Lonely Planet Crete

by Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Trent Holden, Kate Morgan

Lonely The world's leading travel guide publisher

Lonely Planet's Crete is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Stroll along Hania's Venetian Harbour, laze in Elafonisi's clear turquoise waters, and hike dazzling Samaria Gorge - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Crete and begin your journey now!

Inside Lonely Planet's Crete:

NEW pull-out, passport-size 'Just Landed' card with wi-fi, ATM and transport info - all you need for a smooth journey from airport to hotel Improved planning tools for family travellers - where to go, how to save money, plus fun stuff just for kids NEW Accommodation feature gathers all the information you need to plan your accommodation Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, people, music, landscapes, wildlife, cuisine, politics Covers Hania, Iraklio, Rethymno, Lasithi, Knossos, Vai, Elounda, Agios Nikolaos, Agia Marina, Hersonisos, Platanias, Vamos, Almyrida, Ierapetra, and more The Perfect Lonely Planet's Crete is our most comprehensive guide to Crete, and is perfect for discovering both popular and off-the-beaten-path experiences.

Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Greek Islands or Greece for an in-depth guide to the country.

About Lonely Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.

TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category

'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times

'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveler's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Greece, Reference

785 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

We consistently find the Lonely Planet series useful. This edition was updated only this year and saved us at least one wild goose chase. However thanks to the internet travellers are much better informed and the recommendations are widely known whereas it used to be that these guides would get you to some out of the way places.

[Hermien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crete was mostly closed this time of year but still a worthwhile destination.

[Erman Celik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Girit kocaman bir yer bu guide'ın birazını gitmeden birazını da oradayken okudum ve faydalandım, teşekkür ederim.

Bir vegan için "şurda şöyle ölü hayvan eti var bu köyde şöyle ölü salyangoz var gibi tanımlamalar can sıkıcı olabiliyor"

veganlar için öneriler içerebilse ve de mesela hayvan ölüleri üzerine olan edebi tanımlamaları hayvan ölüsü yemeyen insanlar için filtrelenebilir olsa çok güzel olurdu.

var bir hayalimiz

[Marc Sebastian Head · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honeymoon reading!

For smaller city breaks I do tend to prefer the DK Eyewitness Travel guides, as they are more accessible and pictorial when deciding what is worth seeing. But for covering everything I might need at a glance, from travel to accommodation to sightseeing, Lonely Planet is my go-to.

This edition doesn't disappoint, although outside of the standard Minoan-related Knossos guides etc, there's only so many variations they can come up with of 'sleepy village' or 'overdeveloped sea front'. I'm not sure there's really enough to talk about in Crete to really stretch them! But it serves its purpose well.

I like that this one is quite slim line too, ACTUALLY pocket sized!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro guid

Solid introductory guide to the island. Compared to Rick Steves' guides, it is lacking interestingly educational background material, but Rick is the gold standard and unfortunately doesn't have a guide to the island.

[malcolm symes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just a guide.

Excellent guide for exploring this beautiful island with lots of tips and advice.
This book also give you a concise history lesson and an insight to Cretan culture
.Highly recommended.

[Lawrence Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very helpful before my trip, but I lost interest after that.

[Gary Schermuly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found it incredibly usefull.

[Luana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guide with a lot of practical information as well as great tours. I will keep using this throughout my stay in Crete. I really enjoy the lonely planet guides

[Em Sandalls · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting facts, information on local area, places to visit and culture

[CraftyBirdies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to get us started on planning a trip. Without it we would have been overwhelmed with searching online.

[Kenneth Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong recommendations, both to Crete as a destination, and for this travel guide. As everyone knows, there are tons of guidebooks out there, some of them including high-value photography, some with chapters by topic, as in "ten best of ----," and so on. They all vary both in terms of focus and in competence, the latter largely because some travel authors are better than others.
For the more literary-minded, Ian Fleming's "Thrilling Cities," all Lawrence Durrell works on Greece, and other works by authors with a special connection with certain cities and countries have a special appeal, but down one notch, the Lonely Planet series presents a rough and "ground-level" pile of tomes that are very useful, and this is one example.
I lived and worked in Greece in an earlier period, but even given that I might approach these guides with a skeptical attitude, this volume on Crete (2016) is excellent. I had visited Crete a couple of times before, including some hiking expeditions, but even so, when we toured western Crete and Heraklion a recently, this guide brought to our group's attention several locations we had never heard of, and all were well worth visiting.
Alexis Averbuck, Kate Armstrong, Karina Miller, and Richard Waters: my complements.
Travel safely.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just recently came back from visiting Crete -- after buying several Greece travel guides over the years, on a whim the night before my trip, I bought this book because (a) it was the most recent book on Crete I could find, (b) it was specific to Crete so had loads of details, and (c) it was quite small and thin, so easy to tote around. And let me say, I was extremely happy that I bought this book. Victoria Kyriakopoulos provides not only useful tidbits about hotels, places to eat, and places to visit, but also gives insight into the Cretan culture. I found this book particularly useful in finding out of the way places, that many of the other Greece travel guides don't cover (mainly because those other guides cover so many islands that they simply can't cover that much about Crete). There is so much to do on Crete -- and often times, things aren't particularly easy to find -- this guide however provides very detailed information on how to find what you are looking for. For any foodies out there, I loved the suggestions that this guide gave for places to eat. Some of the towns are filled with restaurants, so it would be difficult to identify the "best" ones to go to without this guide.

[Relaxandexplore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is typical of the Lonely Planet-series, more directed to the active explorer than the beach bunny. It contains detailed information about hotels, restaurants, sights and much more, in addition to separate chapters on the largest cities on the island. I would especially recommend the section covering the main attractions, where you find practical information on i.e. Knossos. For me the book was close to the fift star, but I kept it at a strong four. My main reason for doing so is that the book does not emphasise the main reason why people travel to Crete, the mediterranean sea and it's vast beaches.

[Rob Woodard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in prep for a trip to Greece I will be taking next summer. Like most Lonely Planet guides it could use some more maps, but other than that it seems really solid. I of course won't be able to confirm this until i go on my trip.

[Theut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questa volta anche la parte più propriamente storica-culturale è stata curata e la guida è davvero fruibile a 360 gradi.

[Mélodie Herbas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good travel book to visit Crete. A lot of advice and places where to eat. Sometimes the prices mentioned in the book are wrong but overall it is a very useful book to travel with.

[Yiannis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ‘ve been to Crete many times but this book really opened my eyes to many other beautiful places of Crete.