Oct 2020 - a few general impressions

[Richard]

My observations - I tend to stick to my favourite tavernas, so these are impressions from visiting them, or from walking around the village. I wasn't 100% last year and may simply have missed some of it on other recent visits.


-Quite a few places now have names only in English

-Greeting and farewell now predominantly in English

-Not many Brits, and though has been a noticeable trend for some time, more so this year?

-New hotel; planning to cater for a different audience?

-Feels to me as if a concerted effort has been made to 'modernise' (?) things. Not dramatic, but my impression

-Gorgona seems to have changed hands


Not usually here later than September, however, maybe end of season 'malaise' has set in? This year's events can't be ignored, of course. I wonder has the new hotel changed things somewhat? Hard to imagine not. Few tavernas remain as I remember from even relatively recent visits, though maybe I'm just looking harder.

Still love it here though! The hills haven't changed much.

[JBMouse]

Gorgona changed hands? Not owned by Kostas from KC? If true quite worrying, but I do know Giorgos leaves mid October, so maybe just him missing? Will check the KC website. Any one else have news, we are planning to go for Greek Easter end of April for a couple of weeks.

[jerichrome]

Nobody knows what the new hotel will bring, they were still building when i was there in march just before the lockdown. But they did not open this year due to the covid.
The fact that there were less british people is normal due to the cancelation of flights and package deals.
It was quiet in august but they managed pretty well in my opinion.

[Colin & Sandra]

Gorgona is still owned by Kostas and A.N. other (and also probably Chrysoula).
Giorgos has married this year and is living in the Netherlands (I believe Kostas said Rotterdam). I believe it is also a new Chief as the food is not as good, Grandmas Pork nothing like as good as it was.

[Peter G]

Must concur with C&S. Gorgona is definitely still owned by Kostas. When we arrived on 8th September Georgios had already left with his sweetheart and Demetrius was head waiter assisted by Victoria, a Polish girl who used to work in one of the dive centres. Demetrius is doing his best but perhaps lacks the charisma that enabled Georgios to interact with customers. But its too early to tell cos the shortage of UK tourists meant that Gorgona was much quieter than usual. Not sure about the chef, but we thought the choice of dishes was less this year. But we eat in quite a few places and as I remarked before all the tavernas were open up to 6th October when we sadly departed.
We were told that the new hotel might be an all inclusive. Hope not, that wont help the local economy one jot.
Must add that all our Cretan friends were as friendly as ever even though some are under heavy financial pressures to make ends meet. Lets hope that we can all get to support them next year in our beloved Plakias.

[Richard]

Comment re Gorgona was an impression based on 'facelift' and unfamiliar faces serving a couple of times. Happy I'm wrong!