Which Are Best Athens Guidebooks?

Athens is booming like never before, with Michelin restaurants and new chic boutique hotels. Even the Acropolis and Athens museums are changing, so which guide is best?

Which are the best Athens guidebooks? I was in the Greek capital two weeks ago, updating my own Essential Athens guide, which will be expanded and published as the new Essential Spiral Athens guide by AA Publishing in March 2008, and by other publishers in different countries.

But while I was hauling myself around the hot streets of Athens (the temperature averaged 95 in the shade the whole 10 days we were there) I was also carrying round with me a selection of other good guidebooks to Athens. But which are the best Athens guidebooks? It was my job to find out as I was also writing a piece for the travel pages of The Times in London, comparing notes on which of the several recent guides to Athens had coped best with the many changes and improvements that there have been in the Greek capital in the years leading up to, and subsequent to, the 2004 Olympic Games.

The Athens Olympic Games had a major impact on the city which has been fascinating to see, for someone like me who has been going there regularly for over thirty years now. Hotels were improved, a stunning new Metro system was introduced, big areas of the city centre have been pedestrianised, new museums opened and old ones renovated and expanded, new parts of the city have been regenerated and the standards in restaurants increased: Athens now has three restaurants with Michelin stars, something unheard of a few years ago.

It's hard for guidebooks to keep up-to-date when a city is changing rapidly like this. Even as you write, you know of new attractions that will be open (or ought to be) by the time your book comes out, but you can't describe them as you can't get in to see them. But some books and some guidebook writers manage the job better than others. You can read what I had to say about the best Athens guidebooks by reading my piece in The Times by clicking here.

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AND THE BEST ATHENS GUIDEBOOK IS...

Here's the bottom line, though, on which Athens guidebook I thought had kept up-to-date with the pace of change in recent years, by including many of the exciting new hotels and restaurants, by being most accurate with opening hours and other practical information, and for being easy to carry around and refer to.

The Best Athens Guidebook? In my view it's The Best of Athens, published by Lonely Planet in 2007, at £6.99 in the UK and $14.99 in the USA.

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Also recommended among the best Athens guidebooks, despite being a very slim guide to all that's hip and cool in Athens, is the Wallpaper Guide to Athens. Read my review of that book by clicking here.

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See a list of my other guidebook and travel book reviews by clicking here.

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