Planning a trip to the Canaries - off the beaten path?
 

Hello, I would greatly appreciate comments on this itinerary from other travellers.
We are a young at heart middle aged couple. We do NOT like all inclusive resorts and like driving around visiting villages, parks , eating & drinking staying in charming small hotels B&Bs.
Proposed Trip: March/April 12 days
Fly to Lanzarote - rent a car- Spend 4 days exploring wineries, villages, parks
Get on a ferry (with the car hopefully...?) to Fuerteventura. Spend 2 days driving down the island.
Ferry across to Gran Canaria (with car..) stay in Las Palmas, explore the island for 3/4 days
Drop the car (do-able??) and fly back to Lanzarote for one night and early flight home.
I have been told that the Canaries are beautiful despite mass tourism and we would like to discover some of that.....
Any advice on time distrubition, travel tips etc would be very useful. Thanks!

Off the beaten track... nah
Fuerteventura is the only place that just about allows for this. If you head south you will find the island less mobbed, but to find very quiet places you need to get out of the car and walk/cycle through the national parks and areas of scurb down there. lots of little coves with a bar and a beach. The local towns in the south tend to be for locals rather than tourists. South west beach is very much the surfers side but it is begining to geet built up by illegal properties. You'll find two plagues, lizards and chipmonks (the monks are US imports) neither are dangerous.

The other two islands are just tourist hotspots and you will go mad with boredom.

I don't know if you are from US/Can but if you are coming all this way why not go to Marrakesh in Morocco, nicer, cheaper and a bit warmer.

If you really want to go off the beaten path choose the smaller western islands.

I have no idea if rental companies would allow you take take a car from one island to another. Many companies operate just on one island. You would need to confirm that with the company you choose. You could get the ferry back to Lanzarote with the car from Gran Canaria.

Oh dear! I was evidently being too optimistic about off the beaten track.....
So do you think it will be really crowded even at the end of March/April?
Fuerteventura's little beach coves sound great and we are happy to walk but how disappointing that you think Lanzarote and GC are totally unattractive! What about those amazing looking vineyards? The markets and historic towns?
I was thinking it would be a bit like Corfu where with some planning we managed to find 3 amazing places to stay with incredible scenery and little villages, great local food etc totally different from the pubs and resorts. Perhaps I am getting the size of these islands wrong.
The reason I chose these 3 islands is that we have direct and super cheap flights from Rome (not N America!) to Lanzarote and time wise they seemed to make sense. We have been to Morocco already.
I will certainly look into ferrying back -just thought it would take too long.
Anyway lots to think about so thanks to you both!

There may well be quiet places in the two big islands and April is a quiet place but I struggle to see that they are very large. Yes I'd rehire as I cross from island to island. What about Portugal (north of Algarve say Alentejo).

Yes, they are smaller than I thought. Maybe 12 days are too many. Or we could fit in some of the Western islands as well. La Gomera appeals.
We went to Portugal a couple of years ago. Douro. Alentejo region looks lovely.

I thought the chipmunks came from Africa? You forgot the monk parrots.

Fuerteventura is a large island. I'm not sure two days will allow you to explore a lot.

Some of the beaches north of Morro Jable are less occupied. Playa Mal nombre for example. They aren't 100% deserted but they aren't cheek to jowl. The island is way too big for that.

If you want to know what the various beaches look like


https://www.travelernick.com/2018/06...fuerteventura/

Playa Cebada is the closests to a full/busy beach.

Next to it is Playa del Matorral which is fairly large and wide. Even when it's busy you might have 10 metres between people.

From there the things tend to thin out more.

We can happily spend 8 days on La Palma so 12 days for those three islands is possibly a bit rushed. Gran Canaria is described as a continent in miniature it offers so many different zones.
I suggest you do some more research into what there is and what you really want to see before you book anything that can't be cancelled. There are some excellent websites out there to help, as well as plenty aimed and the sun sea sangria bunch.

Looking quickly at the Hertz website for Gran Canaria, it states that cars cannot be taken on the ferry. Look into taking flights between the islands.

I believe that with research you will be able to find what you are looking for. Tourism has well and truly found the major Canary Islands but there must be places off the beaten track you can explore. La Gomera and La Palma are well worth investigating.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/b...holiday-guide/

This article is a bit old, the flight information is not accurate anymore: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...d-9831652.html

The beaches look lovely but in March/April I wasn't really thinking of a beach holiday. Too cold for us.

Thanks, had already seen the Telegraph piece and found it inspiring. Annoying about no inter-island car rentals. Not too keen on flying except maybe to La Palma

Water will be cold in March but air temperature should be just fine for the beach.

Lanzarote is a unique island with its volcanoes and man-made wonders like the vineyards of La Geria.
There are only three major touristy resort areas on the island: Puerto del Carmen, Playa Blanca and Costa Teguise.. outside of these areas you still find hundreds of accomodations off the tourist trail.

Switching rental cars is no big deal as the major company of the islands, Cabrera Medina, has pick-up/drop-off locations also at the harbors.
So drop off your Lanzarote car at Playa Blanca, take the ferry to Fuerteventura, and pick up your next car at the harbor of Corralejo.

Between Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria (and between GC and Lanzarote) intra-island flights are the way to go. Binter Canarias usually has very moderately priced airfares. And you won't pay a surcharge when you rent, for example, from a harbor pick-up location at Corralejo to a drop-off location at Fuerteventura airport.

