Greek Island Hopping sets the standard for guidebooks to the Greek islands thanks to its unique mix of island and ferry information, coupled with the most comprehensive collection of port town and sightseeing maps yet published in a single volume.

Much of its content just simply isn't available anywhere else:

 
Greek Island Hopping is the ONLY guide with full ferry information and town maps for all 60 major islands.
Unique Island Ratings and diagrammatic Example Itineraries to help new island hoppers get started.
Greek Island Hopping is the ONLY guide that shows you the location of over 1800 places to stay (and 190 windmills).
Unique colour 3D-view sightseeing maps.
Greek Island Hopping is the ONLY guide that describes all known ferries, hydrofoils and tour boats, with over 230 route maps.
Unique typical summer timetables for all ports.
Greek Island Hopping is the ONLY guidebook you can buy that is designed from the cover (complete with place-saving flaps) in by an island hopper for island hoppers. Its layout scheme and content is geared to the subject - not to the sometimes inappropriate dictates of a guidebook series formula.
Unique bus and beach-boat route maps for all the islands.
Greek Island Hopping is also one of the very few guidebooks to the Greek islands that is updated annually.
 
  Island and Mainland Port Coverage

 

 

 

The authoritative text in Greek Island Hopping covers all the Greek islands as well as Athens and all mainland ports (as most island hoppers start out of Athens the book has a whole chapter devoted to the captial). It is supported with over 100 photos, colour sightseeing maps and a positively indecent number of town plans and island bus maps. Major sightseeing destinations are described in detail, and a fair amount of space is also given over to accommodation (as most island hoppers don't travel with pre-booked bed space).

One word of warning: Greek Island Hopping presupposes that its readers are actually going to be island hopping!

The text supplies all the necessary information that you are likely to need on any island for a three to five day visit. However, there is no such thing as a perfect book - at least until the 3,000-page internet successor to this guide appears! (see About this site). If you are planning to stay longer than a few days on an island, or want masses of background information on subjects such as the history of the Byzantine church between the 14th of March and the 9th of April 540 AD (in this case the answer is 'nothing much happened'), then you might want to consider taking a supplementary volume.

 

The port and town street maps are a very important part of Greek Island Hopping. In fact, this book offers you your ONLY chance to obtain street maps for the most of the smaller islands.

When you arrive at a island ferry quay in the small hours and start negotiating with a room owner or looking for a hotel, the value of a street map is not to be underestimated! Most guidebooks have as few maps as they can get away with (it is far cheaper getting an author to knock off a page of text than it is to commission a detailed map). Greek Island Hopping turns this normal state of affairs on its head by offering a massive total of 480 maps and route diagrams on its 688 pages.

 

This high ratio of maps to text reflects the author's belief that it is better to show the reader how to get around rather than leave them to wade through paragraphs of text - full of names of places that most people won't have heard of. Greek Island Hopping is intended to be a guidebook rather than a technical manual. Indeed, the tone of the book is - both via the text and graphics - fairly lighthearted throughout: we try to remember that the reader is on holiday and therefore unlikely to want to be saddled with a boring, heavy-going companion.

 

  Ferry Coverage

 

Greece is a country where ferry timetables and route information is very hard to find on the ground. This fact is built into the design of Greek Island Hopping.

The ferry, catamaran, hydrofoil and beach boat coverage in Greek Island Hopping easily surpasses that of any other guidebook. Much of the appeal of our guidebook is to be found in its ability to help you understand what is going on (for there is a strong underlying pattern), thus enabling you to plan your island hopping successfully. Candid boat write-ups and typical timetables are backed up with itinerary maps for each ferry, ferry frequency route maps for the major islands and ports, ticket price tables and plenty of background information.

 

  Specifications

 

  • Book size: 185x129 mm (spine stitched for extra strength).
  • 720 pages (48 in colour).
  • All known Greek island ferry services covered.
  • Extensive introduction with advice on all practical details.
  • Air and rail links to and within Greece mapped and described.
  • 100 photos.
  • Colour sightseeing maps.
  • Typical port timetables in alphabetical order at the back of the guide.
  • Detailed descriptions and recommendations for every ferry and island.
  • International ferries from Greece to Italy, Turkey, Cyprus and Israel covered.
  • Maps of every island chain and individual island.
  • Street maps for the major towns/port for the top 60 islands.

 

© 2005 Frewin Poffley / Thingumajigolo Productions