Books and Maps

The books below about Western Crete and related topics are amongst the best available at the present time. If you know of any good Western Crete book that is not listed please send us an e-mail and we will add it. If you could send a short review that would be excellent. The books can be purchased online by clicking on the “Check Price and Buy It” link below the book review. The webmaster of this site is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme  an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk.

Still Life In Crete

by Anthony Cox

An amusing and informative account of ex-journalist and teacher Anthony Cox's experiences when he, his wife and two dogs took the big leap to sell up in England and settle in a village in Western Crete...Anthony Cox's easy style of relating events makes this book very readable, whilst sharing useful knowledge for the uninitiated.

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Learn Greek in 25 Years: A Crash Course...

By Brian Church

A tongue in cheek look at learning the Greek language. Perfect Greek by 2024. Trying to learn Greek but finding it far too hard? Just arrived and wondering where your suitcase has gone. Brian Church, cult journalist at the Athens News, has chosen 25 of the best lessons from his world-famous weekly column, Learn Greek in 25 Years, to help you understand even less of this beautiful language. Each lesson ends with a helpful table of "words I really must learn though I know I won't". This book is a must for anyone to read before they contemplate learning Greek.

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The Rough Guide to Crete

by John Fisher, Geoff Garvey

This is an excellent book, lots of useful practical information and full of all the stuff you need to know when arriving in a strange new place i.e. where to stay, eat, etc

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Lonely Plant Guide to Crete

by Paul Hellander, Jeanne Oliver

This guide takes the reader off the Cretan track with a walk through the Valley of the Dead and a visit to the birthplace of Zeus. This edition includes information on diving, trekking, cycling and sailing. Also  dining and sleeping options across all budgets, and a section on the island's art.

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Fish & Figs

by Jacques Fricker, Dominique Laty

The secrets of the local diet from Crete - the heart of the Mediterranean - are revealed. The key ingredients - oils, vegetables, fish and fruits - each have their nutritional values and inherent health-giving properties explained.

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The Complete Book of Greek Cooking

by Recipe Club of St Pauls Church

This is the best and most authentic Greek cookbook available. This book was written by everyday cooks, not gourmets, the recipes are easy to follow and there is a section that tells how to work with phyllo, clean squid and other hints. There are recipes from many different regions and interesting little bits of history and information scattered throughout.

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The White Mountains of Crete

by Loraine Wilson

If you want to visit West Crete and are into hiking, this book is a must. West Crete is dominated by the White Mountains. This book is filled with 49 detailed walk desciptions and an extra 10 mountain treks. Some walks are well known, but if you prefer to go off the beaten track it's all here. All walks are summarised and graded so it's easy to choose the one that suits you best.

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Crete - West: The Finest Valley and Mountain Walks (Rother Walking Guide)

By Gert Hirner, Jakob Murbock, G. Round

50 Worthwhile walks along the coasts and in the mountains of Western Crete, including Northwest, Southwest, the White Mountains, Ida massif and Gavdos. With exact route descriptions, very clear walking maps 1:50.000/ 1:100.000 and numerous tips for places of interest and excursions. This book comes with a protective coating from the outside and has the ideal size for taking it with you on a trip. With many beautiful and unique pictures

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Collins Crete Holiday Map

Revised edition in new Collins brand cover. Scale 1: 280,000 (1 cm to 2.8 kms) 1 inch to 4.5 miles MAIN FEATURES Road map of Crete with tourist information. Indexes to places of interest and hotels. Town plans and large scale maps of popular historical sites. INCLUDES Town plans of Hania, Rethimno, Iraklio and Aghios Nikolaos. Detailed plans of the Minoan Palaces of Knossos, Malia and Festos.

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Unexplored Crete

Written by a Greek for the more adventurous traveller wishing to explore the real mountain Crete using minor roads and dirt track routes suitable for "off road" motor bikes or jeeps

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AA Spiral Guide Crete (AA Spiral Guides)

By Donna Dailey, Mike Gerrard

This practical guide aims to be fun to read as well as informative. Its practical spiral binding allows you to fold it back flat, and it is pocket-sized for travelling light. The authors provide a wealth of inside knowledge and tips on such topics as recommended restaurants and bars, "must see" sights, travel information and shops. The book is divided into geographical zones, including detailed maps and a key to the sights. Pages are colour-coded for ease of use.

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Top 10 Travel Guide: Crete

By Robin Gauldie

This pocketsize travel guide presents useful information in easy-reference top ten lists. It provides advice on what to see, where to stay and how to make the most of your holiday in Crete, whatever your budget and interests.

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Greek Style

By Suzanne Slesin, Stafford Cliff, Daniel Rozensztroch, Gilles de Chabaneix

This title seeks not only to capture the authentic character of Greek interior design, but also the liveliness of Greek culture. It explores the dramatic geographical range of Greece from the Northern mainland with its oriental influences to the islands with their white-washed fishing villages.

