4* Lanzarote fun
So off we headed for an 11 night stay at the Los Jameos Playa hotel in Playa de los Pocillos. It is a large hotel with some 567 rooms, but it has great feedback from our clients which is why I chose it. First impressions are of a large typically Spanish holiday hotel with a massive lobby, white washed walls and terracotta floor tiles. However in various places around the hotel are the most beautiful small typically Spanish blue and white tiles offering a lovely contrast.
The rooms are smart and clean, but a little dated in furnishings though I do believe they are updating them gradually. Ours had a great sea view and we consequently used the balcony a lot.
Food at the hotel is exceptionally good. It was very well cooked and the carvery was excellent. The only downside of this hotel I felt was the lack of dress code in the restaurant. There is a sign up detailing the dress code but no one takes any notice and that lends the restaurant a rather down market feel which is a shame.
The staff here worked extremely hard and were very efficient. We mentioned a faulty shower and light bulb on the way to breakfast, and when we got back to the room the faults had been fixed.
The pool is fine, and there are sufficient sunbeds for everyone, but you do get the early birds going down to put their towels out on the front row which was a shame really.
There is a spa which we didn’t use, and there are tennis courts, mini golf and table tennis which we did use, plus a number of other facilities including a children’s club and entertainment. The entertainment was okay but we have had better.
Location wise, it is spot on for a peaceful holiday. A five minute stroll through the gardens and down on to the promenade takes you to a volcanic rocky outcrop, either side of which there are good beaches. The beaches are large with a mixture of soft and hard sand, brilliant for sitting on or making sand castles. A word of caution though, there is a safety officer patrolling the beaches but no lifeguard so you need to be careful here as the waves can be quite big and strong. There were quite a few people out with surfboards trying their luck too!
Along the promenade are some typically tacky tourist shops, a handful of bars and restaurants but nothing grand. You are only minutes from the lights of Playa del Carmen for a better choice of eateries and nightlife.
We hired a car and did a trip around the island. The roads are pretty good and well signposted which I remember from before. We headed off for the Timanfaya National Park which has the volcanoes in. The scenery is quite spectacular: black volcanic lava fields as far as you can see and volcanoes dotted along the horizon. We had intended on doing the ‘route of the volcanoes’ which is a drive through the protected areas – now done by bus – but there was a 2 hour queue for this so we opted to pass that by. We called in at the visitor’s centre and then headed off further north.
Not realising that we had ascended so high, we came out on the top of a cliff to some spectacular views, followed by a 30 minute drive of hair pin bends downhill which was quite thrilling. After 6 hours of adventure, Lily got a really good feel for the island and we headed off back to the hotel. It was definitely worth doing, but since my last visit, the island has had much more development and the long queues for the ‘route of the volcanoes’ and also the caves in the north were somewhat disappointing.
Did we have a good time? Yes we surely did – I think the highlight was the surfing which Lily and I had a go at. The hotel is very good and the food was surprisingly good, but there were a couple of aspects which I understand from the hotel are being looked at.
It is a lovely island – quite unique really in appearance and with a huge variety of accommodation to suit different needs. I would urge you get out and about in a hire car, but I was told the queues for the main sights are horrendous in August so maybe organised excursions are better at that time.
All in all we had a really good holiday.