Lanzarote – An Escape To The Sun

We chose Lanzarote in the Canary Islands as our destination for half term week in February 2018. It was an opportunity for us to get away from the gloomy weather that we have been having in the UK. There have been so many cold, wet and windy days this winter, Debbie and I both felt that we needed to go somewhere that was warm.

Lanzarote was about the only warm destination that we could fly to from our local airports (Southampton or Bournemouth), and we wanted to go somewhere that would be warm enough for us to sit outside and read a book, go to the beach or maybe even swim in the sea.

So take a trip with us, and learn about the island of Lanzarote at the same time, as I throw in some facts about the island as well as details of our holiday.

The Journey To Lanzarote

With Bournemouth only being a small airport, check in, boarding and departure were nice and simple, and the flight, which was with Tui was smooth and uneventful (unlike the return journey, which I will relate later).

Arriving at Arrecife Airport in Lanzarote, it didn’t take long to get off the plane and through immigration. I hope that doesn’t change should the UK leave the EU after Brexit!

The airport at Arrecife is still fairly small and only has a handful of bridges to make boarding and leaving the plane easier, and so we had to exit the plane down stairs and board a bus which took us to the terminal. I have to admit the whole process was really fast and uneventful. The airport management company seem to know what they are doing. I have rarely seen the process of unloading a plane, getting the passengers through immigration, picking up their baggage and out of the airport go smoother, and believe me I have taken plenty of flights in my time!

Picking up our rental car was also fairly straightforward, although the instructions were a little confusing. We chose Plus Car Rentals as their range of cars and prices for an automatic seemed about the best, I wanted an automatic because I prefer to drive one, and knowing how mountainous some of the roads can be in Lanzarote, it was definitely well worth the extra money. The confusion came because we had to pick up our car from the car park outside the terminal, and the location wasn’t signed, as apparently it’s very expensive to have signs (or so we were told). However, we found the right place, thanks to Debbie, and within 5 minutes we were on our way to the apartment that we had rented in the village of Tiagua, which is in the centre of the island.

Unlike some places that we have visited, Lanzarote is really easy when it comes to driving around the island. The road surface is very good throughout the island, with practically no potholes. I assume this is due to their not being any frosts, but I am sure the government is behind this, as locations are generally also well signposted. Traffic also seemed to be fairly light, so no traffic jams, and a pleasant drive everywhere we went added to this being a great week away.

But back to our arrival and Tiagua…

The Apartment We Rented In Tiagua

The journey from the airport to this small village in the centre of the island took barely 15 minutes, and we found our apartment easily. It was still light when we arrived as well, which is always a bonus, since when you arrive in a strange place after dark, you have no idea what the area really looks like.

The apartment is above another building around the back of a small restaurant. It’s one of two apartments, and there is a lovely pool right outside the door. The only problem was, that with Lanzarote having the coldest February in over 20 years, it was chilly in the evenings. The temperature was 19C when we arrived, but with the apartment, like most other buildings on the island,  being designed to keep you cool out of the sun, it was literally freezing in there. It’s not normal for me to ear socks indoors, but I had to there, and Debbie and I both sat on the couch facing each other with our feet up because the tiled floor was so cold. Thanks to a blanket and a small space heater though, we survived, and the weather did warm up over the week, but it was always cold indoors.

These pictures were taken the morning after we arrived as it was getting too dark by the time I tried to take photos after we arrived. Even so, it was still quite cloudy the next morning, but as you can see it’s a lovely location.

Monday Morning

Arriving in Lanzarote on a Sunday evening as it was starting to get dark, and us being tired after our journey, we didn’t really want to go out again, even though we were rather hungry and some warm food would have been nice. Our host was supposed to have left a welcome pack for us, but alas all we found in the apartment was a pack of sweet biscuits, several bananas, and half a dozen satsumas. Fortunately we had bought a couple of packets of crisps with us which we were going to eat on the plane, and so our Sunday evening meal consisted of bananas, oranges, crisps and some sweet biscuits. Hungry, and more than anything frozen in the apartment, we decided to call it a night fairly early and headed to bed.

The following morning we were both starving, and so after a cup of coffee we drove off to find a large Mercadona supermarket in Arrecife that I had located on the map before we left home. This didn’t take long to find, and we left there about half an hour later with loads more food than we should have, the usual story of going grocery shopping on an empty stomach!

We drove back to the apartment, made a hot bacon sandwich with some fresh baked baguettes, had another coffee, and then we were ready to go and explore the island.

Join us for the next part of our trip and learn more about the wonderful island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands: February 2018 in Lanzarote (part two).