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Crete:The Battle and the Resistance

By Antony Beevor

This book recounts the fall of Greece, the invasion of Crete by the Germans and the Resistance. The book is based on interviews with both the Allies and the Germans who took part. It gives insights into the invasion from the air and explains how Ultra intelligence played a key role. It also reveals how General Freyberg actually misinterpreted German coded messages to devastating effects.

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The Cretan Runner

By George Psychoundakis, Patrick Leigh Fermor

An account of the Resistance in Crete during the German occupation in World War II, written by an active participant. Psychoundakis was part of a group of Cretans who tried to keep up morale and endangered themselves by acting as intermediaries between groups of British on the island.

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Winds of Crete

By David MacNeil Doren

Splendid travelogue written by an American who spent 6 years on the island of Crete with his Swedish wife, Inga.

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It’s All Greek to Me

By John Mole

It’s All Greek to Me! is the culmination of a decades-long love affair with Greece that at once captures the warmth and laid-back lifestyle of the Mediterranean coast and hilariously recounts the highs and lows of an Englishman’s efforts to make a home there.

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Crete Detail Map

By GeoCenter International Ltd

A map covering the tourist destination of Crete. It should be useful for touring and exploring the area. Stars indicate places of particular interest.

Scale 1:150 000

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Crete Holiday Guide Map

By Berlitz Publishing Company Ltd

Combining a map of the island on one side with useful and engaging travel information on the reverse, this guide map covers attractions, a guide to eating out and advice on getting around. Designed to make viewing and folding easy, it is for those, who take a few weeks' break.

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Crete Map

By Nelles Maps

Excellent detailed topographic travel map of the Greek Mediterranean island, printed on two sides.  The west half of the  island is shown on one side, the east on the reverse.  The map shows roads of all sizes, cart tracks and paths, airports, beaches, ancient sites, and other places of interest.  The legend explains symbols in English, German, and French.

Scale 1:200 000 

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Crete Insight Travel Map

By Insight Guides

This map features full-colour digital cartography, distance indicators, scale convertors to aid route planning and street plans of major cities.

Scale 1:200 000

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Greek Phrase Book

By David Hardy

One of the "BBC Phrase Book" series designed for use by holidaymakers and business travellers. This book is arranged by topic, with key words and phrases, a pronunciation guide and a dictionary of approximately 4000 Greek words.

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Across Crete: from Khania to Herakleion

By Johann de Bakker

The island of Crete was home to Europe's earliest civilization. From successive waves of rulers - the Greeks, Romans, Arabs and the Empires of Byzantium, Venice and Ottomans - Crete has aquired layered strata of history unlike any other land. It is this heritage - as well as the astonishing natural beauty of the place - that has drawn visitors from around the world. Their writings are collected in this illustrated book, which is the first of three works together spanning the great island from east to west.

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Buying a Home in Greece

By Joanna Styles

This title has recently been updated and is now in its third edition; the new look, newly updated book only came into print in April 2005 so you can rest assured that all of the information in ‘Buying a Home in Greece’ is relevant, bang up to date and applicable to anyone considering entering the property market in Greece right now.

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Going to Live in Greece: Your practical guide to living and working in Greece

By Peter Reynolds

Read this practical and usable handbook for information ranging from health and welfare issues right through to the practicalities of sourcing and opening the right bank account. Whether you are a student, business person, holiday-home buyer, professional, retired person, or simply an interested traveller, you will find many of your initial questions answered – or advice given on where to seek answers to more complicated matters.

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Greek-o-File Vol.1

By Sylvia Cook

The Greek-o-File Vol I was the first published book of new entertaining and informative articles and anecdotes written by and for people who love Greece and all things Greek - a must for any Grecophile. Articles in Volume 1 include travel profiles and experiences (mostly of the less touristy places), a Chart of which UK Tour Operators go where in Greece and a Guide to recommended Greek restaurants in the UK, anecdotes and informative articles on Life in Greece, Food and Wines, History, Mythology, Greek Language, Events, Books, Music and a Short Story and more.

Also available are Vol. 2, 3 and 4.

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Wild Flowers Of Crete (Nature Of Crete S.)

By G. Sfikas

Available in French and English. Greece is wealthy in the diversity of its flora, possessing at least 6,000 species. But what makes Greece such a paradise for both botanists and amateur flower-lovers alike is not the great variety of species, but their rarity. Over 10 per cent of Greek flora is endemic and not to be found anywhere else in the world. The book features over 150 species. Each flower is illustrated in full color and the accompanying information includes where the species can be found and when they flower.

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Crete Cookery 300 Traditional Recipes

by Chrissa Paradissis

Every country has its own sense of taste and its own manner of cooking. A culinary review offers proof that the concoctions of each and every ethnic group bear the stamp of the Greek art of cooking. This book will be a valuable helpmate and a source of inspiration for the contemporary homemaker. In it you will find not only hundreds of tasty recipes, but co-ordinated suggestions for delightful, impressive menus, a feast of main dishes and luscious dessert ideas, with step-by-step instructions so that you can cook them easily and correctly, and work real miracles in your kitchen. Recipes are organised in the traditional categories. When leafing through this book, you may notice the amazing true-to-life illustrations, which will help make your table a thing of beauty. At the end of the book you will also find helpful hints and advice.