Off the beaten path in Canary Islands? Well...Fuerteventura, Hierro and La Palma islands, definitely. And Lanzarote is a very nice place too, you´ll love it, but it´s touristy. It´s always high season on these islands.

We took our rental car on the ferry between Tenerife to La Gomera.

We spent a week there last January. I liked the island as its landscape is very varied. Four/five days would have been enough, though.

Cowboy, thanks for your post. I was concerned with the waste of time of pick-up/drop off at the various ports but what you say is encouraging.
I will work on fitting in La Palma. As we are not interested in a beach holiday as such I think we will have time.

Do you remember which rental company?
Thanks!

It's a long time ago but I will see if I can find it.

I have re-planned after noting some of your comments and it now looks like this:
Arrive Lanzarote – 3 nights winery 1 night Playa Blanca –
Catch morning ferry to Fuerteventura drive South (one night 2 days sleep in Antigua middle of the island)
Catch evening ferry to Gran Canaria – 2 nights (mainly to visit a friend and see Las Palmas and old town)
Fly to La Palma 3 nights –
Ferry to La Gomera – 1 night –
Fly back to Lanzarote and home.
We would rent a car in all these places except GC
It may seem a bit rushed but we are not looking for rest and relaxation or beach holiday as we do all that at home.
The only thing that worries me are time wasted in picking up/dropping off car and getting on/off ferries. Any feedback on this?
Also are the ferries the kind you can stay outside on and enjoy the ride or do you have to stay shut inside in a seat and get seasick?
Thanks for your comments!

The mixed reviews of the Canaries and Lanzarote in particular are because in Britain, the Canaries have a reputation for very low budget, grotty package holidays. In fact Lanzarote is often called 'Lanza-grotty'.

The reputation has some basis as there is a lot of this. However, read up on it and find the out of the way places - deserted beaches, villages, etc. Check out Cesar Manrique. The volcanoes are spectacular.

The vineyards are very unusual and make for a nice visit but I have to say that every bottle of the local wine that I tried I came away disliking (and I'm no wine snob). I mean not even enjoyable with 'table wine' kind of expectations. I've been to plenty of places and happily drank the local wine even though it was mediocre or worse. Not sure why i didn't get on with Lanzarote wine.

I am currently on Lanzarote, sitting outside my bungalow in t-shirt at 11pm in December and already through half a bottle of El Grifo red. Due to the very labor-intense work in these vineyards you hardly find any „okay“ wines here for €5 or less as on the peninsula. The grapes are also quite different from your usual Rioja or Ribera del Duero so it can very well be that you don’t like it. But the local stores also have dozens of wines from the peninsula in stock, usually much cheaper than the local stuff.

I went through my photos but there's no sign with the rental name on the car. I'm sorry.
It doesn't hurt to ask one of the brokers such as Sunnycars or Auto Europe to find out for you which company allows you to take their car on the ferry.

We are wine producers ourselves and well aware that you have to pay for quality - especially from small family run wineries where just the barrels, corks and bottles are a huge cost in themselves, let alone selecting each grain by hand! We are really looking forward to seeing those vineyards and tasting the Malvasia!

Thank-you for that! I have sent an e mail to one company and will kep trying! If I findo one I will post it for future needs.

Car hire on Lanzarote (presumably similar on other Canaries) seems to be dominated by local type companies that specialise in very basic, cheap hire cars based on the fact that the needs of their market and most people don't do any serious drivings. I think that most people arrive and leave by airport transfer included in their package. Most will spend the majority of the time at their hotels which are mainly all inclusive and do a day or two of exploring on the island.

Car hire companies turn cars around quickly and you just show up with your licence and a credit card and in 5 minutes you're driving off in your roughed up Opel Corsa. You return it and someone cleans out the crisp wrappers and it's back on the street with another customer. I think many people hire a car for a day or two of their longer stay. Perhaps exaggerating here to make a point but I just don't understand paying to ferry a hire car around the islands.

I'm sure it could make sense in some ways but just seems unusual from my (limited) view of how things work there.

Thanks, it's good to know that it's a speedy process as I think we'll have to end up doing that. However I checked and it's only about 10 euros more to take the car on board the ferry. So for some parts of the trip it would be less of a hassle to hang on to it. I am thinking of Lanzarote to Fuerte. The main thing is not to have to queue for an hour each of the 8 times we will be picking up and dropping off!

I‘ve rented again from Cabrera Media, the local champion of the Canary Islands.
Unlike other rental car companies which „surprise“ with a insurances you should have on top of what you think you already have, they give one all-inclusive price like €100 a week, all in, no deductible.
It takes about 5 Minutes to pick up the car (assuming there is no line), and the vehicles are all new or very new and in good shape.
Gas costs „nothing“ on the Canaries (€1 per liter due to lower taxation) so it‘s really nothing one has to think about when calculating the budget.

Most Lanzarote wineries are located in the area of La Geria or La Asomada and usually have a restaurant / tapas bar attached.
The Malvasia or Listan Negro is usually sold at €10-15 per bottle. Not exactly what the €1 a pint crowd from Puerto del Carmen is willing to pay. I think it‘s worth the price, and it also comes in dry/white varieties. Still powerful since the grapes turn more or less into raisins under the African sun.