Crete - Eating in Plaka and Almyrida

My family loves to eat. I would almost go so far as to say that we live to eat but perhaps I should exercise a little restraint... Anyhow,  getting to eat all the great Greek dishes was a major factor in our choice of destination.  Generally, the food in this region gets a big "thumbs up" from me because I could happily eat fresh bread, olives and lamb chops all day, every day.  We didn't take any pictures of our meals because...I guess we were too busy eating and I always feel weird about taking pictures in restaurants but trust me, you wont be sorry if you eat in these restaurants.

While all the Tarvenas near the village square in Plaka will deliver good food and a gorgeous atmosphere, Elpis gets our vote for lunch and early dinners. They have the best freshly baked bread and their chicken (served with honey and oranges) and lamb chops are so well marinated and moist without being over cooked. Also tried and approved are the liver with apples and onions that blew my husband's mind.  You can always tell when things are freshly made and with good, natural produce. They also have a great garden and playground so we could watch our daughter burn off some of that "toddler high" while we waited for our dinner. The service there was excellent and the owner, seemed to know everyone by name and by the 2nd night we felt like regulars.

Our favorite place to have breakfast in all of Plaka and Almyrida is Francoise ( by the beach in Almyrida). From the name, you can rightly guess that they aren't exactly serving Cretan food but my goodness, the french toast is amazing !!  You could get a good english fry up with baked beans and tomatoes or a simple yet strangely addictive croissant, both with huge freshly squeezed orange juice and fantastic coffee. The owner, Mira was lovely with our daughter and brought her a special kiddie plate and high chair.  You also have free Wifi and an english language library so I got to catch up on all the in-depth UK tabloid reporting ( don't judge, tabloids are great on vacation anywhere). Francoise is also great for sandwiches, smoothies, cocktails and all round chilling out in the evening.

We tried a few other places but kept coming back to these two. What can I say, we know what we like.

Visiting Crete - Plaka & Almyrida Edition

Kalimera guys !! That's good morning / good day in Greek.

We are here in Crete and its beyond wonderful, I want to say its "amaze balls ". The water is so unbelievably blue and the views ? Breathtaking.  At times like this, I curse my inadequate photography skills...(shakes fist at sky) and I wish you could see how really beautiful the Atlas mountains look from my bedroom window.

This morning, we jumped in our little rental car (standard here = compact in the US) and went in search of breakfast and the local supermarket.

Plaka is a pretty small village located uphill from the seaside town of Almyrida and its the perfect place for a quiet, beautiful beach vacation. The village square is the center of the social life in Plaka and most of the restaurants are located around it. There's also a pretty good supermarket but all the real amenities are 5 minutes away in Almyrida.

Almyrida is rather busy and has many tourist amenities but in a good way. So, no Starbucks or McDonald's but many locally run small cafes and restaurants.  There is a also a pharmacy, butcher, laundromat, bank and large supermarket so pretty much all you need for a self catered holiday.

The town also has a lovely beach within walking distance.

Great for swimming

Or digging,

Or just paddling around,

Crete with a Toddler - Where to stay?

Traveling with a toddler has its own special set of challenges.  Gone are those blissful days when I could just strap her into my Baby Bjorn and be on my merry way, stopping only to nurse.  She slept through hours on the plane, brunches, garden parties and even open air concerts.

My daughter now needs loads of entertainment, exercise and space to explore. She also only sleeps well on her own (probably because we moved her out of our room at 6 months) and so this makes sharing a hotel room a bit tricky.

After a sleepless long weekend in Prague earlier this year, we decided that our days of staying at design boutique hotels would go the way of sleeping in on weekends - a thing of the past that seems so impossible now, that I'm not sure it ever really happened. So, its goodbye hotels and hello, holiday apartment rentals.

After we settled on Crete as a destination, I spent endless hours trying to chose a place that worked for our family. We needed at least 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, washing machine (essential because my daughter still runs through at least three changes of clothes a day), a pool and close proximity to the beach.

We had our doubts since we had never used this rental company before but it was exactly as described on the website.

Welcome to our temporary home in Plaka, Crete.

 The view from the upstairs terrace.

The Cretan sunset on our first evening in Plaka.

We debated long and hard about having a pool because well, the obvious risks with toddlers near water  but we really wanted our daughter to start learning to swim.  In the end, we brought along a portable baby gate for her room and will make sure all the doors leading outside are locked at night.  And can I just say, from the look on her face when she saw it, it was the right decision.

Fun times full speed ahead !