Rough Guide to Greece Still Best?
New Edition of One of Biggest and Most Detailed Greek Guidebooks Out
The first Rough Guide to Greece was out in 1982, the 12th edition in May 2008. It is one of the biggest and best travel guides to Greece, Athens and the Greek islands.
The Rough Guide to Greece is the Greek travel guidebook by which all others are judged. The first edition came out in 1982, written and published by some student friends after traveling through Greece without finding a good guidebook. Lonely Planet had started in Australia in 1973, but they began with Asia and were working their way towards Europe.
For most regular travelers in Greece, the Rough Guide was the guide to Greece. Although in the first few years it was aimed squarely at budget travelers, it was being bought by more affluent visitors too, for the depth of information it contained. Gradually smarter hotels and fancier restaurants began to be included, the Greek islands were covered in more and more detail, essays on politics, history, music, books, and wildlife were added, and so were color photos. Today the latest 12th edition is a massive 1016 pages. If you threw it at the Acropolis you could do some serious damage.
But how good is it? The answer, as it should be after all these years, is very good indeed. The list of credits at the back, including letters from loyal readers who help the authors update, shows how much work goes into keeping the Rough Guide to Greece accurate and comprehensive.
ATHENS
However, at least one thing been missed. In Athens about twelve months before the Rough Guide was published, a stunning, huge, and brand new underground wing was opened at the Byzantine and Christian Museum. The Rough Guide has overlooked it. It's no fault of the authors that the New Acropolis Museum, which "should finally be open by the time you read this", is still about six months away from completion. But pretty much every other recent change in the city seems to have been spotted and mentioned, including the new wave of Greek chic boutique hotels and gourmet restaurants.
GREEK ISLANDS
Where the Rough Guide really scores for many regular Greek travelers is in the authors' evident love of the Greek islands. Tiny islands like Tilos in the Dodecanese get 4 packed pages, including a map, and readers are steered towards those cheap and cheerful restaurants that provide some of the most memorable holiday eating experiences. Current developments are chronicled here, and on other small islands like Symi, which has undergone remarkable changes in the last few years.
OFF THE BEATEN PATH IN GREECE
Unlike some guidebooks to Greece which focus only on the main tourist spots, the Rough Guide is truly comprehensive. Frommer's Greece, for instance, only covers two of the six main Ionian islands, and readers will look in the index in vain for a mention of little Tilos. Rough Guide knows that the best of Greece is to be found well off the beaten track, in rugged places like the Pindos Mountains or at ancient sites like Mystras, which makes for a great cover to the latest Rough Guide but doesn't get a mention in Frommer's.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Rough Guide to Greece is undoubtedly still the best single guide to the whole of Greece that money can buy. And Condé Nast Traveler agrees: "the best current general guidebook for Greece."
INFORMATION
The Rough Guide to Greece costs $25.99 in the USA, $28.50 in Canada, and £15.99 in the UK. Further details on the Rough Guides website.
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