agree that the 2 DK Eyewitness Guides (for Mainland & Isles) are excellent for the big picture, very visual, not just photos but terrific graphics. Borrow from library because older editions OK, you get these for the sights, not for newest lodging tips.

ITINERARY - Lee's right; T. Cook's GREEK ISLAND HOPPING is invaluable in showing what's do-able (which isles link up via ferry, which don't). Emphasis on hi-season & youth, good tips on budget lodging & food & nightlife. Clear maps of towns/islands to Xerox.

DETAIL & CANDOR - My current fave is ROUGH GUIDE; really in-depth, good on maps & sites, good budget lodging/food info. LONELY PLANET once was good, now adds color pix, deletes much info, has awful maps. Sad to see it decline. The 1 feature of LP that's superior; bus/ferry schedules for destinations.

ADVANCED - the 2 Cadogan guides (one on Mainland & Peloponnese came out in 2008) are NOT for maps & pix but for deep-down appreciation of sites & culture & history; they are great reading just for pleasure!

OTHER - Frommer & Fodor are add-ons in my opinion; borrow from library & photcopy relevant pages; aimed more at older, more affluent traveler.

WEB - Matt Barrett's site is a good start, but be aware that much has not been updated for some years. Try it, then "I Go Greece" site... then try Trip Advisor Forum with Queries AFTER you've studied guides and made some choices.

Forgot to comment on LET'S GO GREECE -- a good add-on in the youth-oriented category like GREEK ISLAND HOPPING, even more so (it started as a college-travel manual). Succinct, good budget tips, almost no illustrations, brief on most sites, good on cheap transport, local tips like where is laundromat, bookstore etc.

FINAL note about ROUGH GUIDE - They realize people don't want to lug around a huge book if they're only planning on 3 Greek destinations. They have laid out their paperback very sensibly to be taken apart (!). The pagination has the start of a section on the RH page, and it ends on a LH page, so U can carefully pull it out as a complete unit ... My friends favor "silver binding" (duct tape) on the spine of the resulting 'booklet'. Voila!