Fodor's Greece, 7th Edition

I found everything I was looking for in Fodor's Greece 2008. I have been in Athens before, but a long time ago and want to take an island cruise this time. The information was very precise, it listed all cruise lines and gave me details that I could not find on Internet. It has no pictures, and a fold-out city map, only a minor flaw in my mind. I always buy city maps locally on the day of my arrival. The guide suggests itineries and gives a descriptions of many hotels, even says which rooms have the best views. I was very pleased with the guide.

I bought this book while planning an 8-day trip to Crete. I liked that the book had suggested itineraries for 1, 3 and 7 day trips. The 30 pages on Crete were divided into eastern and western Crete - I ended up spending half my trip on each end of the island. Based on the very good descriptions of what each town and region are like and have to offer, I selected sites to visit and was not disappointed. I did end up seeing many of the places identified as Fodor's Choice, and have to agee that those were some of the best cities and sites. I also liked that in the descriptions of each area it mentioned if the place was a particularly touristy place, and was able to avoid those spots. I cannot comment on the listing of restaurants and hotels, as I did not use these. I prefer to look for inns on-line and pick my restaurants when hunger strikes. Overall, I was very happy with the book. The only caveat is that it was too thick to carry around, so I would have liked a book just about Crete and not all of Greece.

My wife and I went to Greece this Fall and used this book a lot both before and during the trip. We were in Athens, Mykonos, and Nafplion in the Peloponnese. We found this book very helpful for hotels, restaurants and some of the sites. However, we thought the book should have more maps of the town, like the Independent Traveler and the Rough Guide. We also had Frommer's and we found that there was about 50% overlap in the recommended hotels and restaurants, so having both books was definitely helpful although Fodor's was marginally better than Frommers'. It makes you wonder, though, why Fodor's didn't think Frommers' places were worth including, and vice versa. After all, there aren't that many places to stay in some of these places.

This is a great book that I would recommend to anyone who is or would like to go to Greece. This book helped me find everything from when to go to what to do when I got there. I'd like to say thanks to Fodor's. They made the planning of my trip so easy, it was fun!