Customer Blog: January break in Lanzarote / Perfect Holiday

I will emphasise from the start, that our hotel in Lanzarote isn’t going to be the right place for everyone, but it was absolutely perfect for us!

Lucy has organised a couple of holidays for us previously, so knows what we like. She steered us away from our original choice of going ‘all inclusive’, and recommended a half board hotel which she felt would be much more up our street.

And she was completely right!

We wanted somewhere quiet and relaxing. When we saw Trip Advisor complaints about the lack of entertainment at the hotel, we knew it was for us! The average guest age was probably 60’ish. It was nice to be one of the youngest for a change, whilst enjoying the fact that there was no music thumping out from phones, Instagram models trying to get the perfect shot or big groups only able to converse by shouting at each other for an hour at a time (all of which we experienced on a previous, and much more expensive holiday in the Maldives).

The hotel was refurbished a few years ago, and they did an amazing job. From the outside it looks beautiful, and is surrounded by greenery. The sense of relaxation starts from the moment you set foot in the lobby. Huge, tastefully decorated, and incorporating more indoor greenery, it’s an impressive introduction to the hotel. The welcome at reception was warm and we were soon off to find our room.

We’d booked a side sea view room, and I was half expecting a view over a car park, and having to crane my neck to get a glimpse of the sea. Not so. The angle of the window meant that I could sit on my bed and look directly out at the sea. We had the most amazing sunset views every night. The balcony looked out over the grounds AND on to the sea, so was such a nice place to sit each evening.

The grounds of the hotel were incredibly well kept. They were beautiful. More than enough sunbeds for everyone, and fabulous views wherever you chose a sunbed. The grounds are also well enclosed, with a wall around, making them nice and private. This was a much nicer than most of the other hotels we walked past, where the grounds were very public, and you could just stare in at everyone sunning themselves. None of the other hotels seemed to have as much greenery as ours either, so they looked very bland in comparison.

The food was good, and there was always plenty of choice. Some of the evening meal buffet combinations were a bit random, but you couldn’t fault the quality of what was on offer. There is a station where they cook fresh fish and steak. These are then stacked up on a hot plate for you to help yourself, and can get a bit tough, so I’d highly recommend learning some Spanish so you can ask them to cook you a fresh piece! My only niggle is that there was no fresh water available with the meals unless you paid for it.

As well as the main buffet restaurant, where we ate our breakfasts and evening meals, there was an outside bar that also did snacks, and the a la carte restaurant where one meal was included as part of our stay. We did have to ask to book our a la carte meal (they didn’t mention it when we checked in), but it’s a small section so it might be that they have very limited availability. I would recommend making sure you do book it. The meal was lovely.

Evening entertainment consisted of a pianist, a saxophonist or a guitarist playing music for a couple of hours in the main lobby bar. We did feel a bit like pensioners, when we took our seats, but that ended up being part of the fun! There are other, more lively bars around the hotel, but as we were literally there to chill out, we didn’t bother with any of them.

There’s a little shop directly opposite the hotel where you can buy water, beer, wine, snacks etc to top up your supplies, so that’s really convenient. And the well maintained coastal path is literally outside the hotel. We walked into Playa Blanca, passing various restaurants, bars, hotels and supermarkets on our way. If there was anything else you needed, it was easy to get.

Loads of the reviews we read talked about people who were going back to this hotel, having stayed their multiple times before. I can understand why. It’s got everything that you could possibly need for a lovely, relaxing break in the sun. I think we’ll be going back too. We’ll probably do ten days next time. A week’s holiday only gives you five full days at the hotel (because of the flight times etc, each travel day ended up being pretty much a full day), and that wasn’t enough for me!

Thanks for getting it so spot on Lucy. We’ll look forward to catching up with you to book again soon!