The Canary Islands – but not as you know them
For many, the Canary Islands are like a favourite cardigan – a safe, familiar, yet unremarkable go-to for winter warmth.
The truth is very, very few people – even Telegraph readers – really know this sub-tropical archipelago 62 miles off the southern tip of Morocco’s west coast. If they did, cardigans would be on catwalks and the Canaries would sit comfortably at the top of everyone’s most-wanted holiday list.
You may think the Canary Islands are just a fly-and-flop destination. But where else can you hop from prehistoric jungle to desert, thrill to top-notch watersports, spot whales then savour a Michelin-starred meal – in January?
Let’s start with the numbers. There are seven inhabited islands, right? Wrong. There are eight, including Lanzarote’s sandy maverick neighbour, La Graciosa. Ah, but can you stay there, you might ask? Yes. But more of that later.
And isn’t it all terribly sedate? That depends on how you feel about the underground lava tubes to explore, pyramids to peruse, ancient forests to patrol, giant lizards to spot, and a night sky so clear you’d swear it was a giant Imax screen. Then there are award-winning wines, A-list golf courses, and hillside villages that could be twinned with Shangri-La, as well as the volcano-fuelled barbecues and an amazing indigenous cuisine served in underground restaurants. And we’ve not even mentioned the beaches yet.
Each island has a personality unlike any other; the only challenge is deciding which is for you. Read on to find out.
Tenerife
Best for families
Who goes?
Tenerife is so versatile, fun and keen to please all that it would be easier to list who doesn’t go – skiers. Study your fellow passengers on a flight over and you’re likely to see an even smattering of spandex, lurex, Gore-Tex and Rolex. The island is attracting almost the whole spectrum of travellers these days, with its swanky family resorts, world-class attractions – like the water-adventure Siam Park and the animal-filled Loro Park – plus a whole spaghetti network of hike and bike trails. If only Mount Teide had ski lifts.
Why go now?
It’s never been easier to get to the largest and most populous of the Canaries. More than a dozen regional British airports serve Tenerife, and this winter British Airways adds a new route from Heathrow.
It’s no surprise that the 2018 Michelin Guide to Spain and Portugal is being launched this month at The Ritz-Carlton Abama on the island. Gastro-eats are big in Tenerife right now and there are four Michelin-starred restaurants to choose from.
Where else can you hop from prehistoric jungle to desert, thrill to top-notch watersports, spot whales then savour a Michelin-starred meal – in January?
Five-star accommodation also abounds. Hard Rock opened its second European hotel in Tenerife last autumn – the first was in Ibiza.
But while there are plenty of sophisticated adult-only hotels on offer – such as the golf and spa-oriented Meliá Hacienda del Conde in Buenavista del Norte, the Hotel Las Madrigueras in Playa de Las Américas and the Iberostar Grand Hotel Salomé in Costa Adeje – the stand-out aspect of Tenerife is that it caters so well for children. Several top-shelf hotels offer unique, Tenerife-focused activities that go above and beyond the usual kids’ club capers, including astronomy safaris (hosted by Hotel Jardines and the Ritz-Carlton) and dolphin interactions (Hotel Botanico).
Why is it so great?
Of all the islands, Tenerife has the most diversity. In winter, you can sledge on the white slopes of Teide National Park, then in less than an hour be tanning your white bits on the beach, or hitting the greens in year-round sunshine on one of the eight golf courses. You can scale precipitous mountains, burrow through underground lava tubes, explore pyramids and dive in waters that are home to dolphins, or trek through jungle-like forests for a cold beer at village bars where guiris (foreigners) are still a novelty in the eyes of staring locals. If you’ve an assortment of family members to please, you can’t go wrong with Tenerife; it has a bit of everything.
How to go?
Classic Collection Holidays (0800 047 1064; classic-collection.co.uk) offers seven nights at Hotel Jardines de Nivaria for a family of four from a total cost of £5,998. The price is based on two adults and two children sharing interconnecting rooms on a B&B basis and includes return flights from Gatwick (a further 22 UK departure airports are available) to Tenerife, and private transfers. Departs April 5.
La Gomera
Best for hiking
Who goes?
Couples mainly, of the woolly sock fraternity, plus others looking for a haven of leafiness who find holiday heaven in the simpler things in life like tasty local food, show-stopping sunsets and glorious mountain scenery.
Why go now?
Temperatures on the island are a decidedly pleasant 71-73F (22-23C) just now, so there’s plenty of scope for swimming and sunbathing. A ferry service linking La Gomera’s three ports of San Sebastian, Playa de Santiago and Valle Gran Rey has just begun, so it’s never been easier to hop around the southern half of the island.
Why is it so great?
