Title: THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CRETE: Author: John Fisher & Geoff Garvey.
ISBN 1-84353-292-1 Publisher: Roughguides. 
website link: http://www.roughguides.com
Price: Around 19.22 Euros. (£10.99).
Source: Book Sellers/Publisher.

The Rough Guide to Crete : John Fisher and Geoff Garvey.    The Review.

A Rough Guide promises to be ‘a good read and easy to use’.  The series always delivers – if you buy one in the run-up to a holiday you can have a lot of fun reading ahead of time and deciding where you want to go and what you want to see. Alternatively, you can pick one up at the airport and just use it for extra information on your chosen destination.

Everything you are likely to need is included here, from how to get there, details of special interest holiday companies, information about visas, health and insurance, then once you are there – where to stay, what to see and how to get about.

The book is helpfully divided into sections. ‘Before you go’ information is at the front of the book, then the islands four prefectures are dealt with separately and in detail, and at the end is a ‘Contexts’ section which gives additional information on topics such as Cretan history, World War II, Mythology, Flora and Fauna, Books, Cretan Music, and even a few essential phrases.

Some of the detailed information is so precise, you must be sure you are referring to the current edition of the guide, or you may well find that the ‘must try’ hotel or taverna has closed or is under new ownership, or the ferry times have changed.

The small maps are helpful with the tourist areas of the various towns, although a few more street names would be helpful.

The sections dealing with the archeological sites are particularly useful, as Crete is not good at explaining her fantastic history. Interpretation material is almost entirely non-existent locally, and some of the lesser-known sites are not even fenced-off or manned by a curator. Without a guide such as this, it would be impossible to imagine what might have taken place at any particular location.

There is a slight danger that you might grow to rely completely on your Rough Guide and never stop in a town that has a less-than-enthusiastic write-up, or not try a restaurant or hotel that is not recommended. That would be a shame, as then there would be no new material for the next edition of the book – and your opinion need not be the same as the authors, in any case. There are, indeed, one or two places where I think they have been a bit over-opinionated!