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About Elounda and Plaka ( Crete, Greece )

Elounda is located in the Lassithi prefecture, making up the Eastern end of the Greek island of Crete and is a popular destination with tourists of many nationalities.

With around 300 days of sunshine per year, plenty of seasonal charter flights to get there and surrounded by Aegean waters, the island of Crete - a southern outpost of the EU - is the ideal destination for a summer holiday break. On the north east coast of the island, around 45 miles or 75km from Heraklion and the main airport, sit Elounda and Plaka, popular resorts with a well established tourism industry. The area has some stunning scenery and fascinating history dating back thousands of years. Mount Oxa, imposing on the landscape behind Elounda Schisma harbour, Spinalonga island and peninsula are natural features that have featured in the cultural legacy surrounding the bay. Mount Oxa and Olous (now beneath the waves at the canal end of the bay) were both ancient cities of some standing. The tiny island of Spinalonga was home to a Venetian fortress, the walls of which still remain an impressive sight, aswell as its early twentieth century incarnation as a leper colony.

The area became popular with tourists from the 1960s onwards. Walt Disney was an early visitor to Agios Nikolaos and Elounda and from that point on the natural beauty of the area ensured that it was set to position itself as a desirable destination for even the most VIP of guests. In the twenty first century the luxury accommodation has added to its original Mirabello locations with new resort developments going up along the road to Plaka. Luxury villas have also been built in some bayside and hillside locations, offering magnificent views over the bay, Spinalonga and Mirabello.

There is a great amount of both fictional and factual literature available relating to Elounda and Plaka. This includes many compact and affordable guidebooks to the villages and the island of Spinalonga, available from local bookshops and other retail outlets. The area has also formed the backdrop for many novels from diverse genres including chick-lit, melodrama and semi-historical. For the last half century the area has had its share of exposure on the cinema screen and television. From 'The Moonspinners' in 1964, starring Hayley Mills and adapted from the Mary Stewart book by the Walt Disney Corporation through the BBC's 1977 version of Michael J Bird's 'Who Pays the Ferryman' to Mega TV's adaptation of 'To Nhsi' (the Greek translation of 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop), Elounda and Plaka have featured in screen versions of non-Greek works aswell as home grown dramas.

This page is still under development to include current and historical information about Elounda, Plaka and the local area. For more information please see the site's homepage for a basic introduction.

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