Frommer's Athens Day by Day Guide Book

Nearly as light to lift as a phyllo crust, Frommer's Athens Day by Day is a useful guide book for travelers on a tight schedule. Featuring suggestions for one-, two-, and three-day city tours, it leads readers on a whirlwind trip around the Greek capital. Alas, speed and simplicity overshadow history and context on the pages. So what you you get is a slim, well-organized volume that acquaints readers with Athens' greatest hits — without revealing much about the 25 centuries of civilization that made them so.

The Acropolis... check. Syntagma Square... check. Hadrian's Arch... check. All the standard highlights one could ask to see on a short visit to Athens are organized in this little guide book.

If you're primarily interested in museums, or architecture, or Byzantine Athens, Frommer's Athens Day by Day features sight-seeing itineraries devoted to those topics. There's also one on Athens with Kids (childfree couples can use it defensively, to discover the best places to avoid the squalling masses).

You may be most interested in the Romantic Athens section, which lists nine sweet spots, points out lovers' lanes, and recommends a stroll along the Grand Promenade at night. There are also small sections on shopping, dining, nightlife, arts, entertainment, and hotels.

Although the book is handy, you may want to wait to buy a later edition. This one, copyright 2009, was published before the New Acropolis Museum -- the biggest attraction in the city, after the Parthenon -- opened. So the description of the museum and its displays is extremely limited.

Can't wait? For couples who have very little time, following one of the tours in this book will efficiently whisk them from one spot to another. For those who don't already know the history of Greece and its contributions to world culture, quick visits to the city's landmarks are unlikely to provide much illumination. And Frommer's Athens Day by Day won't do much to clarify why they became meaningful touchstones in the first place.