The Canary Islands are perennial hotspots for holidaymakers. We take a glance at the four fixed favorites: Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote.
Tenerife
This year-round sunny destination is the largest and most visited of the Canary Islands. Its capital, Santa Cruz, is often a well-liked cruise destination, and around half a 1,000,000 passengers a year get a preview of the shopping, botanical gardens, squares, art galleries, and La Teresitas beach.
Some may remember Tenerife as a neighborhood for the sticky beer-swilling nightlife, but that’s all changed. Playa de las Americas and, therefore, the neighboring resort of Los Cristianos, once riddled with tourist attractions, are now adorned with designer labels and pretty bougainvillea flowers. A touch more upscale is the Costa Adeje Resort, where the four – and five-star hotels, chic boutiques, and well-kept beaches are located.
They remain the foremost popular tourist traps, offering the resort’s large neon lights and lively nightlife, but lately families and couples are attracted by wide-open, sprawling, soft sandy beaches that are child-friendly and lively.
El Medani is loved by surfers due to the trade winds and features a number of the simplest beaches on the island.
As you head west, the pace slows and therefore the calm increases, especially around Los Gigantes, a protected location due to the big cliffs.
The further you follow the coast, the more authentic the experience. Playa Sa Juan and, therefore, the fishing village of Alcala offer tons of Canarian experience, which is predominantly at the luxury end.
In the North by the La Orotava valley, is where you’ll find vineyards and banana plantations and, undoubtedly, the foremost important real Tenerife experience.
Fuerteventura
This is the second largest island within the archipelago after Tenerife, with volcanic highlands and arid plains, whose barren beauty is hampered by scattered windmills and thus the strange cactus plant, and maybe a herd of goats.
It is blessed beaches of pale Sahara sand, and with constant sunshine is a proper holiday feed at any time of the year.
The winds make the island a playground for windsurfers and a canvas for dunes. You’ll see the dunes and even scale them with the camel at the Natural Dunes Park in Corralejo. The resort is found on the northern tip of the island, and although there are themed pubs and souvenir shops, you’ll find street cafes and lots of seafood restaurants around the harbour and thus the attractive old town.
In the center of the island is Calesta de Fuste, a purpose resort, about a ten-minute drive from the airport. The road cuts through a largely desolate landscape with high ridges and tiny settlements punctuated by white churches, and thus the strange palm clutch.
There is a man-made beach with shallow water where youths can wade safely. Beyond the beach are some shopping centers and a source of restaurants and bars.
Perhaps the most important dazzling beach in the south is in Sotavento. It’s a tidal lagoon and a stretch of 13 miles that meanders along the southeast coast. The International Windsurfing Championships happen here annually in July.
Jandia, a resort that embraces the fishing village of Morro Jable, is far more sheltered, and maybe sun worshippers are happier there.
Gran Canaria
The third largest of the Canary Islands, this was a favourite of Christie, who maintained this as her favorite winter vacation in her capital, Las Palmas. Perhaps she also enjoyed the view over the town and therefore the beach of Las Canteras from the Cathedral of Las Palmas, her only notable building.
Nevertheless, Las Palmas isn’t the foremost popular tourist destination. Two million visitors come to Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles in the south. The resort has some amazing dunes, a mile and a half of Long Beach, and a few green pastures –for example, there are golf courses and botanical gardens.
Playa del Ingles might be the foremost important resort within the archipelago. A mix of high-rise hotels, shopping centres, bazaars, many restaurants, and a little promenade, the Paseo Costa Canaria. It’s not for everybody, apart from some, but it represents a fun in the sun holiday.
Lanzarote
This island is defined by a volcanic landscape that gives a backdrop of rustic hues that change with each mile and with the movements of the sun.
In the midst of this backdrop are the resorts of Playa Blanca – a former fishing village – Puerto del Carmen, and Costa Tequise with beautiful beaches and hotels. But what makes this island beautiful is the visionary architecture of Cesar Manrique.
You can see his work carved into the volcanoes and through the geology of the island, which forms a superb tourist route. Perhaps the foremost famous is in Nazareth, a home of Hollywood actor Omar Sharif, which he lost during a bridge play. This amazing structure is now a Museum and must be seen.
The beauty of the volcanic terrain is probably best seen in Timanfaya National Park. The landscape of the craters around the 360-degree volcanic cones might be a reproduction of it on the moon. Drive to La Geria west of the park for a shocking scene of black-ash vineyards. Check for cheap hotel bookings inCanaryanary Islands.