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Rating: 
Summary: For the independent traveler?
Review: I just spent a month in Athens. I had picked this book as my primary guide, based on the advertised bent toward the "independent traveler" and an unfortunately cursory look. After a week in Athens, I bit the bullet and went into a local bookstore to pick up The Lonely Planet for Greece. Sigh.A few comments: 1) The maps are not good. The map for Athens is terrible. 2) If you want information on bars and nightlife, I guess this is your book. If you want information on what you REALLY need to do to catch a KTEL bus from Athens to Delphi, good luck. You'll need it. (Actually, good luck on getting that bus, too, but that's a different story.) 3) Way too much cutesy filler and tourist-group bashing. In summary, if by "independent traveler," you mean "twenty something and drinking my way through Europe on mummy and daddy's money" then Let's Go Greece is for you!
Rating:
Summary: For the independent traveler?
Review: I just spent a month in Athens. I had picked this book as my primary guide, based on the advertised bent toward the "independent traveler" and an unfortunately cursory look. After a week in Athens, I bit the bullet and went into a local bookstore to pick up The Lonely Planet for Greece. Sigh. A few comments: 1) The maps are not good. The map for Athens is terrible. 2) If you want information on bars and nightlife, I guess this is your book. If you want information on what you REALLY need to do to catch a KTEL bus from Athens to Delphi, good luck. You'll need it. (Actually, good luck on getting that bus, too, but that's a different story.) 3) Way too much cutesy filler and tourist-group bashing. In summary, if by "independent traveler," you mean "twenty something and drinking my way through Europe on mummy and daddy's money" then Let's Go Greece is for you!
Rating:
Summary: For the independent traveler?
Review: I just spent a month in Athens. I had picked this book as my primary guide, based on the advertised bent toward the "independent traveler" and an unfortunately cursory look. After a week in Athens, I bit the bullet and went into a local bookstore to pick up The Lonely Planet for Greece. Sigh. A few comments: 1) The maps are not good. The map for Athens is terrible. 2) If you want information on bars and nightlife, I guess this is your book. If you want information on what you REALLY need to do to catch a KTEL bus from Athens to Delphi, good luck. You'll need it. (Actually, good luck on getting that bus, too, but that's a different story.) 3) Way too much cutesy filler and tourist-group bashing. In summary, if by "independent traveler," you mean "twenty something and drinking my way through Europe on mummy and daddy's money" then Let's Go Greece is for you!
Rating: 
Summary: The Cheapskate's Grecian Delight
Review: The "Let's Go" series has been indispensible to me as a poor student and now as a frugal university lecturer. It has the best information for the budget tourist, and the new, slim volume is easy to carry--I won't have to tear out the pages and carry them around with me as I have with the fatter, thicker "Let's Go: Greece" volumes from the past. The new cover is also much more attractive than the old yellow and even older blue ones. As usual, this book offers historical explanations, tips, and practical information. It includes concrete information about ground transport (bus and ferries) and affordable places to stay and dine. The volume has useful maps and updated addresses for Internet cafes and English-language bookstores. The descriptions of cultural sights are somewhat uneven (the book gives a paragraph on Rhodes' Italianate Palace of the Masters but only four lines on the comparatively more important Archaeology Museum), but it lists the cultural highlights most visitors are looking for.
Rating:
Summary: The Cheapskate's Grecian Delight
Review: The "Let's Go" series has been indispensible to me as a poor student and now as a frugal university lecturer. It has the best information for the budget tourist, and the new, slim volume is easy to carry--I won't have to tear out the pages and carry them around with me as I have with the fatter, thicker "Let's Go: Greece" volumes from the past. The new cover is also much more attractive than the old yellow and even older blue ones. As usual, this book offers historical explanations, tips, and practical information. It includes concrete information about ground transport (bus and ferries) and affordable places to stay and dine. The volume has useful maps and updated addresses for Internet cafes and English-language bookstores. The descriptions of cultural sights are somewhat uneven (the book gives a paragraph on Rhodes' Italianate Palace of the Masters but only four lines on the comparatively more important Archaeology Museum), but it lists the cultural highlights most visitors are looking for.
