To think the canary isles are tacky?

[YaWeeFurryBastard]

Lighthearted and I’m definitely open to having my mind changed!

I’ve been to what my family call Lanza-grotty as a teenager and there were some nice volcanic bits. I did notice there was a lot of places serving full English/curry etc. and a very brits abroad vibe. I get the distinct impression that Tenerife/grand canaria are even worse and when people I know go there, they seem to be aiming to max out on the beer/all inclusive and return to the same place every year. There doesn’t seem to be much culture or things to do that aren’t very geared towards British tourists (banana boats etc.)

In my mind I group the canaries in with Benidorm/Tunisia/Cape Verde I.e. places I would not want to go. However I can see how they’d be good for an off-season bit of sun and now we have a baby on the way it’s going to be more challenging to go long haul in winter.

Am I being a judgy bitch and actually missing out on a perfectly nice destination?

The winter sun is a bit of a myth. We went in February and it rained most days and the temperature only once got into the 20s.

What did you find boring?
Did you not do any exploring?

@YaWeeFurryBastard funny how the software doesn't autocorrect "Gran" to "Grand" on my phone when I type it out. Just admit you didn't know how it was spelled and we can all move on.

You're getting a bit of a pile on but you definitely could have worded your OP and got useful answers without sounding like such a horrendous snob!

My kindle fire autocorrects my typing to all sorts of weird and wonderful words. It would have corrected Gran to Grand.

I still think she was a snob though.

I didn’t use capitals because I usually lazily rely on the autocorrect function on my phone to capitalise proper nouns for me but it clearly didn’t work in this case and reverted to the closest word……

We go to Club La Santa in Lanzarote. A sports resort in the north of the island with a windsurfing lagoon, three 50m swimming pools plus leisure pool, running track, cycling, racquet sports etc - amazing place. Last time we were there we saw Lucy Charles Barclay (Ironman World Champion) and Olympian Sarah Storey (SPOTY nominee 2024). Not a beer gut or a banana boat in sight.

@RampantIvy - found nothing to explore. No culture, lack of places to eat, markets etc. Hotel was lovely but not for me.

In Lanzarote?

There is loads to see.

I'm sure a lot depends on where your hotel is, but there are a lot of architecturally interesting, in some cases important, churches full of art and with historic links to the colonial period. The Canaries' four Unesco-designated World Heritage sites include a cathedral and an archaeological site. There's no lack of culture.

@luckylavender did you do no planning? No research? I can't imagine there are many places in the world with "nothing to see" sounds like competitive ignorance to me.

Wow, people are baying for blood here, aren't they? People must really love the Canaries to want to defend them to the death 🤣

Doesn't the software also pick up on often used or recently used works and assume that's the one you want to use?

What a bloody hilarious thread. Plenty of posters have been able to make the rational point that a few resorts do no make the whole island, others are absolutely batshit. Great entertainment, I'm sad it's too early for popcorn.

🙄

@RampantIvy - I didn't say it was Lanzarote

That was rotten luck especially regarding the rain.
Lanzarote typically gets only 10 or 11 days of rain per year and Tenerife a few more, something like 14 or 15. That's why water conservation is such a massive issue in the Canaries. Obviously you're more likely to see rain in February than August but you were still unlucky to get a whole wet week as the average for February is about 3 rainy days in the month.
Temperature wise the climate is fairly temperate and the average for Feb is around 20c so not massively hot but a lot warmer than the average of around 6c and 13 days of rain that you get in the same month in the UK, and probably about the best you can do without a long haul flight at that time of year.
Obviously you can get unexpectedly or good weather at times anywhere - we had shorts and t shirt weather in Berlin in November a few years ago and I had taken my winter coat and thermals! But one person's holiday doesn't negate years of weather recording and there's loads of freely available data that shows that it's usually warm but not red hot and fairly dry in the Canaries in February. It does vary from place to place of course - it's well known that the climate is quite different in Northern Tenerife compared to the South for instance. Anyone expecting wall to wall sunshine and really high temperatures probably hasn't done their research but it does sound like you were very unfortunate to have such poor weather.

I think it is very unlucky to get rain. You can get quite a lot of cloud cover - we did in Fuerteventura one May. Cloud every day.

We’ve always had glorious weather in Lanzarote in October half term. We had quite a lot of cloud in July but we were at the sports camp so I wasn’t bothered about wall to wall sunshine.

Which island then?

@RampantIvy - a bit aggressive but Fuerteventura

@luckylavender Sorry, that wasn't meant to come across as aggressive

@ElaborateCushion You covered 640 sq miles in half a day? That’s quite a feat!