Have you booked your 2013 yet?

[Dave&Les]

We were in Plakias last May and it was lovely to see the spring flowers & all the hills around were so green.
The temperature was really good & we only had one short shower in the whole of the month.

Enjoy!!

Dave&Les

[Lucy]

Hi there newbie here! I have been here twice haven't been back for a long time but would love to go back soon! Is the platia bar still open? Does anybody no if the DJ takis still works there? Lucy :-)

[Arnaki]

Arnaki - both the far ends require a bit of a scramble I am afraid. not sure I would want to do it with crutches. I much preferred Plakias to Arillas which I felt was full of english people - I like to get away from all things English other than Yorkshire tea!

Thanks for that, Nora - Much as I love Plakias and also the Peloponnese, I am always on the look out for other places, and have never been to Corfu.  It seems as if Arillas isn't such a good option.  Looks like Plakias again for 2013 - not a problem of course!

Arnaki

[Arnaki]

Just booked for 20 August to 3 September.  I've looked around for other holidays, but the price (and Plakias) beats other packages or independent holidays for that time of year.  We will become more adventurous again once we can go on holiday out of term-time.

See you there, Les and Dave - Have you got your return ticket sorted, or are you staying forever this time?

Arnaki

[Dave&Les]

That's very good news....we arrive late on the 21st.........looking forward to catching up with you & any other forum members there at the time...........feel a party coming on.

Dave & Les

xx

[Voloudakis]

We really, really want to go to Plakias again this June and July. Late looking however because of my continued bad health. Price at the moment beyond our budget. We have looked at Easy Jet and booking independently and package with Olympic but no can do unless prices come down. Looking at Haraki on Rhodes now as it is cheaper. Nice sandy beach nearby and quieter than Plakias. Our Heart belongs to Crete though and Plakias is the perfect place. Anyone on the Forum stayed in Haraki on Rhodes? Seems a nice quiet place to stay.

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[Hugo V]

Is flying with Ryanair a possibility for you?  They often have better prices.  They fly into Chania and it is at equal distance to Plakias as Heraklion.  We used them last October to fly back to Belgium and cannot complain about their services, nor about Chania airport.
Good luck!

[Mike G]

We really, really want to go to Plakias again this June and July. Late looking however because of my continued bad health. Price at the moment beyond our budget. We have looked at Easy Jet and booking independently and package with Olympic but no can do unless prices come down. Looking at Haraki on Rhodes now as it is cheaper. Nice sandy beach nearby and quieter than Plakias. Our Heart belongs to Crete though and Plakias is the perfect place. Anyone on the Forum stayed in Haraki on Rhodes? Seems a nice quiet place to stay.

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I went there in 1999. It is the one resort I know of on Rhodes that has the sort of feel to it to attract me. Haraki beach is a small crescent beach of pebbles and there is a decent selection of tavernas in the resort. The sandy beach you refer to is about 15 mins away to the north, is really quite small and not a "far end". There is a long stretch of beach stretching down towards Lindos to the south that is practically empty so could be "far end" although I wouldn't describe it as a nice beach. All of the above could have changed since 1999 though.

Mike

[Arnaki]

Hi Lampyland,

I've given a review of Haraki elsewhere on the board before (Resorts like Plakias? string).  Search for Haraki.  It is much as Mike describes, even twleve years later.

Here is the text:
"We went to Haraki in May 2011.  It is a very small place - one street, several tavernas and a few bars.  The road is behind the accommodation and the sea-front is a promenade - no traffic.  It has a pebbly/stony town beach and a very long, pebbly beach to the south, which goes all the way round to Lindos, with very little in between.  If you are a far ender, it is possible to be naturist on the long beach, but you need to be discreet (and there is nowhere to hide).  We found the food generally uninspiring and expensive, but other people we spoke to enjoyed the food and the ambience.  They do marvellous gyros pitta at Bottoms Up.  I understand it gets very busy with Greek visitors in the summer and families come down from the villages around, so it may have a very different atmosphere then.  It has its own medieval castle ruins to climb up to, and a sandy bay (reportedly the best beach in Rhodes), on the other side of the castle.  There is also a lovely view of Lindos several kilometers away at the other end of the bay, looking very romantic floodlit at night.  It all sounds right, and we enjoyed it, but we won't be going back.  It may not have helped that we had thunderstorms for 4 out of 7 days, and the weather was glorious at home.  It has its own forum and lots of return visitors."

