Product Description

Your holiday starts the moment you open the guide … "The best guide available. Packed to the brim with colour photos, maps and essential information." Reader review Anchors away! Capture the essence of cruising through the beautiful Mediterranean – from Oslo to Athens covers 70 ports of call. Photos, illustrations, unique 3D models and birds-eye-view maps of all the major sites ensure you don't miss a thing. Clue up on the basics, from ship etiquette to the best bars and restaurants ashore. Discover where the locals go, enjoy relaxing entertainment, amazing sites and retail therapy. All you need for an unforgettable cruise. Winner of the Guardian & Observer ‘Best Guide Books' and Wanderlust Magazine Silver Award for 'Top Guidebook'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107776 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Not a cruise guide at all
This book is a con.Being a keen cruiser I wanted a concise guide telling me where ships dock,how far away from the city this was and how to get to the city if walking was not an option.This has no information at all on this.This book is nothing more than a snapshot collection of every other DK guide to europe. Pretty but useless, so bad in fact I am wondering if Amazon will refund me as this is blatant wrongful trade description.Apart from the picture of the ship on the front,reference to cruising is totally lacking.

An excellent guide for European and Mediterranean cruising!
I found this to be a wonderful guide book full of so much information and detail and I am relieved that, in spite of the earlier review I went ahead and purchased it. I guess that, if I possessed other Mediterranean or European Guides by DK Eyewitness Travel, this would undoubtedly mirror them to a large degree - after all, how many different ways can you describe the same region or city etc, its attractions and best places to visit.

What this guide does have however are sections (albeit compact) on the history of cruise travel, styles of cruising, where to cruise as well as guidance on planning and booking your cruise, choosing a cabin, practical advice, life on board and shore excursions.

I am more than happy with this book, its size and its contents and it gives me plenty to think about in terms of where to visit and other relevant information such as key sights, tourist information, local specialities and recommended excursions. Of course there are lots of photographs and illustrated maps to accompany all this information. Quite honestly, I think any more detail would be overload and would need to be twice the size bearing in mind the number of ports involved, distances from ports to specific areas, attractions etc., and other trivia relevant to where your ship is docking; this is all detail which the cruise line provides to its passengers on board in the form of talks and supporting guides.

I will be going on my first cruise to the Med with this book (and the Baltic cruise that I am hoping to follow with) and, armed with the itinerary from the cruise line coupled with their ports of call guides produced for their passengers, I think DK's guide is more than adequate for the purposes of a Mediterranean or Baltics cruise.

I will also detail some comments on the reverse of the book (which was voted the best guide book by Guardian and Observer readers) - The Independent says: "No other guide whets your appetite quite like this one" (I concur!!!) and The Observer says: "A pleasurable read with ravishing photography plus maps and plans of supreme quality".

This book provides you with expert advice on the best things to see and do in more than 70 Ports of Call and, at the end of the day, if you really do not share this opinion if you do now purchase it, Amazon do accept returns. It really isn't so difficult is it.

Hardly cruising related at all
As previously mentioned, this is cobbled together from DKs other travel books. The sections on cruising are limited and basic (and somewhat out of date). They make no mention of how to get from the ports to the places to visit which should be the most useful aspect. If you want a brief travel guide to the places you are visting then its ok but if you want to do it yourself when you arrive at a port this is of no use whatsoever.