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Western Crete Map

By Road Editions

Scale 1:100 000

It seems that no map of Crete is 100% accurate or complete, but this comes far, far closer to 100% accuracy and completeness than any of the other maps I've studied (which includes all the most popular ones on Amazon's list). The scale of 1:100,000 allows for plenty of detail without obscuring the overall picture; contour lines etc show the topography accurately. It differentiates clearly between driveable roads and unmade tracks (though it does occasionally get them the wrong way round); the distances are pretty accurate; and the actual mapping of the roads is far more accurate than any other map I've found, though "motorway" exits are not all shown and not all correct, which can be a nuisance. It shows the sites of antiquities; it shows almost all the beaches easily at a glance - a blue line along the coast - this is much clearer than any of the other maps; it gives everything in Greek letters as well as Roman ones, which can be a helpful aide-memoir. It even shows petrol stations - useful in out-of-the-way districts. There are good town plans of Chania and Rethymno.

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Eastern Crete Map

By Road Editions

Scale 1:100 000

It seems that no map of Crete is 100% accurate or complete, but this comes far, far closer to 100% accuracy and completeness than any of the other maps I've studied (which includes all the most popular ones on Amazon's list). The scale of 1:100,000 allows for plenty of detail without obscuring the overall picture; contour lines etc show the topography accurately. It differentiates clearly between driveable roads and unmade tracks (though it does occasionally get them the wrong way round); the distances are pretty accurate; and the actual mapping of the roads is far more accurate than any other map I've found, though "motorway" exits are not all shown and not all correct, which can be a nuisance. It shows the sites of antiquities; it shows almost all the beaches easily at a glance - a blue line along the coast - this is much clearer than any of the other maps; it gives everything in Greek letters as well as Roman ones, which can be a helpful aide-memoir. It even shows petrol stations - useful in out-of-the-way districts. There are good town plans of Chania and Rethymno.

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Crete East: The Finest Valley and Mountain Walks (Rother Walking Guides - Europe)

by Gert Hirner, Gill Round

 

 

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Falling for Icarus: A Journey Among the Cretans

by Rory MacLean

On a windy spring morning in an ancient Cretan village surrounded by mountains, Rory MacLean fell to earth. His mother had died a few months earlier and a single obsession had risen from his grief: the notion to build a feather-light flying machine. And so, on the island where Daedalus and Icarus had made man’s maiden flight, MacLean journeyed back to beginnings, back into the Greek myths, and - with the help of his Cretan neighbours and plenty of wine - built a plane and tried to fly.

Falling for Icarus is at once a meditation on love, a celebration of the passion for flight and an hilarious, vivid portrait of a village. Its generous and exhilarating characters – Yioryio, the irrepressible cafe owner, dreamy, dying Aphrodite and Apostoli, would-be pilot and Greek god in a golden flying suit - restore MacLean's faith in life. Through them, he tells a soaring, moving story about how a dream can transform sadness.

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Ill Met by Moonlight

by W.Stanley Moss

This is a classic account by one of the officers who took part in one of the great escapades of WWII. In 1943 W. Stanley Moss and Patrick Leigh-Fermor, both serving with Special Forces in the Middle East, decided on a plan to kidnap General Kreipe, Commander of the Sevastopol Division in Crete, and bring him back to Allied occupied Cairo. This is the story of their adventures, working with a fearsome band of partisans, as they daringly capture the General in an ambush and struggle to evade pursuing German troops in the mountainous Cretan landscape to reach their rendezvous for evacuation to safety.

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Landscapes of Eastern Crete

by Jonnie Godfrey, Elizabeth Karslake

Best months for walking: April to June, September or October. 11 car tours, 30 long and short walks, 12 picnic suggestions Plans of Agios Nikolaos, Iraklion plus two fold-out touring maps covering the entire island --This text refers to the Paperback edition. A car-touring and walking guide to the region of eastern Crete. There are topographical walking maps and a fold-out touring map covering the whole of Crete, showing the location of all the walks in the book. Many short walks for motorists are suggested, along with recommendations of areas for picnics, and there are details of the popular excursion to the Samaria Gorge in western Crete. All the walks and tours have been revised for this second edition.

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Living in Crete

A Guide to Living, Working, Retiring & Buying Property in Crete

by Carol Palioudakis

When you’re exploring the idea of retiring abroad, living in another country, or even spending some extended time there, what you need is a guide. Someone who knows it inside out, has spent years dealing with the intricacies of its culture and can tell you where the potential pitfalls are and how to make the system work for you. Whether you are considering a move, or are already living in Crete, this guide is packed full of information, advice, addresses and links that will save you hours of searching. Demystifying Cretan culture, shedding light on ways to get around its bureaucracy and tackling everything from getting a car registered to making sure you aren’t ripped off when renting a flat, and everything in between, Carol’s guide becomes the one stop survival manual no traveller, property buyer, long or short term resident in Crete should leave home without.

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