You mention your health.  If it limits your mobility then make sure you ask questions about access to the accommodation, as some of the stairs are quite difficult (no or partial handrails with turns on the stairs). I suggest looking at Trip Adviser for reviews as most of the accommodation is pretty basic.  I take it you are thinking of Olympic. We stayed in Alia 2, and our apartment was lovely - we even had a view of the castle from the shower. Alia 1 plays very loud music at its pool bar in the evening, which I would have found very, very annoying had I been staying there.  It has the only pool in Haraki, but it is nothing to get excited about!  The sea is pretty easy to access with a few steps down from the promenade, some easier than others. The sea was calm and we swam in it every day. Haraki faces east, so it is sunrises not sunsets to look out for.

Everything is within easy walking distance as the village is very small.  However it is over a kilometer from the main road, which has frequent buses to Lindos and Rhodes Town.  The bus comes into Haraki once a day.

If the choice is Haraki or nowhere, then definitely go to Haraki.  There is lots of information and a discussion forum here: http://www.haraki.co.uk/. 

I hope that helps -

Arnaki

[Mike G]

Our other favourite island has also been mostly dropped by Olympic and Thomas Cook are charging too much. No Lesvos this year sadly.

Petra on Lesvos used to be one of my regular destinations through Manos. They always had great out of season deals for single travellers wherein you didn't pay any under occupancy supplement. When Manos was taken over by Thomas Cook the accountants at TC put a stop to it all and so the prices for singles went up massively. They must have lost a lot of business.

So instead of my having three regular destinations on Greek islands I now have only two, one of course being Plakias.

Mike

[JBMouse]

We have booked for this year, June in Lesvos, as, like Mike G, we love Lesvos as much as Plakias. It is very noticeable that all the holiday companies that are left in business have been hiking their prices for the lat 3 years, so we shop around all th time for the best deals. Last year we went to Petra in May, paid a higher than wanted price, got a bit wet whilst there, but managed to bring back a much needed 10 litres of Ouzo. We then found a bargain price to Plakias, Kostas Chrysoulla, for the penultimate week of the season, and thoroughly enjoyed it, good weather (mostly) and a lovely relaxed feel to Plakias, one of the best breaks to Plakias ever. Hoping to find the same deals going this year for the same time of year, making two Greek holidays in one year again. Would love to find time, money and time off work for a third break, possibly to Aghios Nikolaos in the Peloponese, but, as stated before, the prices are way over the top in silly money area, and I refuse to pay, knowing the local hoteliers are probably keeping price rises to a minimum to attract business, and holidaymakers are merely lining the pockets of the holiday companies.
'Nuff said, looking forward to Lesvos and, hopefully Plakias this year.

[Davos]

Hi.
We will back in Plakias, last couple of days in June and first two weeks in July.
Looking forward to the Mythos (as always ) The Castro, The Beach ( Far End ) Freedy's happy face, and a massage or two. did any of you try one last year?
 
Davos.

[Mike G]

but managed to bring back a much needed 10 litres of Ouzo.

Wow, you must really love ouzo; must be about 100€ worth. It is one of the things that has rocketed in price over the years, much of it owing to tax hikes I guess. It will eventually be cheaper in Tesco. Whisky and gin in the airside airport shops already are as I'm sure you will have noticed. I now always bring raki back from Plakias- still a bargain.

I shall be interested to see how prices are in Plakias in May. Prices in Mousses (my regular eaterie) have hardly altered for 2-3 years now.

Mike

[JBMouse]

Yes, I do love Ouzo, and the best ouzo in the world comes from Lesvos, even the greeks acknowledge that fact! The price was very good, both in resort and at the duty free at Mytillini airport, which, by the way is the best Greek airport ever, a 1 Litre bottle of ouzo Mini was 13 euros, which at lasts years exchange rate of 1.22 euros/£ made it £10.66 alitre, which, for a spirit of 45% strength, is so much lower than the UK, If it were ever imported, which it isn't. I have never seen any Lesvos ouzo on sale in the UK, but you can get it in Plakias and Iraklion airport (I got some there as well to be on the safe side!)
I mentioned the airport on Lesvos - what a contrast to Iraklion! Easy check in, get rid of your luggage, and then you are encouraged to leave the airport and move out to the very close nearby taverna to partake of drinks and food until the flight is called, look out and you will see your plane arrive!
Yiammas

[triton]

Will be travelling to Kos first two weeks in June staying in Tingaki. Great beaches.
 Particularly like Magic Beach towards Kefalos.

Looking forward to being in Plakias in September though, not been before.

Jackie and Dave