Lonely Planet Crete (Crete, 2nd Ed)

by Paul Hellander, Jeanne Oliver

Release Date: February, 2002

Edition: Paperback

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An excellent upgrade to a tired guide

Lonely Planet has finally got its act together and upgraded the badly flawed and messy 1st edition of its traveller's guide to Crete. The 1st edition while 75% there just had too many inaccuracies and inconsistencies to be considered a good guide: directions were often 180 degrees out, maps were incorrect, recommendations were strangely pitched at travellers with more money than taste and that front cover ...urrgh!

All that has changed with the new edition of the Crete guide, published in February 2002. This book, after an initial review by this critic, is a stunner and a winner. With a striking Minoan fresco painting as a front cover the book looks immediately tight and controlled. The two new special sections on the 'Minoans' and 'Back to the Hills' - a guide to outdoor activities - are well written and informative. Restaurant reviews now recommend dishes and give prices and hotel listings give much more useful information like email addresses and web pages. There is a whole new selection of sidebars that range from the funny to the cerebral. Some chapter re-structuring is now in evidence and information is that much easier to follow. New destinations are in evidence including the hitherto 'undiscovered' village of Mochlos near Agios Nikolaos. I thought only I knew about that place! Hats off to Greece specialist and veteran Lonely Planet author Paul Hellander who updated this guide: the expertise shows. I for one will be looking forward to my annual vacation this year with the Lonely Planet guide to Crete as my companion. Thank you LP!

Lonely Crete

With some regret, I have to say this book is disappointing. Lonely Planet has taken a long time to find Crete, but on the evidence of this it could have been written from reviewing all the others. I bought it yesterday and got a third of the way through before reading anything useful about the island rather than Greece. On the plus side, the website references are useful, and the prices are reasonably accurate still - except for the buses (I arrived back from this year's visit three days ago). Crete is still crying out for a guide that tells you how to get about in a practical sense - not everyone is pretending to be an explorer in a land with no tourists. For example, getting to anywhere in the south west by bus from Chania/Rethymnon areas requires careful planning, but it's safer and cheaper than the extortionately priced car-hires in Crete. The benchmarks for guidebooks to Crete are still the blue and yellow German one (can't remember the publisher) and the Greek one 'Unexplored Crete', pub 1996, and now about 4500 Dr. Not a bad guide, just disappointing from Lonely Planet.