Monumental landscapes are the main reasons for choosing La Gomera. The island is shaped like a splayed orange, with immense valleys separating each segment. Its craggy interior is topped by Garajonay National Park, a mysterious, misty cloak of ancient laurels and carpets of fern, with moss-shrouded monoliths poking out into the blue sky like the tops of witches’ hats.
There are very few attractions for young families, but if you do bring the offspring and they tire of forest trails and coastal walks, there are a couple of beachfront 4-star hotels with child-friendly facilities. Take the kids to the rooftop pool at the modern Hotel Playa Calera in Valle Gran Rey or the kids’ club and playground at the Hotel Jardin Tecina in Playa de Santiago to put the beams back on their little faces.
As with El Hierro, there are no international flights to La Gomera; island-hopping via ferry or plane is the only way to get there, which makes the journey part of the adventure.
How to go?
Prestige Holidays (01425 480400, prestigeholidays.co.uk) has a week at Parador Conde de la Gomera, based on two adults in a double room on a B&B basis, arriving Dec 12, with return flights with Tui from London Gatwick to Tenerife South and private return transfers including ferry tickets between Tenerife and La Gomera, from £879 per person.
El Hierro
Best for nature lovers
Who goes?
Couples seeking sunshine and solace away from the crowds, families wanting to get back in touch with nature, and those keen to explore what some say is one of the best dive destinations in the world.
Why go now?
Out of season, you’ve more chance of being able to bag one of the four rooms at the Hotel Puntagrande, registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the “Smallest Hotel in the World”.
Why is it so great?
Setting Lanzarote’s tiny neighbour of La Graciosa aside, El Hierro is the smallest of the major seven Canary Islands, making it the easiest to traverse. It’s also by far the least developed. Instead of beaches and theme park rides, you get mist-shrouded moonscapes and rehabilitation centres for the island’s famous giant lizards.
If that makes El Hierro sound a bit, shall we say, unsophisticated, that’s because it is. But therein lies its beauty.
If you want sophisticated resorts, you’re much better off going to Tenerife or Gran Canaria. But if you want blissful simplicity and appreciate the wonders of nature more than the ingenuity of tourism developers, you’ll find your Nirvana on this least-visited of the islands.
El Hierro is not only a place to recharge your batteries, it’s a mystical Mecca where you leave feeling grounded with Mother Earth once more. The island has an almost magical spirit that you can feel along the ancient trails of El Golfo, amidst the swells of mist that stroke the twisted juniper trees of El Sabinar, and on the petrified rivers of lava that lie on the rippled volcanic plains of the interior like giant tubes of melted liquorice.
Divers, too, will find their natural version of an amusement park in the clear waters of La Restinga Marine Reserve, where an underwater eruption in 2011 has refurbished the area’s 10 dive sites with spectacular new colonies of Technicolor flora and fauna.
Quiet and broody, but with a propensity for the odd explosive outburst, El Hierro is perfect if you prefer your attractions natural rather than man-made.
How to go?
Cachet Travel (cachet-travel.co.uk) offers a week at the Parador de El Hierro, departing between Jan 8 and 18, at £1,256 per person, based on two people sharing a standard room on B&B basis. This includes flights from Gatwick to Tenerife South (other regional departures are available at a supplement), domestic flights between Tenerife North and El Hierro, private transfers between the South and North airports on Tenerife, and car hire with comprehensive insurance for the full holiday duration on El Hierro.
Lanzarote
Best for wellness
Who goes?
Those who like a side order of something salubrious with their sunshine – be that yoga, meditation, spa pampering or even breath-training – many surf camps incorporate one or all of the above. Lanzarote is also popular with hard-core sporting types, partly due to hosting one of the toughest triathlon contests on the planet, the Lanzarote Ironman, and also because of get-up-and-go resorts such as Club La Santa.
Why go now?
An ideal time to get your fill of me-time at one of the many spa and wellness centres dotted around the east and south coasts, such as the Vitanda in Puerto del Carmen or the Thalassa Spa Centre in the Hotel Princesa Yaiza. If you’re a diver, don’t miss the incredible Museo Atlántico, an underwater museum that was completed earlier this year off the coast of Playa Blanca. Licensed scuba divers can swim between 300 life-size figures submerged at a depth of 14 metres. Further up the east coast, the five-star Hotel Fariones will open its doors soon, providing a perfect ocean-front antidote to winter blues.
Why is it so great?
Lanzarote is like no other Canary Island, with its harsh landscape softened with sugar cube villages. Unlike its more laissez-faire siblings, a certain orderliness has been established here thanks to the late, local environmental advocate, César Manrique. It’s because of his work that all village houses are painted in white, with green or blue shutters. Also, roadside billboards are conspicuous by their absence, and no buildings are taller than a palm tree (except one hotel in Arrecife that slipped through the net).