Rating:
Summary: The Cheapskate's Grecian Delight
Review: The "Let's Go" series has been indispensible to me as a poor student and now as a frugal university lecturer. It has the best information for the budget tourist, and the new, slim volume is easy to carry--I won't have to tear out the pages and carry them around with me as I have with the fatter, thicker "Let's Go: Greece" volumes from the past. The new cover is also much more attractive than the old yellow and even older blue ones. As usual, this book offers historical explanations, tips, and practical information. It includes concrete information about ground transport (bus and ferries) and affordable places to stay and dine. The volume has useful maps and updated addresses for Internet cafes and English-language bookstores. The descriptions of cultural sights are somewhat uneven (the book gives a paragraph on Rhodes' Italianate Palace of the Masters but only four lines on the comparatively more important Archaeology Museum), but it lists the cultural highlights most visitors are looking for.
Rating:
Summary: The ideal travel guide to Greece for independent travelers
Review: Two weeks from today we land in Athens so I am looking through the various travel guides for Greece (including Cyprus) to see which one best suits our peculiar needs. The Let's Go Travel Guides are designed for independent travelers, which basically means young and on a budget. Now, clearly that is not going to be us, sitting on on nice little tour bus traveling around Greece, but that does mean I cannot appreciate the practicality of this volume. You are not going to find pictures in this book but you will find detailed city and regional maps along with in-depth cultural information that provides the insider's look at life in Greece. For the budget traveler there are entries at all price levels for lodging, food, and attractions, which includes bars, clubs, local festivals, and island scenes. Each section is usually covered in terms of transportation, orientation and practical information, accommodations and camping, food and nightlife, sights and beaches, hikes and the outdoors, and daytime trips you can take from each locale. The book divides the country into Athens, Peloponnese, Central Greece, and Northern Greece, Ionian Islands, Saronic Gulf Islands, the Sporades and Evia, Northeast Aegean Islands, Cyclades, Dodecanese, Crete, and Cyprus. This regional approach is very helpful for knowing what is available in the neighborhood. The idea is that when you finish this book you can make cultural connections by pondering the classic Greek tragedies at the Epidavros Theater Festival, make great deals when haggling at the Monastiraki flea market in Athens, and get off the beaten path to dine with Orthodox monks on secluded Mount Athos. There are also tips for planning a trip, getting around, and staying safe, along with alternatives to tourism such as studying abroad, working, and volunteering. The bottom line is that this "Let's Go Travel Guide 2003: Greece including Cyprus" should give young, independent, budget travelers the confidence to go abroad. For the rest of us it still has an abundance of useful, practical information; the section on Essentials is a must read even if you are flipping through this in a bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: The ideal travel guide to Greece for independent travelers
Review: Two weeks from today we land in Athens so I am looking through the various travel guides for Greece (including Cyprus) to see which one best suits our peculiar needs. The Let's Go Travel Guides are designed for independent travelers, which basically means young and on a budget. Now, clearly that is not going to be us, sitting on on nice little tour bus traveling around Greece, but that does mean I cannot appreciate the practicality of this volume. You are not going to find pictures in this book but you will find detailed city and regional maps along with in-depth cultural information that provides the insider's look at life in Greece. For the budget traveler there are entries at all price levels for lodging, food, and attractions, which includes bars, clubs, local festivals, and island scenes. Each section is usually covered in terms of transportation, orientation and practical information, accommodations and camping, food and nightlife, sights and beaches, hikes and the outdoors, and daytime trips you can take from each locale. The book divides the country into Athens, Peloponnese, Central Greece, and Northern Greece, Ionian Islands, Saronic Gulf Islands, the Sporades and Evia, Northeast Aegean Islands, Cyclades, Dodecanese, Crete, and Cyprus. This regional approach is very helpful for knowing what is available in the neighborhood. The idea is that when you finish this book you can make cultural connections by pondering the classic Greek tragedies at the Epidavros Theater Festival, make great deals when haggling at the Monastiraki flea market in Athens, and get off the beaten path to dine with Orthodox monks on secluded Mount Athos. There are also tips for planning a trip, getting around, and staying safe, along with alternatives to tourism such as studying abroad, working, and volunteering. The bottom line is that this "Let's Go Travel Guide 2003: Greece including Cyprus" should give young, independent, budget travelers the confidence to go abroad. For the rest of us it still has an abundance of useful, practical information; the section on Essentials is a must read even if you are flipping through this in a bookstore.
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