Lanzarote or Tenerife?

[IsabellaofFrance]

DS has said that for his 15th birthday (in September) he would like to go for a underwater submarine trip, which are offered in Tenerife or Lanzarote.

I have never been to either island (have been to Gran Canaria though), so am wondering what people think is the best? We would DIY with flights and accomodation. We like nice beaches, not too crowded or rowdy, plenty of shops but not bothered too much about eating out.

I've been to both. Personally I'm a Lanzarote lover though only Playa Blanca area. Great choice of villas and apartment. Beach at Playa Flamingo good for families and Papagayo more wild and unspoilt. Great prom walking with plenty of shops in the centre of the resort as well as bars and restaurant and good supermarkets if you don't want to eat out. Timanfaya national Park a good day out if you haven't been.
Puerto del Carmen is much, much busier and no longer somewhere I would consider. I used to like Puerto del la Cruz in Tenerife but it's all too busy these days. Mount Tiede is great for a day out though.

Second the Lanzarote vote. Playa Blanca is lovely, and the old Town and Marina area of Puerto del Carmen is still nice and there was loads of sea life at the little beach we went to there . There were shops in both but I didn't really take much notice of them. Lanzarote is easy to drive around in a hire car too to visit the Volcano National Park and Cesar Manrique artist house etc.

A word of warning - Papagayo beaches can be reached by a fairly long walk from the eastern end of Playa Blanca (some nice bunglalows and a supermarket here and about 20-30 mins walk along the front to the main centre) or by driving on unpaved roads, which are fine if you take care (costs 3 euro).

However, the car we hired in PdC a couple of weeks ago had a card in it that specifically said that you were not allowed to drive to Papagayo beach in the car. Luckily we didn't want to go there that time, but we did the time before without incident in a car we hired for the week at the airport. I don't remember if there was a rule with this car that forbid entry to the Papagayo beaches.

I can imagine that the submarine safari in Lanzarote will be spectacular because the experienced divers I was with said that it was better than Egypt.

We've been to Tenerife for 5 years in a row and are booked in for October again.

We stay near Costa Adeje which has a lovely beach very close at Playa Del Duque, a 10 minute walk along takes you to Caleta beach which is volcanic sand, but very popular with body boarders so your teens might like it and has some lovely authentic restaurants.
Last year we stayed in this appartment :[www.ownersdirect.co.uk/accommodation/p8079480]] which was a great location 10mins walk from the beach.

We've also been to Lanzarote, don't have such favourable memories of it, perhaps because we went for fairly basic accomodation and DS was a lot younger so not very relaxing, but the Cesar Manrique house is definitely worth a visit and we did a camel ride ( not to be recommended with a 11 month old).