A-Z Guide to Santorini
The very thorough A-Z Guide to Santorini by Tony Oswin is now in its 15th edition, a sure sign that the guidebook is both popular and kept up-to-date.
At 173 pages, the A-Z Guide to Santorini is one of the most thorough Santorini guidebooks around. In fact if you check on Amazon, there are only a handful of guides that deal purely with Santorini, and of these the longest we could see was the Marco Polo guide, which came out in 2018 and is only 136 pages long. Other guides are under 100 pages.
One advantage the author has is that he lives in Greece and has done since 2006, giving him a deep insider knowledge of the way of life. He doesn’t live on Santorini but on Thassos, which is about 500km (311 miles) due north, making regular visits to update the guide quite easy. Needless to say, the first of his four current guides to Greece was to Thassos (the others are to Kos and Rhodes).
A-Z Guide to Santorini Contents
The author is obviously a history buff as the A-Z Guide to Santorini begins with almost 20 pages of history and mythology. It was a bit too much for me and I began skimming, although Santorini does have more history behind it than most other small Greek islands. At the back of the book there are also six pages of a Greek Timeline, which starts in 2700BC but curiously ends in 1453, the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Did nothing happen in Greece after that?
Practical Information
It’s for the practical information that people will want to buy this book, and in that respect it scores really well. There’s a section on culture, another on how to get to Santorini, eight pages just on beaches, another ten pages on activities, and advice on hotels, camping, tavernas, and Greek food generally. There are, however, no listings of hotels or restaurants.
Places of Interest
The main section of the book is the Places of Interest, which is very comprehensive. There are several pages on Akrotiri, plus a map (though the map is at the back of the book and would be more helpful next to the text,) Ancient Thera gets three pages, and a map at the back, and the rest of the island’s main attractions, from archaeological museums to wineries, is listed alphabetically.
Some Cool Santorini Gifts
Shower Curtain
Personalised IPhone 14 Cover
Wireless Charger
Luggage Tag
A-Z Guide to Santorini Photos
In short, there are none. The author uses a POD (Publish on Demand) service, which keeps the cover price down, but if you start to add photos, especially colour photos, the cost of the book rockets. I would have done exactly the same. For a guidebook, facts are more important than photos, and there are several black and white maps and tables. And if you want to see what Santorini looks like, check our Pictures of Santorini page!
Keeping Up-to-Date
If you want up-to-date information on Santorini then that is no problem. Buying the A-Z Guide to Santorini also provides you with free membership of the Travel Club which the author runs through his website: atoz-guides.com. This provides you with bonus information and updates on all the A-to-Z guides. As if that wasn’t enough, the author also provides his email address in the book so you can send him any questions you might have directly. That’s the advantage of buying a book from a small-scale publisher.
See Our YouTube Video of Santorini
In short, although this isn’t a glossy guidebook with lots of colour photos (and a price to match), we definitely recommend is as a very thorough guide to everything you might want to know about Santorini. You can find it on Amazon.
Other Santorini pages
Fun Things to Do on Santorini
This list of fun things to do on Santorini include visiting an old tomato canning factory, listening to Greek bagpipes, and enjoying some local beers.
Santorini
Santorini or Thira in the Cyclades islands has cheap and luxury hotels, car rental, ferries from Athens, Crete and other islands, and flights from Athens.
Best Restaurants on Santorini
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best restaurants on Santorini, choosing the top gourmet and fine-dining eating places with some exclusive dining experiences.
Hotels on Santorini
Hotels on Santorini, Greece, in the Cyclades, range from luxury choices to good cheap accommodation in Fira, with caldera views.
Best Time to Visit Santorini
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Santorini, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Luxury Weddings in Greece
Luxury Weddings in Greece, including venues such as a boutique hotel with deluxe spa on Santorini, can be booked through Ionian Weddings.
Santorini Wineries
Visiting Santorini wineries is a popular activity on this Greek island in the Cyclades, whose volcanic soil provides a distinctive terroir.
Things to Do on Santorini
Some of the best things to do on Santorini, as well as seeing the caldera, include wine tasting, beaches, and visiting the sites of ancient Thira and Akrotiri.
Santorini Car Rental
Santorini car rental companies include Budget, Hermes, VIP Rent a Car and Euro Dollar, with Santorini car hire at the airport, and around Santorini.
Pictures of Santorini
Greece Travel Secrets brings together some outstanding pictures of Santorini in the Cyclades islands of Greece.