For natural drama, Timanfaya National Park provides some of the best in the archipelago. Like a setting from The Land That Time Forgot, its inhospitable landscape is pockmarked with volcanic cones and warmed by black carpets of ash that can melt your flip-flops in seconds. The guided tour is phenomenal and finishes at a restaurant where meat is grilled on heat rising from the depths of a volcano.
As well as some fantastic beaches, like the coves of Papagayo, Lanzarote puts great emphasis on paying homage to nature’s fiery fury with grotto tours, volcanic vineyards and art installations. The striking topography, right, reminds you constantly that Mother Nature doesn’t nibble on the landscape here, she chomps.
If you like a little natural drama in between your sand and spa sessions, Lanzarote is definitely your island.
How to go?
Hotel Princess Yaiza has on-site tennis courts, gym, spinning, aerobics and Zumba classes. Prestige Holidays (01425 480400, prestigeholidays.co.uk) has a week’s stay in Hotel Princesa Yaiza for two adults in a double room on a bed and breakfast basis, arriving January 10 and including return flights with Ryanair from London Stansted to Arrecife and private return transfers, from £915 per person.
La Graciosa
Best for castaways
Who goes?
Those looking for the simple pleasures, such as sand, sea and snooze-fest seclusion. The island is reputedly a former pirate hideout and, apart from the absence of dodgy seafarers and menacing flags, not a lot has changed since. It’s the perfect place to pull down the shutters to the outside world and completely chill.
Why go now?
Because everybody needs some beachfront down time, and on La Graciosa this isn’t so much favoured as forced. Plus, sooner or later somebody will build a hotel here and that Robinson Crusoe effect will be gone.
Why is it so great?
Commercialism in any form doesn’t exist on this barefoot paradise half a mile off the northern tip of Lanzarote. Its 11 square miles are easy to traverse by foot, rented bike or jeep taxi, and filled with little more than dusty hills, a craggy plain and a comatose harbour. The real gems of La Graciosa are its incredibly empty beaches, such as Playa de las Conchas and Playa de la Cocina, where near-white sand and aquamarine waters make up for the lack of any tourism infrastructure.
Most visitors are of the day-trip variety, but to do La Graciosa full justice and sink into a pleasantly vegetative state, a week in one of the basic pensions or apartments is a must. Caleta del Sebo is the settlement that greets you after a 25-minute boat ride from Orzola in Lanzarote. This motley collection of whitewashed houses and bar/restaurants is connected by streets of sand, and is home to most of the island’s 500 people.
If you need complete relaxation far from the call of cash, cast yourself adrift on La Graciosa, the Canaries’ unsophisticated non-conformer.
How to go?
Cachet Travel (cachet-travel.co.uk) offers a week at the Vista Mar Apartments, departing between December 1 and 10, at £578 per person, based on two sharing. It includes flights from Gatwick to Lanzarote (other regional departures available at a supplement), ferry crossings and private airport transfers.
Fuerteventura
Best for water sports
Who goes?
It’s all about the coastline in Fuerteventura, which is why beach lovers and surf dudes flock to its shores all year round. Windsurfers and kite surfers colour the oceanscape with swathes of vivid polyester and Mylar near the Sahara-like dunes of Corralejo, while surfers add to the mix on the wilder west coast and in Sotavento, home to annual water sports world championships.
Why go now?
Between the high seasons of July to August and December to March, accommodation and flight costs are lower.
If you’re a couple looking for all-inclusive peace, the perennially popular Suite Hotel Atlantis Fuerteventura Resort has undergone a remodelling, with an adult-only section added within its extensive gardens. At the other end of the island, another all-inclusive has been recently revamped; the LaBranda Cactus Garden Hotel offers modern rooms and rooftop cocktails close to the fishing village of Morro Jable.
Why is it so great?
Along with La Graciosa, Fuerteventura has undeniably the most eye-catching beaches in the Canary Islands and probably throughout Europe. So if ocean or sand dominate your holiday plans, there’s no better choice. Corralejo in the north, and Jandia in the south are where the vast majority of families take their buckets and spades, though the shallow paddling at the horseshoe-shaped beach in the resort of Caleta de Fuste is also proving popular for those with young children.
Fuerteventura has astounding beauty in the form of pale turquoise waters, nearly 100 miles of immaculate blonde beaches – mostly undeveloped and footprint-free – and stunning curvaceous dunes that resemble a mini-Sahara, plus a relatively barren interior that houses a handful of visitor draws. For Caribbean-style beaches and world-class water sports, you’ll find that this laid-back island is hard to beat throughout the whole of Europe.
How to go?
Thomas Cook (thomascook.com) offers seven nights in Fuerteventura from £740 per person, based on two adults sharing at the Suite Hotel Atlantis Fuerteventura Resort on an all-inclusive basis, flying from London Gatwick on January 13.
