Insight Guides Greek Islands

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• Print ISBN:
  9781780051598
• Edition: 5
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780057248
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

With its treasure-filled ancient sites, folklore and island flora, the Greek Islands are the jewel in Greece's crown. Be inspired by the new edition of Insight Guide Greek Islands, a detailed full-colour guide to this fascinating region. Insight Guides' unrivaled coverage of history and culture provides an essential introduction to what makes the Greek Isles unique, including its people and identities as well as its sailing scene. Consult the Best of Greek Islands selection for an at-a-glance guide to the region's most evocative attractions, such as the improbably perched Panagia Hozoviotissa Monastery and the eminently strollable Corfu Old Town, and the editor's choice of recommendations for the best museums and hikes, amongst others. Descriptive accounts of where to go in the Greek Islands, from the impressive Place of Knossos, the centre of Europe's first civilisation, to the exquisite beaches on Levkada and Crete, are enhanced by beautiful photographs, while all major sights are cross-referenced with full-colour maps. The travel tips section provides a wealth of information on how to plan your trip, plus our selection of the best hotels.

Accommodation

Price Categories

Price categories are based on the cost of a double room for one night in the high season:

€ = under €70

€€ = €70–120

€€€ = €120–200

€€€€ = over €200

How to choose

There is a broad range of accommodation in Greece; we list a sample of different categories across the country. On the islands the most affordable lodging are private rented rooms (enikiazómena domátia), which are increasingly self-catering studios (if only just a mini-kitchen in the corner) or full-on apartments (diamerísmata).

When accommodation-hunting on the spot, local public or private tourist offices can be of help if no rooms are on offer when you disembark. The best system, increasingly used even by backpackers equipped with mobile phones or tablet devices, is booking a room a few days (or, in summer, weeks) in advance.

Hotel categories

The Greek authorities have six categories for hotels, with a star system having replaced the old letter-system since 2006 (no-star = E, five-star = de luxe). Although letters/stars are supposed to be an accurate reflection of the hotel’s amenities, a swimming pool or tennis court could rate an establishment as A/4-star or B/3-star even though in other respects it has indifferent facilities. Also, room numbers can limit a hotel’s maximum rating, so you commonly encounter 14-room C-class hotels superior to a nearby 50-room B-class.

The following general principles apply, however: Two-to-five-star hotels all have private bathrooms. Most 1-star hotels have en-suite bathrooms, while the almost extinct no-stars don’t.

Four- or five-star hotels must have a bar and at least one restaurant and offer a choice of breakfasts. Two- or three-star should provide a buffet breakfast – “enhanced continental” is the rule – but classes below that will often offer little better than a bread roll, jam and coffee.

Multi-starred hotels will have some or all of these facilities: a swimming pool, fitness centre, sauna and/or health spa, “private” beach, conference hall and other businessperson’s amenities, entertainment programmes for children, 24-hour desk attendance, and “tamed” taxi service. Almost all hotels now offer in-room or lobby wi-fi signal (often charged extra)

Traditional settlements and restoration inns

Traditional settlements (paradosiakí ikismí) have been officially protected as such, with modern intrusions and constructions banned by law. Buildings in these villages were variably restored as inns under Tourism Ministry initiative during the 1970s and 1980s, though all are now privatised. Since then, private renovators have opened other, generally higher-quality, inns, rescuing older buildings at risk on numerous islands. Restoration inns are known to exist in the following locations:

Hydra Town (several sponge-captains’ mansions, done up as hotels)

Ía, Fíra and Imerovígli, Santoríni (interlinked village houses)

Ermoúpoli, Sýros (many Belle Epoque mansions converted to hotels)

Mestá, Híos (several houses, as room-only or suites/apartments )

Avgónyma and Volissós, Híos (entire houses, or apartments within )

Kámbos region, Híos (a few restored mansions)

Psará island (a restored prison)

Rhodes Old Town (high-quality, expensive, restoration inns in medieval structures)

Haniá, Crete (restoration inns around the Old Harbour)

Réthymno, Crete (restored inns in old-town Venetian buildings)

Gialós and Horió, Sými (old houses divided into apartments)

Emborió, Hálki (houses divided into apartments)

Corfu (restored olive mills or manor houses in remote locations)

For a selection of the above, see the appropriate region under Accommodation Listings following.

Booking direct online

Most of our listings provide a contact website; significant discounts for online booking may be offered, and the high-season price category given only applies from late July to early September, if that; rates usually include breakfast. While web bookings require a credit card deposit, the hotel may not accept credit cards for final payment.

Mountain refuges and monasteries

The only mountain refuge in the Greek islands is the popular, well-run Kallérgi hut in Crete’s White Mountains, near the Gorge of Samariá (elevation 1,680 metres/5,111ft; tel: 28210...

Table of contents

• How To Use This E-Book
• Greek Islands’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: The Greek Archipelago
• Island Mentality
• Decisive Dates
• Waves of Invaders
• The Islands Today
• Insight: Religious Festivals
• People and Identities
• Religion
• Debunking the Bouzoúki
• Aegean Architecture
• Food and Drink
• Insight: Eating Your Way Round the Islands
• Cruising Round the Islands
• Managing the Tourists
• Outdoor Pursuits
• Island Wildlife
• Insight: The Islands in Bloom
• Islands out of Season
• Introduction: Places
• Athens Stopover
• Thessaloníki Stopover
• Introduction: The Ionian Islands
• Corfu
• Southern Ionian Islands
• Kýthira
• Introduction: Islands of the Saronic Gulf
• Argo-Saronic Islands
• Introduction: The Cyclades Islands
• The Cyclades
• Náxos
• Santoríni
• Introduction: The Sporades and Evvia
• The Sporades
• Evvia
• Introduction: The Northeast Aegean
• Thásos, Samothráki and Límnos
• Lésvos, Híos, Ikaría, Foúrni and Sámos
• Introduction: The Dodecanese
• Rhodes
• The Southern Dodecanese
• The Northern Dodecanese
• Crete
• Insight: The Palace of Knossós
• Transport
• Accommodation
• Eating Out
• Activities
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Understanding the Language
• Further Reading