Throwback Thursday - Lanzarote

Good morning all.

To brighten the blog up over the dark winter weeks ahead I have decided to document some of my past travels. Hopefully seeing some sunshine pictures will cheer us all up!

I'm starting with a week in Lanzarote which we took last January. A last minute booking when we realised our youngest didn't return to Uni until mid month. This was our first stay in the Canary Islands and we weren't sure what we were going to find when we got there!

All photos are taken on either the Fujifilm XF1 or iPhone 6s.

After an early flight out of Edinburgh we arrived in Lanzarote at lunchtime to find one suitcase had been badly damaged. Thankfully it was still usable and was eventually replaced by Jet2.

The island looked quite barren from above but we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty it was once on the ground. We stayed in the Princesa Yaiza in Playa Blanca which had suites to sleep the three of us. Room 223C proved very comfortable, quiet and got the sun all morning on the balcony...although the view only extended to the garden.

 

We were ideally placed on the promenade within easy walking distance of both the town and the marina. The lovely promenade stretched for several miles along the coast and made for pleasant walking.

The Rubicon Marina, which was about 10/15 minutes walk away was very pretty with lots of restaurants and quirky little shops.

As we'd arrived on a Thursday the hotel was still busy with the tail end of the Christmas/New Year customers but once they left on the weekend things quietened down a bit. We'd booked half board so ate in the hotel every night, managing to eat in all but one of the seven restaurants available.

The resort had suffered from the slump in property development with several empty overgrown plots on the waterfront and numerous apartment/villas on the outskirts remaining empty/unsold. On the whole though it was clean and tidy and much effort had been made along the promenade to make things pretty. From the port you could get a ferry over to Fuerteventura for the day, although we didn't on this trip.

We did take a Landrover Safari trip which included a coach trip around Timanfaya National Park; a camel ride stop; a drive down the west coast and a picnic lunch at Papagayo beach. Our driver and guide for the day was very good, knowledgeable and had a sense of humour which is always good on these sorts of trips.

There were several pools at the hotel and plenty of activities and separate areas for families with young kids and a lovely beach on the other side of the promenade. Various entertainment was provided nightly, sports facilities were available if you wanted and food was good in all the restaurants. 

We had a lovely relaxing week but as with all good things it had to come to an end and we arrived back to Edinburgh to temperatures 20 degrees lower and the next day we woke up to snow! 

I'd definitely recommend this as a winter destination and would happily go again or perhaps try one of the other islands. The weather was overcast at times the week we were there but it was infinitely warmer than it was back home! 

Now if only the pesky workmen would hurry up and finish the patio perhaps I could persuade hubby to take me to the sun 😎

Carol xx