Canary Islands

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

Has anyone been to the Canary Islands? If so, what did you think? Is a trip there worth considering?

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

Yes, we went to Tenerife and it's one of the few places that DH wants to return to. The island is very interesting in that different parts are so very different - dessert, rain forest, sandy beach, rocky beach...

Whale watching was great! Went up to the volcano, saw Santa Cruz, could see La Gomera from our balcony... Actually want to make the rounds of the islands.

It's a European vacation destination so English was no problem, otherwise Spanish is spoken. They drive on the right, so no problem. They drive a bit more aggressively than we do, but that wasn't a problem.

Yeah, I'd go back.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Northern Europeans like Holland, England and Germany love this location and certainly during the winter. According to my family and friends, it reminds them of southern California in weather as well as terrain. There seem to be many timeshares there. I have never been there so don't know.

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

Yes, it's worth it. We have gone 2x so far - 2 favorite islands are Lanzarote and Tenerife (northern and central part of - I recommend staying in the northern historic town of Puerto de la Cruz).

It's easy to get an exchange, but we did most of that with cheap extra vacations/ bonus weeks from RCI - less expensive than using up a banked week, unless you own something with very low mf such as SA. I'd love to go back to both of these islands.

We also visited Gran Canaria - liked northern and central, but there are no timeshares there. The upscale Anfi resorts are on the southern end, very nice resorts, but we didn't care for the location. Tenerife and Gran Canaria both have lush beautiful northern coasts (more cloudy days, possible rain), and arid sunny southern coasts with huge concrete developments. These hot sunny areas are fine if you main goal is to lie around at a pool or beach in the sun, but we don't fly all the way overseas for that.

Also visited Fuerteventura, was glad to see it but wouldn't want to spend a whole week there.