Athens to Santorini
There are lots of flights from Athens to Santorini as well as a ferry service from Piraeus, with flights to Santorini leaving from Athens International Airport.
Weddings in Greece
Weddings in Greece and the Greek islands can be luxury or cheap, are easy to arrange from the UK or USA in Santorini, Mykonos, and Rhodes.
Other books pages
Greece Book Reviews
Greece Book Reviews on the Greece Travel Secrets website with reviews of the best guidebooks to Greece, the Greek Islands, Athens, Crete and elsewhere.
The Ikaria Way
Greece Travel Secrets reviews the Greek cookbook, The Ikaria Way by Diane Kochilas, containing 100 delicious plant-based recipes.
Great Greek Poets: Cavafy, Sappho, George Seferis, Odysseus Elytis
There are many great Greek poets, with two authors winning the Nobel Prize for Literature and names include Sappho, Cavafy, George Seferis and Odysseus Elytis.
A Thing of Beauty
A Thing of Beauty by Peter Fiennes describes ‘Travels in Mythical and Modern Greece’ and places the Greek Gods in the context of modern-day Greece.
Lonely Planet Greek Islands
The Lonely Planet guide to the Greek Islands is a thorough and helpful guide to all the Greek island groups, with Athens included.
Lonely Planet Greece
The latest edition of the Lonely Planet travel guide to Greece is a comprehensive 750-page guidebook to the whole country.
Lonely Planet Crete
Lonely Planet Crete is an excellent and thorough guide of almost 300 pages to the largest of the Greek islands.
Bradt Guide to the Peloponnese
The Bradt Guide to the Peloponnese is the best book on the Greek region which includes attractions like Mycenae, Epidavros, Olympia, Monemvasia and Nafplion.
A Rope of Vines
A Rope of Vines by Brenda Chamberlain is an evocative memoir of the author’s time living on the Greek island of Hydra in the early 1960s.
Wild Abandon
Wild Abandon by Jennifer Barclay and published by Bradt Guides is A Journey to Deserted Places of the Dodecanese islands in Greece, including Rhodes and Kos.
The Summer of My Greek Taverna
The Summer of My Greek Taverna by Tom Stone is a memoir of his time on the Greek island of Patmos in the Dodecanese, running a restaurant.
Taverna by the Sea
Taverna by the Sea is an account by Jennifer Barclay of her summer spent working in a taverna on Karpathos and a welcome new book of Greek travel writing.
Northern Greece Guide
The Bradt Guide to Northern Greece is a detailed guide to Thessaloniki, Halkidiki, Macedonia, Thrace, The Pelion, The Sporades and the rest of Northern Greece.
Monemvasia Book Review
Greece Travel Secrets reviews the photography book Monemvasia with extracts from works by Yiannis Ritsos and Nikos Kazantzakis.
Mermaid Singing: Kalymnos Travel Writing
Mermaid Singing by Charmian Clift is a fine example of 1950s travel writing about the Greek island of Kalymnos in the Dodecanese.
Margarita’s Olive Press
Margarita’s Olive Press is a modern gem of a book of Greek travel writing, in which the author falls in love with and renovates a property on Zakynthos.
Ikaria Book Review
Ikaria by Meni Valle, brings together the best and healthiest Greek recipes with an evocative travelogue about Ikaria, one of the world’s Blue Zone places.
Hydra Travel Writing Classic
Peel Me a Lotus by Charmian Clift is a Hydra travel writing classic, describing her family’s life on this tiny Greek island near Athens in the 1950s.
Fire on the Island
Fire on the Island is a romantic thriller novel by Timothy Jay Smith set on a fictionalised version of the town of Molyvos on the island of Lesbos.
Eurydice Street
Eurydice Street, A Place in Athens by Sofka Zinovieff is an honest account of what it’s like to move to Athens and live as a foreigner, learning Greek customs.
Culture Trails
Greece Travel Secrets reviews the book Culture Trails by Lonely Planet, which has a section on Artistic Athens and 51 other perfect weekends for culture lovers.
A-Z Travel Guide to Kos
The 2022 edition of the A-Z Travel Guide to Kos is the 15th edition of the best and most comprehensive guidebook to Kos in the Dodecanese islands of Greece.
Heaven on Earth
Heaven on Earth is a collection of 19 travel pieces about Greece by Mike Gerrard.
Books About Greece
If planning a trip to Greece, what are the best books about Greece to read before you go, or to take with you, to give you a sense of place?
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