Liokalyvo Beach House Taverna Falasarna — Restaurant in Municipality of Kissamos

None of the businesses that are suffocating and destroying the Natura area with the giant sunbeds are legal. And yet they all work unimpeded.

According to a recent news article on Lifo.gr : Occupying with umbrella seats one of the most beautiful Greek beach, in Falasarna, Crete, is completely illegal. After the complaints of the municipal authority and the opposition and the revelations by the Citizens' Initiative Save Falasarna, the autopsy carried out the day before yesterday by a team of inspectors of the State Land Service revealed extensive occupation of the public area of the beach, without any lease of a beach concession permit.

In the autopsy in the area of Falasarna in the municipality of Kissamos, a count was made of the entire occupied area of the shared area of the beach and it was found that not a single lease of beach concession has been made in the area.

Despite the suffocating tourist exploitation of the beach, there are only 3-4 leases, which, however, relate to the exploitation of marine recreational equipment (e.g. water sports, bicycles, jet skis, etc.) which were drawn up by the Real Estate Service itself after by auction. On the contrary, none other than those professionals and operators of the beach where the team conducted an autopsy had a permit to occupy the beach and the beach for sunbeds and umbrellas.

In a recent announcement by the Citizens' Initiative "Save Falasarna" there is talk of small-four-wheeled-vehicles that "harvest" the sand dunes, jet skis, umbrella seats on 80% and not the 30% of the beach defined by Natural Environment & Climate Change Agency, and a scandalous rent of 10 euros per per square meter per year plus beach bars and decibels above the permitted limit. In addition, the Initiative states that it is now questionable whether there is a license for all of this. In the announcement, among other things, it is mentioned that "recently there was a police check all over the Falasarna bay and 13 businessmen were arrested (we learned about workers who are getting paid from the business owners to pretend that they are responsible for the business there when police comes for spontaneous arrest) because they did not have a license for the umbrella seats they were renting" and continues: "The invitation of the Municipality of Kissamos to businesses for a simple beach concession was made on April 11 and the deadline expired on June 23. The intervention of the Police took place a month later and it was found that no one had a permit, while most of the umbrella seats have been in since May. The first question is whether they had all applied to the Municipality by June 23 or whether they took advantage of the "loophole" given to them by the law, to apply through the Real Estate Service from July 1 onwards."

In another part of the Falasarna Movement's complaint, it is stated that, "even if they had a permit, the concession contract defines a specific area (usually 500 sq.m.), of which, because it is a Natura area, it can be occupied with umbrella seats 30%, i.e. around 170 sq.m. Falasarna beach has sand dunes that are plowed daily by small-four-wheeled-vehicles.

The last thing that shows the magnitude of the scandal is dedicated to those who believe that if we give our beaches to private initiative, this will bring development and therefore revenue to the public coffers. The companies in question, even when they get permission, will pay to the Municipality and the Greek State, based on the contracts we have seen, a price of around 10 euros/sq.m. for a whole year. That is, for a contract concerning 500 sq.m. they will pay 5,000 euros/year. The specific umbrella seats are charged from 20 to 80 or even 300 euros if they are in the first row. Do the multiplication for a business that has 100 umbrella seats (100x80 = 8,000 euros, i.e. the annual rental cost is the collection of only half a day) and you will see that we are talking about a robbery at the expense of Kissamites, Chaniotes and all visitors." the...

I was not impressed from the service,or the food .

My boyfriend was having a beer already ,so I joined him after my swim , waited 10 minutes, nothing , I called to one waiter that was talking to his friend(staff) beside the station , 5 minutes go by , nothing , ( thinking maybe they didn't actually see me ) I asked once more to order and the boy said yes one minute, so I was enjoying some sun and my boyfriends beer and what felt like another 10 minutes go by..nothing..I then saw a female waitress standing at the cocktail bar station at the other side of shop from us , she looked surprised to see me (25 -30minutes someone should have at least checked on my boyfriend with there eyes not even to come by the table ) So there was no communication amongst the staff....the waitress was very sweet at least . P.s.It wasn't busy at that time FOOD: now for the food...we only had one thing so I can't talk about the whole menu .

After ordering my beer we decided to have a pizza. The pizza came cold...and the dough was cooked at some depth but it was all white at the bottom..and like gum. You could see it was a cold pizza from the cheese not being glossy but firm and hard so I was disappointed the waitress didn't send it back herself before bringing it to us..although we ate some slices out of hunger,it was the worst I've ever had.

The atmosphere was amazing though, the sunbeds are comfy, the music was great

I will be giving this place a second chance because maybe I was just...

Beach outstanding 5 stars, no doubt! Restaurant is a fancy 3,5 stars, let's make it four.

The bar area is quite nice and looks new. Disco music in the afternoon already. Few people hanging out, almost empty. Lots (lots!) of employees, constantly running and caring. Nice! Everything clean and well maintained.

For the serviced sunbeds in front of the beach, you pay 40(!!) Euro for two sunbeds! Second row is still 25€. Third, I forgot.

Food and drinks come delivered there in a sad doggie bag with paper plates and cups. But okay.....

Fish and chips: a few strips of (apperently) chewing gum fish? Strange consistency. Looked like fish, but quite chewy. Not pleasant at all. Chips were alright, though.

Tuna sandwich tasted really good at the first bite. Nice combo of avocado, cucumber and zucchini to accompany the (almost raw) fish. Strangely, the taste changed after the lukewarm fish cooled down some more. Quite irritating and odd. Confirmed by the rest of the family, we decided not to finish that plate.....

Coffee was good and the Falasarna rosé spritz even better, BUT the overall image does not deserve the 5th star.

Crete can do better.

Oh, and don't park your car too close to the beach .... that soft sand is unforgiving, and an Italian rental car on Serbian tires is a bad...