This is rife with nightlife: many big hotels, apartments and rooms for rent, numerous tavernas, restaurants and bars abound. You can get anything you need: banks, chemists, medical centres and the police. Being one of the most popular and cosmopolitan destination in Crete, you will encounter every summer throngs of Greeks and foreign tourists.
The lovely beach is sandy, extending for 3 km: well-organized, it is suitable for all sorts of water-sports, with the usual umbrellas, sunbeds and beach bars. Lifeguards watch over your safety in the water.
To get there, you can drive to Chania and then follow the same road west. There is also a regular bus-service throughout the day and on until late at night.
Even though so crowded, you will observe that sections are fenced off: this is to permit the loggerhead turtles (Karetta karetta) to come ashore and lay their eggs without being disturbed.
If you want to forgo the busyness of Platanias, go to Ano/Upper Platanias – a small, picturesque and quiet village up on high, with an amazing view as it is set into the hillside as if in a natural amphitheatre
Closer to Chania town is Aghioi Apostoloi.
