Tenerife

I first visited Tenerife back in 2008, and this was in fact my first “sun, sea & sand” type holiday, although I actually spent very little time on the beach! The majority of my time was spent exploring the Los Cristianos/Playa de las Américas area (we were staying at an aparthotel in Los Cristianos), plus a day driving up to the Mount Teide volcano and back. Apologies in advance for the quality of my first couple of photos here – they were taken on a 2008 camera phone!

I would recommend anyone who visits Tenerife to take a day trip to Mount Teide, to see its surreal, lunar landscape – a real juxtaposition to the beautiful yellow sandy beaches along the coastlines below. I am sure that you are able to take guided tours and public transport there, however we decided to go it alone with a hire car, guide book in hand! It was great to see the peak of the volcano, however we didn’t want to stay too long as the barren, neutral landscape can get a bit tedious after a while! We managed to blow a tyre on the way back unfortunately, which ended up being pretty costly, but overall the journey was still worth it!

One thing that I love about the Canary Islands is that you cannot fault the weather. The temperature hardly goes below 20 degrees c, even in the winter months, so whatever time of the year you go, you can be guaranteed great weather! It rained once when we were in Tenerife, and honestly I did not mind it at all, in fact, it was rather refreshing!

We didn’t sample any of the local cuisine on this trip, although I have heard that Canarian food is pretty good (think Spanish tapas, with a twist). I am open to any recommendations of Canarian food for the next time I pay a visit! I just wish that the Canary Islands were closer to the UK! At a four and a half hour flight, they feel somewhat inaccessible for shorter-haul trips, and I wouldn’t recommend going for any less than a week if travelling from the UK or mainland Europe.

Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria, being a close neighbour of Tenerife, was similar, but with a slightly different vibe to it. I found it to be quieter, more relaxed, with a slower pace of life. I would say that it is ideal for a “fly and flop” type holiday, where you may not want to be embarking on activities or visiting attractions every day. It generally had a very “clean” and “upmarket” feel to it, and did not disappoint on the pretty views and chilled out beaches. One thing that I did observe was that Gran Canaria, at least the part that we went to, felt a lot more like a desert-scape than Tenerife. This may well be because I went to Tenerife in the winter and Gran Canaria in the summer, but I did start to miss the green lushness of the UK after a while!

We sampled some of the nightlife in Gran Canaria, which is something that I didn’t get to do in Tenerife. This felt relatively low key, and certainly not akin to some of the revelry and raucousness that you see and hear about in Tenerife. The food was decent, again though, I didn’t sample any of the traditional cuisine (uncultured, I know!) One thing that concerned me a bit was that there seemed to be a fair few cockroaches on the scene, both in the aparthotel that we were staying at, and when out and about on our explorations. We actually started the holiday by “exterminating” a cockroach that had found its way into our kitchenette – not the nicest of welcomes! We found this not to be a big issue in general though, and managed to have a good holiday despite this.

I would be interested to know other people’s thoughts on the Canary Islands – where did you go, how did you find it, and would you recommend visiting anywhere in particular? I have had my eye on Lanzarote, so any suggestions based on this island in particular will be much appreciated!