Dora Studios

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We stayed in a ground floor apartment at Dora Studios last year.
The apartment was very nice. We walked along a small hallway, turned right and were the first room on the right, with a further two in a small corridor.
The bathroom - small (too small for a family, but there may have been a bigger one in other 'family' apartments, we only holidayed as a couple), but clean and intimate.
The beds were soft and the linen was changed 4 or so times in our 6 day stop.
The balcony - lovely! A table and a reasonably big space, with a washing line, allowing us to dry out our costumes & trunks each day. The balcony was pleasant, allowing us to eat breakfast and stay sat there sometimes until the early hours of the morning!
Only problem was that our balcony backed on to some outdoor steps which a few other people had to use to get to their rooms - but this wasn't a problem for us - we stayed in the height of Summer - July - and in a whole week, we saw one man walk up the stairs three times, nobody else! So it wasn't a lack of privacy issue at all.
Plakias is a lovely place for people wanting a quiet but varied holiday. It's not too busy at all, and not awfully touristy. Yet, there are other holidaymakers.
It had a lovely bakery (about 2 minutes walk from Dora Studios)...Small, but with freshly baked breads and cakes, open from 7am till 10 30 pm! Not like Greggs at all.
There were a few supermarkets...One, aptly titled the 'Co-op', very close to the Dora Studios...But we must've spent about 20 minutes in there every day and we never saw another customer.
The man and his sister who run the shop were very friendly, and we did the majority of our shopping there, other than the bits we got from the supermarkets closer to the beach during the day when we were sunbathing!
There were several tavernas along the main stretch (which is literally a 3 minute walk from the Studios)... And we, I believe, ate in at least a new restaurant each day. A couple of the restaurants we went to twice, because they were so nice. I'm a vegetarian, and yet, we were able to be quite adventurous... Not that there was a huge choice, but there isn't eating out in Britain either.
An average meal was around...15 Euros for the two of us. And we typically had two main meals, 2 drinks each, a Greek salad and a side order of Garlic Bread - so very reasonable! Lunches were generally 4 Euros... For example, an omelette with salad would be about 5 - £3.50 - not bad!
The Forum - a bar with pool tables and an internet cafe, with a supermarket downstairs.
This proved a hit on our list! We went in there initially to check emails...But it was nice in there, often busy at night but almost empty in the day, nice cocktail menu.
And the pool table was reasonably charged, I think about £5 an hour...But they charge you to the nearest 15 minutes, so you can have half an hour for about £1...
Niko's Souvlaki Fish & Chips... (I think I've got the name right)...Up a side street off the main stretch, this was an amazing find! Its run by English speaking restaurateurs - not sure whether they were English, I think Australian...
Their chips are so special! And the salad was lovely...Orange juice, it was all really nice, in a little, small enjoyable atmosphere with music and only a few other customers.
We discovered it on our penultimate night and ending going up the night before we left too because it was so nice!
Several other nice looking fish restaurants and ones on the seafront which specialised in some Greek meat dish that I can't remember the name of - but we didn't experience those!
The beach... There are two sides to the beach - the more commercial side and a quieter side, which has more beautiful pools of water.
The commercial side has deck chairs...But if you go far up enough (heading away from the tiny town) then you can generally speaking get a deck chair without paying any hire charge and have the nicest swim.
We found we were able to swim quite nicely in the shallow waters - perfectly fine for children, with several small families holidaying besides us.
The only part of the holiday was the let-down in transfer from the airport to Plakias. Plakias is on the very most South Coast of Crete...and places closer to the airport are more popular - Chania, Malia, Aghios Nikolas... We were two of only 6 who were going down to the South Coast - and so, we were turfed off the coach after having been on it for about 2 hours (in the middle of the night, at about 5 am) and put into a little minibus.
But we got there and didn't bother sleeping, instead headed straight down to the beach at about 7am and discovered the little beautiful town.
We didn't have any trouble on the way back to the airport - transport wise... The coach picked us up when & where were told it would and we slept until being woken up as we got to the airport.... :)
Plakias is a small place... Has no nightlife beyond that which would be acceptable to a family...There are a couple of bars, but most for the 'action' at night goes on in the bars of hotels and at restaurants.
People who visit Plakias - mostly couples, older...Me and my boyfriend (16 and 19 at the time) were the youngest couple by far holidaying there and families,
We found Plakias to be the ideal place for our first holiday abroad together...We enjoyed swimming in the sea, meeting the local people (very friendly and accommodating) and eating out each night.
Oh, also, Dora Studios partners up with a local hotel (about a 5 minute walk) called Kristos Chrysoulla Hotel (or something like that!) which is where the meeting is held the morning after you arrive (we went, free drink and chances to go on excursions to other islands - v. expensive on our budget, we didn't bother) and use of the swimming pool there (which we didn't bother with, as we like swimming in the sea!)
Would definitely visit Plakias again in a few years time.