Product Description

From the Top 10 ancient sites and statues to the Top 10 restaurants, festivals and seaside excursions - this book provides the insider knowledge every visitor needs, including information for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23924 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Much more than a gimmick
(I wanted to make it 4 stars, but goofed and now can't seem to change it.)

This sounds like a gimmick, but is a surprisingly useful guide, especially given its compact size and low price. The concept of the top 10 list is used to organize information on the most important or interesting things to see. For each item on the top 10 there is a brief paragraph and a marker on a tiny map.

The book is useful for two reasons. First the little paragraphs are well written, giving you key information in a small space. Secondly, they use the top-10 concept in creative ways, so you get the top 10 for Athens of which the Acropolis is number one. But then they give you a top-10 for the Acropolis that allows them to drill down to fairly specific items. Nor are the lists just limited to sites. You get 10 Philosophers and Writers, ten Athenian Legends and ten Greek Inventions among other lists.

The guide also covers items in various Athens' neighborhoods, and the area around Athens. The last section of the book covers a number of travel practicalities.

This guide works well in combination with a much more detailed guide or a series of guides. Use this book to orient you and to stimulate your interest in some specific site, then drill into the details either online or with a specialty guide.

Nice Portable Guide
The guide can be carried around easy, however the map is kind of small. Our Hotel provided us with a better map then the one in the guide.
One problem was that the opening hours for the musea were incorrect. Archaelogical museum was listed as being open in May till 7:00pm. When we arrived at about 1:30pm we found out that they closed at 3:00pm. They still had 'winter' hours. Opening hours for musea in Athens are kind of random anyway, check before you go.

Awesome!! Worth every penny.
I am going to Greece later this year, and I bought this to start getting an idea of what to go see and what to expect. This book is great!! It is a great place to start, especially if you don't have alot of time on the trip and want to hit the "big stuff." I thoroughly enjoyed the overviews on all the different places. It gives you the hours, the prices, best times of day to go to places, best restaurants, etc. It even tells you what to avoid. I bought it with a few other books, which go into more detail, but this is the book you carry around with you as you walk around Athens as a reference material. It also has a laminated map of Athens in a pouch in the back of the book. This is a great resource, and it has got me totally stoked about my trip coming up!