Lassithi: Plaka Lassithi

Plaka Lassithi: Plaka village in Lassithi Greece, Crete

Lassithi Villages: Plaka village in Lassithi

Crete Plaka Lassithi: Just 16 km from Agios Nikolaos and 5 km from the cosmopolitan resort of Elounda, Plaka is a lovely fishing village with many seaside taverns and some accommodation.

The beach of Plaka has large pebbled, but it offers view to a gorgeous sight: the island of Spinalonga, a former leper colony that stopped working in 1957. In fact, the village of Plaka and the island of Spinalonga is the setting of the best seller "The Island" by the British writer Victoria Hislop.

Spinalonga was one of the last active lepper colonies in Europe that worked from 1909 till 1957, when remedies for leprosy were discovered. Nowadays visits to Spinalonga are organized by boats from Plaka, Elounda and Agios Nikolaos.