Lanzarote Part 1....

You may remember we had a week away in Lanzarote (Canary Islands for those who may not know) at the beginning of December.   The holiday was All Inclusive in the four star Sandos Papagayo Arena, just outside the southern resort of Playa Blanca.

Lanzarote is situated just 79 miles off the coast of Africa and is the most easterly of the Canary Islands.  The island is 37 miles (60km) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide, making it the fourth largest island in the Canaries. As with the other Canary Islands, Lanzarote is volcanic in origin.  There is no billboard advertising and no high rise buildings in Lanzarote, with the exception the Grand Hotel in Arrecife. Some historians supposed that the legendary continent Atlantis was located in this area.

People think that the Canary Islands get their name from the birds canaries but actually the canary bird received it's name after the people the Canarii.   All breeds of canary birds descend from the canary birds that still exist on the island.  When the Romans came to the Canary Islands they encountered not only fierce natives but also their dogs.  The latin word for dog is "canis" and they actually named one of the islands "canaria" because of these dogs.

We arrived at the hotel in the early afternoon and were really pleased with the room, or should I say suite, we were given the key to.

Our travel agent had let the hotel know that it was our anniversary during our stay so they had left a nice bottle of champagne on ice ready for our arrival, which we opened as soon as we had unpacked and enjoyed sitting in the early evening sunshine on the balcony.  Well we didn't want it warming up and spoiling did we?

We had a lovely view of the sea and another of the Canary Islands, Fuerteventura, from our balcony

and a very interestingly shaped cactus growing in a planter on it too.

We watched the sun setting

before getting ready to go to dinner.

The hotel boasts four restaurants, all buffet style,  International,  Italian, Chinese and  French. There was also a Snack bar where you could get Fast food: hot and cold snacks, ice-cream, water, soft drinks, wine and beer 24 hours a day..We tried them all except the French one, it wasn't open on the night we tried to book it for our anniversary unfortunately.    The food in all the restaurants was superb and you could help yourself to wine (white, rose & red) and beer and soft drinks.    There were numerous bars offering entertainment, a Spa, 3 adult pools and 2 children's pools.  In fact there was everything one could possibly want.

After a superb dinner we decided to sit on the outside terrace of one of the bars as it was a warm evening, enjoying a few drinks before retiring.

Next time I'll show you some photos inside and outside of the hotel.

I hope you'll join me for Lanzarote Part 2.