Matala or Plakias? The Honest Comparison of Two South-Coast Bases
Both are small south-coast villages with a long beach, a hippie past and a Blue Flag. Matala has the caves, the red beach and Phaistos nearby; Plakias has the longer beach, the gorges, the wind and the boat to Preveli. How to choose, from where you land to how you like to spend a day.
Matala and Plakias get compared because they look alike on paper: two small villages on the south coast, each with a long beach, a Blue Flag, a hippie chapter in its history and a mountain road down from the north. On the ground they are different holidays. Matala is compact and busy, built around the famous cliff of caves, with Red Beach, Kommos and Phaistos within easy reach and Heraklion an hour away. Plakias is spread along a much bigger bay under the mountains, windier, better for walking and for a longer stay, with the boats to Preveli leaving from the harbour. Our short answer: Matala for three or four days of sights and swimming; Plakias for a week of beaches and walks. Distances, Blue Flags and the cave details come from the Region of Crete, the official 2026 Blue Flag list and visitor sources, checked in September 2026; the judgements are our own, from repeated visits to both.
The honest facts
- Matala
- about 75 km south-west of Heraklion, a little over an hour by car; intercity buses from Heraklion.
- Plakias
- about 40 km south of Rethymno by road (Region of Crete); intercity buses from Rethymno.
- Beaches
- Matala’s beach is thick sand below the caves; Plakias’s is about 1.3 km of sand and pebble.
- Blue Flag 2026
- both Matala and Plakias.
- Matala caves
- a Roman-era necropolis; visitor sources give €5 / €3 and summer hours of about 10:00–19:00 (verify).
- Wind
- Plakias is often windy, funnelled by the Kotsifou and Kourtaliotiko gorges.
- Nearby
- Matala — Red Beach (about 20 minutes’ walk), Kommos, Phaistos; Plakias — Damnoni, Preveli by boat or road.
Matala: the caves and the sights
Matala’s beach sits in a small bay closed at one end by a pale cliff riddled with caves — cut into the soft rock and used as tombs in the Roman era, though some accounts put their origins much earlier. In the 1960s the caves were occupied by young travellers from across Europe and America until the church and the military junta drove them out; Joni Mitchell lived in Matala for several weeks in 1970. The Region of Crete still describes it as a gathering point for restless youth, and a festival every June keeps the memory busy.
Today the caves are a managed archaeological site with a modest fee. The village behind the beach is small and dense, the beach is thick sand with some natural shade, and the obvious outings are close: Red Beach, about twenty minutes south on an exposed headland path, and Kommos, five kilometres north, a long open beach beside a Minoan site that is closed to the public but visible from the sand. The palace of Phaistos is a short drive inland.
Plakias: the bay, the gorges and the wind
Plakias grew from almost nothing — the 1961 census recorded it as the home of six fishermen — into a relaxed resort along a bay about 1.3 km long, with sand shelving gently into the sea and mountains close behind. The same mountains explain its weather: two gorges, Kotsifou and Kourtaliotiko, channel the wind down to the coast, and on some days the beach is more bracing than restful.
What Plakias offers in return is range. Damnoni and the smaller coves to the east are within a few minutes; Preveli, with its palm grove at the mouth of the Kourtaliotiko gorge, is reached by tourist boats from Plakias or by road and a walk down. The palm grove burned in 2010 and had regenerated within a year. For walkers, the gorges and the hill villages behind the coast make it a better base than Matala for a longer stay.
How to choose
Choose Matala if you are flying into Heraklion, have a few days, and want caves, Red Beach, Kommos and Phaistos within a short radius. Choose Plakias if you have a week, like to walk, want more beaches to rotate between and do not mind the wind. Our longer guides to Matala and the south coast and Plakias go deeper; Kommos and Red Beach, Preveli and Phaistos have their own pages.
The honest downside
Matala is small, and its fame means it is rarely empty in summer. Plakias is windy often enough to spoil beach days, and it is farther from the island’s main airport. Neither has much nightlife by north-coast standards, and both need a car to get the best out of their surroundings.
Pick Matala if: you want a compact, lively village with sights on the doorstep and Heraklion airport an hour away. Pick Plakias if: you want a longer, slower stay with walking, several beaches and Preveli nearby. Skip both if: you want large resorts, nightlife or calm water guaranteed every day — the south coast is none of those.
Photos on this page: the Matala caves by Jebulon (CC0), Red Beach by Rudolphu (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Plakias bay by Uoaei1 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons, resized for the web. The judgements are our own, from repeated visits to both villages; distances, the 2026 Blue Flag list, the cave details and the history were checked against the Region of Crete, Blue Flag Greece and visitor sources, which could not all be confirmed on official pages, for the date shown at the top of this guide. Nobody pays to be featured in a guide — no business, no sponsor, no paid mention, ever. Adverts, where they appear, are labelled as adverts.
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Matala and around — About 75 km south-west of Heraklion, on the Messara side.
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Plakias and around — About 40 km south of Rethymno by road, between two gorges.
Tap a name to open it in your map app. These are options, not an order — pick by the day you have.
Is Matala or Plakias better for a holiday?
Matala suits a short stay built around sights: the cave-riddled cliff, Red Beach, Kommos and the Minoan palace of Phaistos are all close, and Heraklion airport is about 75 km away. Plakias suits a longer, slower stay: a bigger beach, gorges and walks behind it, more coves nearby and boats to Preveli, with Rethymno about 40 km north.
Which is closer to the airport, Matala or Plakias?
Matala is about 75 km south-west of Heraklion, a drive of a little over an hour, and Heraklion has the island's busiest airport. Plakias is about 40 km south of Rethymno; from Chania airport it is a longer drive, and from Heraklion longer still. Both villages are reachable by intercity bus.
Is Plakias windy?
Often, yes. Local sources note that strong winds are common at Plakias because the Kotsifou and Kourtaliotiko gorges behind the village funnel and strengthen them. On a windy day the beach can be uncomfortable, and the more sheltered coves to the east are the usual fallback.
Can you still visit the Matala caves?
Yes. The cliff of caves above the beach, a Roman-era necropolis managed by the Ministry of Culture, can be visited for a small fee; visitor sources give €5 full and €3 reduced, with hours of roughly 10:00–19:00 from April and shorter hours from October. We could not confirm these on an official page, so verify seasonally.
Do Matala and Plakias have Blue Flag beaches?
Yes, both. Matala and Plakias are on the official 2026 Blue Flag list. Nearby Kommos beach, north of Matala, and Damnoni, east of Plakias, are not on the 2026 list, though both are good beaches.
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