La Palma, no not the one in Spain or Tenerife but the little island full of volcanoes in the Canaries! The one on the left!!
We like the canaries, particularly this time of year, it's warm, lots of sunshine and couple that to all inclusive accomodation makes for a great early break in the sun.
Car hire is still cheap from €40 - €60 euros per day. Parking is usually free, or very cheap, unlike the UK, usually at this time its very quiet meaning, a nice experience if the weather's nice! That leads me to another thing... The weather!
Having done the canaries quite a few times in February and march Ivan tell you we always have excellent weather, in fact, the odd cloudy day helps you recover from sunburn!
This year is slightly different...
Remember the beast from the east? As I write this, on my phone, we have caught the tail end of this storm and unusually the island is getting very inclement weather, yes, we have sun but we also have had cloudy skies and a first for us... rain!
Saying that the hotel is great, the food is pretty damn good and the 11 pools are lovely, especially the warm one! 😉
Average temps are like a good UK summers day, so, suits us completely. Currently, it's a little cloudy but around 24°c with periods of clouds and sun. This is the worst we have ever known it at this time of year and it is still beautiful.
The hotel is massive! Set on a hilltop in the south west of the island it boasts the aforementioned 11 pools, a nudist section for the well blessed, a number of cabins around the pools serving snacks etc. A larger, circa 1200 seater restaurant feeds the masses. There is a lot more food and drink than my 19 stone can cope with!
Other amenities include a sauna, tennis courts, astro pitches, crazy golf, table tennis, pool tables, archery, a beautiful sandy beach volleyball set up, weights room etc, etc!
The staff are pleasant, the rooms are clean and airy but boy, is it hilly?!!? There are steps every where, curly sloped paths and uneven at the=at too. It is not a place for those poor of sight or infirm. If you have bad feet/knees or hips then this is not the place for you! Wheelchairs are catered for with lifts but I find it difficult how you could get from top to bottom in a wheelchair without a lot of help?
So, overall was it good? Hotel wise was good, but the mountainous roads, poor transport infrastructure and lack of Taxis made the place very solitary.
We hired a car one day and the roads are all mountainous, winding and narrow, luckily there is not much in the way of traffic just coaches and council trucks repairing roads etc.
We won't be going back to this island again... (but we will other parts of the Canaries)
Moriarty