After a series of articles on the last two trips I made in London (January 2012 to June 2013), this time I share with you the first part of my summer 2013 vacation. For the third week of July, I went away with my family, my mother and sister. For this short week getaway, we chose the Canary Islands for a holiday by the sea. Unlike holiday where were good walking shoes good shoes to go out all day long, it was a relaxing holiday where we would get up only to eat or have a sunbath. I will only have little to say and little to show you, but still … For relaxing holidays, the critical points are the climate, the hotel and its location which is the subject of this first post.
CLIMATE When I started the research about locations, I had not deliberately targeted the Canary Islands. We had a list of criteria (formula, location in relation to the beach, prices, dates) and according to these criteria and the availability of stays, Lanzarote was the destination that fitted best and because we were never gone, we chose that without really learn about the island and its climate. I must say that in the collective unconscious the weather must be beautiful and very hot in the Canaries (at least this is the idea that I had) and in fact, not really. On the island of Lanzarote, the climate is mostly like a perpetual spring. In the heat of the day, it’s often around 25 ° C and temperatures do not drop below 12 ° C and it rains very rarely. During the week I spent there, the mornings were often covered and fresh while in the afternoon the sun was strong and experienced temperatures were around 30 ° C. There is often a cool breeze blowing and it’s more than good. After sunset, the temperature falls slowly.
HOTEL – SOL LANZAROTE **** By local standards, the Sol Lanzarote Hotel is a four star. And without being an expert, I think that the classification was pretty good. The public areas were mostly clean and cleaned often, always smiling staff and the hotel was quite well equipped for people with reduced mobility with lifts and ramps even into pools. There is a bar for after dark and a bar next to the pools during the day which serves drinks and snacks.
Facilities: The hotel has 3 pools I found just great in the photos and then arriving it was a little disappointing. They were much smaller and often taken over by children. As in many hotels, this is the war of the reservation of the deckchairs at 8:30 am when they are released only at 9am according to the information provided by the hotel. People posting about chairs stacked and chained and rushed over as soon as they are released to place them wherever they want, put their towels on them and then leave to sleep or eat. And that’s a shame because the deckchairs were only occupied 50% of the time, in the afternoon.
For those who don’t want to go to the beach, fortunately there was also dense lawns to settle . Moreover, it should be noted that the hotel made special efforts about greenery. There are many palm trees, cacti and hibiscus.
We used to spend our time on the deck in the morning after breakfast under the shade of palm trees. Often I read a few magazines that I had brought from home or my book, or I wrote my postcards (yes I’m old fashion).
From 19h, staff begins to restack the decks and clean the area around the pools.
Catering: The hotel has a restaurant which is buffet style. The choice is quite wide and it was pretty good for this type of restoration. Of course a lot of french fries, french fries at every meal (even for breakfast) but there were a lot of boiled vegetables – it was not cooked but we felt the true taste of vegetables) dishes a little more elaborate like paella. Well, after one week was want to eat something else, but you can take a week. The restaurant has a large interior room and a smaller semi open room. It is not very large compared to the number of rooms (more than 300), but we could getting a table when we followed the recommended schedule without problem.
Room: We booked a room for 3. If the room was spacious and bright (as in the photo), the bad surprise was that the third bed was a sofa bed (as pictured too) that the bed base was like non-existent and the mattress thin enough to feel the roughness of said bed base.
BEACH We chose this hotel because it was close to the beach. After a door to the rear garden and across a bike path, we were on the beach! After lunch, we went to rest on the beach of fine sand. Given the climate, water is downright cold. We must not forget that this is the Atlantic! The water is cold but it is such a clear and blue! I was brave and I bathed in the ocean every day!
After dinner, we would walk along the beach enjoying the scenery. At sunset, the sky had gorgeous colors!
PUERTO DEL CARMEN As we stand still on deckcharis or in the beach most of the time, we did not take the time to visit the city Puerto del Carmen but is close (4/5km only). The quickest and easiest way to get there was to take a taxi, which cost us € 5! Some took bikes but we were not as brave! One morning, we amble there …
For the next article about Lanzarote, I will prepare the photos of the most beautiful landscapes of the island (well the ones I’ve had the pleasure of seeing).
Credits: https://fr.melia.com, Google maps
