The train!!!!!

[JulieB485]

I was just looking on the Plakias.co.uk site and I saw the link about the train!
I am so excited - I adore these trains -  have been on hundreds of them - I am an addict. (sad too)

Has anyone been on it? They all look the same but are very different - went on one a couple of years ago that knocked things over all the time, another year was on one that got stuck under a bridge... I can't wait to go on the train

[Greecemad]

Hi Julie,

I seem to have the opposite view about the train!

I first went to Plakias in 1990 and one reason for liking it was that it was relatively free of tourist trappings and it was still pretty wild - although even then people who had been going to Plakias for years before that were falling out with it. A lot of people used to walk to Damnoni, through the olive groves, and down the valley across a board placed over the stream (where Hapimag now stands), along the back of Damnoni beach and then following a little path that went over the headland (the road round the headland wasn't there) to Micro Amoudhi which had a complete absence of umbrellas, sunbeds and swimming costumes.  

Between 1993 and 97 I went to Plakias every year. 97 must have been the year that the train arrived because the train and the umbrellas on Micro Amoudhi beach were two of the reasons I had for giving Plakias a miss for a few years.

However, partly due to this website, I revisited Plakias for a few days last year.

Greecemad.

[JulieB485]

LOL Your opinion will be far more common I think ... I don't know many other people that like the trains either!
I just love them - they make me laugh I think they are so silly and so inappropriate so much of thetime that they are Fab LOL

[Karen T]

I feel the same about the train as Greecemad unfortunately.  I, too, have been visiting Plakias from around the same time and am nostalgic for many of the same things.  I remember one night coming back from Taverna Akti at Damnoni (the taverna at the back) in the pitch dark rather the worse for wear after an evening get together with the rambling group led by Bill & Joan Ellis, and having to negotiate the narrow plank across the stream.  I think maybe the retsina had the effect of making me careless of falling in and so helped rather than hindered!

So back to the present, the road train was introduced on one of our last times in Plakias, maybe 2 years ago and like Hapimag, is one of the more unwelcome changes for me.  Each to his (or her) own of course but I can't see the point of it!

Still Julie, I think that once in Plakias you will find that the countryside, the people and the general ambience of the place will overshadow whatever you think of the train.  Enjoy your holiday.

Karen

[John R]

I have to admit that  thought that the road train was out of place in Plakias. However to be fair it does go some considerable distances on some quite remote routes and as such serves a useful purpose for those who do not hire cars. On our first year I was very proud as to my venturing out in the wilds in our hire car only to meet this train high up in the mountain roads. It's speed (slow)  gives super opportunities for good viewing of the scenery, photography etc. So though incongruous it does quite a good job and doesn't just run up and down the sea frontage like it might in many med. resorts.

John R

[ostraco]

Yes John, it does follow some interesting routes.

However, I did hear that towards the end of the season last year, it broke down a few times. OK if you're just popping up to Mirthios - but I wouldn't go much further afield

[hopper]

Enlighten me, I haven't been since 1988. Is that a train on weels travelling on the road with open coaches ? Sounds kitsch. I guess it would be ok for kids to enjoy.

[Sheelagh]

Kalimera  -  with regard to the Plakias train I should like to comment as follows.    Usually I would say that a "resort" train may be the most naff way to travel.   However, suspend your belief on all other trains and please believe that the Plakias train is very special.    Perhaps you wish to take a trip to Mirthios in the evening, to experience a wonderful dinner at Frederikos, and then a superb trip downhill to Plakias by train ..... thoroughly to be recommended!    Perhaps a trip to parts of Crete quite local to Plakias, but inaccessible to those on foot - then take the train.    I have experienced so many wonderful days like this - an experience for all the senses - always expertly organised by Marianne - who knows so much about this truly heavenly part of the world.     Let nobody think that the Plakias "train" is like any other, because one must experience this before criticising.  Long live the train.

Sheelagh

[Karen T]

There have been various rumours about the train according to my friend Jeannie who lives in Plakias (and behind whose house the train lodges when it's not running).  Some say it's been sold, some say there has been some trouble with the license to operate but at any rate the train is not yet running this year and though the signs are still up advertising it's trips there doesn't seem to be any sign of it getting on the road as yet and no one seems to know what's happening.  They do seem to be keeping it in good nick though as we saw them washing it (Jeannie says they do it every day or so it seems to her!) so who knows what the summer will bring!!!

Karen