There is a water park on Tenerife, it’s not all posh hotels and botanical gardens! AquaPark Octopus has loads of slides for most ages and yet more dolphins. There are dolphin shows every day at AquaPark, bloomin’ big ones too, the biggest dolphins shows in Europe!
If those cheeky dolphins aren’t your thing, Tenerife Zoo is not far from Los Cristianos. Known locally as Parque Las Aguilas, it’s a great jungle-like zoo, with lots of exciting animals from white tigers to pygmy hippos. There are loads of birds of prey and there are falconry shows every day, rope bridges and jungle trails for children to tackle, and for those of you who don’t like them, we can assure you there’s not a dolphin in sight.
Las Caletillas is quiet and on the north east coast of Tenerife. It’s less commercialised, has a pebble beach and is close to Candelaria, a lovely small Mediterranean village.
Gran Canaria is, like its neighbouring Canary Islands, handy for the route from Europe to Africa and even the US. But stuck out to the East it’s even more useful for passing ships and fishing boats, hence the fleets of the world meet at the Puerto de la Luz.
There are lots of things to do near to Maspalomas, such as the Aquasur water park, the Holiday World is one of over 10 amusement parks and theme parks on Gran Canaria. It has rides, shooting ranges, and parrot shows (those last two hopefully not related). Palmitos Park is a big ornithological park, aquarium, and butterfly house. And what holiday would be complete without a visit to Sioux City a Wild West theme park or Mundo Aborigen, an unusual Aboriginal theme park. Now there’s something you don’t see every day, unless you work there of course.
Lanzarote looks arid compared to other Islands in the Canaries, many a holidaymaker has had a mild moment of panic when looking out of the window at the almost lunar landscape as they are coming in to land, but the whole of Lanzarote is a Biosphere Reserve as it has so many interesting features, if you know where to look, and there’s lots of exciting evidence of recent volcanic activity.
Cueva de los Verdes is a long chasm that’s part of a much longer ‘lava tube’ left after an eruption 5000 years ago. Although it sounds like something a plumber unblocks your bog with, ‘lava tubes’ are amazingly eerie caves left by liquid lava as it moved on beneath its solidified ‘roof’.
There is a beautiful semi-underground lake in the middle of the Jameos del Agua, another lava tube. Bars and a restaurant have been installed around the lake, there are even gigs there sometimes. Tiny blind crabs live in the water, but they never, ever complain about the noise, which is admirable really. They might be deaf as well though, we don’t know. If you go to Lanzarote on a canaries holiday perhaps you could visit the lake and look into it for us.
The Parque Nacional de Timanfaya is a marvellous example of what six years of feisty volcanic eruption does to a place. Go to the restaurant here Restaurant del Diablo, which our rudimentary Spanish translates to ‘Restaurant of the Devil’. Don’t let that put you off though as it’s not everywhere you can eat food cooked on a barbecue heated directly by a volcano. You can see where they are going with the name can’t you? We’re sure there’s no actual satanic involvement, just heat from the fiery depths.
Costa Teguise has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years and is the place for five star hotels. Watersports is the order of the day in this peaceful and successful resort and there’s a handy golf course should you want to indulge. Playa Blanca is spreading in popularity rapidly. It’s a really lovely place that’s great if you want to wander about enjoying your canaries holiday, being near the sea, and not really doing too much. No one is going to come here just for the night life, Puerto del Carmen is the ideal Lanzarote destination for you if you want a little more action of an evening.