Thomas lee

I am planning to go to Canary Islands next spring. It looks like there are several islands. Has anyone been there? Which island do you recommend? Do you suggest air transportation or ferry from either Portugal or Spain? How expensive are hotels/meals?

Myriam

Hi Thomas, <BR>The Canary Island are a favourite destination for North European travellers as they have a quite nice temperature with lots of sunshine during our long winters. There are 7 island of which Tenerife and Gran Ganaria are the largest and the "oldest" tourist-wise. <BR>Tenerife has NO natural beaches, all are artifical but the hotels / apartments have very nice exotic gardens. It is particularly the southern part of the island (Playa de las Americas, Los Cristianos, Playa Fanabe, etc.) that attracts most of the tourists because the weather is better than in the north (mountains!). <BR>The southern part of Gran Canaria has a beautiful very long beach between Playa del Ingles and Maspalomas with high dunes. On the other hand the hotels are built one next to the other (In Playa del Ingles at least) and they have only small gardens. <BR>On Gran Canaria you will find more German and Scandinavian tourists while Tenerife has a more mixed public. Gran Canaria used to be more exclusive. <BR> <BR>Furthermore there is also Lanzarote, the volcano island (black beaches) and Fuerteventura (white beaches), La Gomera (a small island with beautiful nature) and Hierro (not yet touristic). <BR> <BR>We have been a few times to Tenerife (will be going back on May 19th), to Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. <BR>In Europe these are fairly expensive holidays. Nowadays flying to the Caribbean is almost the same price and that's what many Belgians do! <BR> <BR>I cannot advise you re air transportation or ferry (don't even know if the latter is possible) nor on the price of hotels. When we book this in Belgium the price includes airfare and hotel accomodation. Meals can be as expensive as you wish. There are many take-away resto's, McDonald, etc. but also the "better" ones. <BR> <BR>If you want to know more about any island in particular, please let me know. <BR>Myriam <BR>

Barry

The above information is very accurate. We visited Tenerefe January 1998 and had a ball. Stayed in Playa de las Americas which is in the Southern part of the island. This January we went to Gran Canary Island.(Mas Palomas) If you can only do one island go to Tenerefe first. Stay in the Southern part as we did. Rent a car for two days to see the volcano and the rest of the island. It is quite a place. Canary Islands are visited mostly by Europeans. Few Americans go because it is much easier to go to the Carribean. <BR>We enjoyed both islands tremendously but it is a time consuming trip to get their from the U.S. Living in Virginia we had to fly to NY first, then Madrid, and Gran Canary Island. Hotels vary with price one pays. There are condo's for rent blocks from the beaches, which are reasonable, up to Five Star Palaces which include two meals a day. In Tenerefe, breakfast was included. The food prices in town were very reasonable. Local places charge $30 to $45 per couple for an evening meal. $15 -$20 per couple for lunch. Food is good. There are many sights to see on this island. We did not eat out on our trip to Grand Canary Island. The package we purchased included two meals a day which were very high quality. Everyone wore Jackets for the evening meals and Champaign was served at breakfast. Do fly to the Canary Islands. It is very quick. Iberian Airlines is a good choice along with British Air. It depends on where you are coming from. Have a great time.

carolyn rylands

Hi - my husband and I spent our honeymoon in Tenerife and it is to this day our most memorable trip (and we travel overseas alot). It was great - we stayed in Playas de Las Americas in a timeshare and it was gorgeous. We rented a car for 2 days to see the island - I highly recommend doing this. We went and the volcano and stopped in small villages to eat. Playas is sort of a condensed tourist area, so a car was not necessary the rest of the time we were there - we walked everywhere! There's lots to do and a million restaurants. Americans rarely go there - while were there for 9 days, we met NO other Americans and many of the locals we met were surprised to see Americans. The food is pretty inexpensive - if you go to that area, eat at a nice place called Pasta-a-go-go - food was great! <BR> <BR>We flew Iberia, connecting in Madrid and it was fine. Enjoy - it's a beautiful area! Only thing I do remember is that it was somewhat expensive to fly there..

miriam

Hallo Thomas, <BR>Myriam gave you excellent information, but she has forgotten my favourite Canary Island: La Palma. Unesco rated it on rank 3 of Islands in the world. It´s also called "the green Island". If you like hiking then I definetely would advise to visit La Palma. If the most important thing to you is the beach you´re wrong in La Palma. There´re not so many and they´re black. But the landscape with the second largest vulcan in the world is fascinating, there are animals and trees which you can only find there. <BR>And furthermore there is little tourism and therefore it´s very cheap. You can rent privately owned houses with pool for 6 people for 50-60$ a day. <BR> <BR>I can provide more information if somebody is interested. <BR> <BR>Regards <BR> <BR>Miriam <BR>