Visiting Athens and Greece can be more than a bit overwhelming. The experience in Athens is not just the hustle and bustle of a busy European city . There are lots of fellow tourists, things work differently than what we are used to and there is an immense number of different activities to choose from. With large crowds and too many options availabe, you will have to make choices. While the Greek islands offer more relaxed vacations, it still gets busy. Especially when large cruise ships arrive in port. We highly recommend properly planning your visit to Greece. The travel books and travel guides in this post are here to help you on your way. We have hand picked all of these books!
This is one of Europe’s most famous destinations. It is also a country that has become known for overtourism. We know how crowds can make a city busy but also know where to find the quiet places. All our research has been done using the travel books we recommend here.
- All books have been handpicked by us!
- Books with bad reviews are left out.
- This post includes affiliate marketing links on which we can earn a commission.
We are a big fan of Lonely Planet! We use Lonely Planet Travel Guides for basically every destination that we visit. This Lonely Planet Pocket Athens is a smaller edition and is purely focused on the Greek capital. The book comes with full colour maps, highlights, itineraries and what we like the most about the entire Lonely Planet series: reviews for eating, drinking, hidden gems and going out. All Lonely Planet books from the Pocket series are easy-to-use and -unsurprisingly- fit in your pocket. These books are small enough to handle with ease but big enough to contain all the essential tips and tricks for your perfect trip to Athens.
If you need a bit more than just the pocket edition, or when your visit more Greek destinations than just Athens, you can also go for the traditional Lonely Planet guide. This book comes with the colour maps, highlights and itineraries that we are used to from our favourite travel book brand. What is especially useful about Lonely Planet are the reviews for different budgets. The book covers all major destinations in Greece.
Another highly recommend travel guide is Frommer’s Athens and the Greek Islands. This travel guide brings you to some of Greece’s most beloved and most visited destinations. What we love most about Frommer’s is a strong focus on avoiding tourist traps.
No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer’s Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of maps, and exciting coverage of shopping, history, culture, and nightlife.
Rick Steves is a famous American travel author and TV personality. Steves has published strong and useful travel books for many destinations in Europe. This travel guide for Greece is most definitely not an exception. The book is written for travellers that stay a week or longer in the city. It includes Steves’ ‘strategic advice’ on how to best spend your time and money during your stay in the capital of Greece and beyond. It also has an overview of top sights and hidden gems. Each book by Rick Steves also comes with a chapter on how to beat the crowds, skip the lines and avoid tourists traps, which we absolutely recommend reading upon. Although the book is written with an American audience in mind, it doesn’t matter where you are from, you will find this book both entertaining and useful.
Fodor’s Greece is a travel guide for the entire country. The book comes with a handy pull out map with top attractions that you can’t miss. Most importantly, the book has indispensable planning tools such as major attractions, top itineraries and dining recommendations. Fodor’s local writers vet every recommendation to ensure that you not only make the most of your time, but that you also have all the most up-to-date and essential information you need to plan the perfect trip.
By reading up on history of our travel destinations we can better understand the behaviour of those living in the places that we visit. Every place that we visit has its own unique history. Greece has a long and rich history. Although the country’s history is too extensive to cover in a single book, this book does a good job in summarizing centuries of history in an easy to read accessable book.
In all our overviews of travel guides, we include a travel book that is made for children. This Greek kids travel book is easy to use for children and will be really entertaining for kids making the life of parents much easier, even on longer trips. The book will help making the trip to Greece fun, easy and entertaining for you and the kids.
Over the years, more and more people started traveling and overtourism became a growing issue. Although the coronavirus pandemic has forced us to change our travel behavior for now, we believe that we will travel again and that the return of crowds is inevitable. This book helps you to Avoid Crowds and is your guide on what (not) to do when it’s busy. The book includes a special chapter on traveling during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am planning my trip to Greece for 2021, expecting everything is going better. Do you have any digital suggestions?