The Lentil: March 2023

We've only been to the Canary Islands once before. Back in February 2020 seeking some winter warmth after a Far East Asia cruise was cancelled due to Covid and just before the pandemic hit the UK shores we had a weeks holiday in Lanzarote with friends. There was little or no sun. Instead we had a week of sand being blown over from the Sahara in an event called the "Calima". Orange skies, sand in the pool and generally being sandblasted for the best part of a week. Our friends called it "Lanzagrotty" and not without reason. It was OK, but it wasn't fun.

So trying again for some respite from the British winter menu of rain and cold my wife and I booked a week all inclusive in Tenerife in late February this year. The brief was a week of chilling in (hopefully) some sun and warmth. For one week we didn't much care about location, hotel or anything else really, but after some limited research we booked the Hovima Costa Adeje on the island's south coast.

Mt Teide (9,000ft)pokes out from the clouds on approach to Tenerife

I don't know why we're never considered Tenerife before. Perhaps because I had preconceived ideas about the place being one long strip of commercialised, tacky bars and eateries, black sand beaches and people trying to flog timeshares at every corner whilst being full of drunken Brits, although as far as Brits go, the nationalities we saw and heard were very varied and in the main (apart from late at night, not overly drunk). Whilst some of those pre conceived opinions are true (to an extent), we were pleasantly surprised with Tenerife and enjoyed a great week away. And just to be clear, black sand beaches aren't really an issue for us anyway - one of our favourite UK beaches is the black slate sand beach in Abereiddy in Pembrokeshire.

The roughly four hour flight went smoothly from Cardiff airport - whilst this regional airport has its detractors one benefit is that it's never really busy so there's usually plenty of space in the cafe's and bar or somewhere to sit! However, the day we flew there were just four flights out, and one of those was to Scotland - hard to see how this is sustainable.

Our arrival at Tenerife South was uneventful and the TUI app on my phone gave great info about our transfer bus number and location - no need to go looking for reps. As an aside, the TUI app has become a really useful app on my phone. The bus journey to the hotel was relatively easy and not too long with only a handful of drop offs before us.

Hovima Costa Adeje front of hotel

View from our room on the 6th floor

The hotel was fine and lived up to it's decent Trip Advisor rating. All staff from reception to waiters, cleaners and entertainment were friendly and helpful. The rooms were OK although soundproofing wasn't great from the room door to the corridor and therefore noisy when there were cleaners or people in the corridor. But we had a sea view (just), and the bed was comfortable. The all inclusive buffet was fine with plenty of choice, although as is often the case, the all inclusive drinks were less than stellar - with an especially limited and poor quality choice in cocktails unless you wanted to pay extra.

Whilst we were away during England's half term, our hotel was adults only (yay!). Whilst there were some younger couples there, the clientele was predominantly from the mid to older age groups (we're in our early 60's and felt pretty young by comparison with a significant majority of guests!!!!).

The pool area was great, plenty of sunbeds available and one of the pools was heated. The weather on the first day was cloudy but warm, but thereafter we had decent sunny days with the temperature in the mid 20's at it's highest. Certainly warm enough to sunbathe all day and cook up a nice colour. Evenings were cooler, but still ok for me to be in a short sleeved shirt whilst my wife donned a light cardigan - but she feels the cold much more than me. I'd have worn shorts in the evening, but the hotel dress for dinner required men to wear long trousers during the winter season.

The hotel evening entertainment ranged from the excellent - a superb 3 piece band playing 80's covers with an outstanding guitarist, to a truly awful Tina Turner tribute act. Still, the punters seemed to like it. Daytime entertainment was the usual mix of pool activities, darts, yoga, - all sorts. The multi lingual entertainment team were enthusiastic but not pushy if you said no thanks.

Sunset over the island of La Gomera

The hotel was a short three or four minute walk from the beach and promenade. The many beaches were actually pretty nice - sand varied from quite light coloured to dark-ish to black and fine grained to coarse grained. The sea was surprisingly warm - we only paddled, but it was MUCH warmer than UK sea temps. I'd have happily gone in sans wet suit - not something I'd do in the UK!

Playa de Pinta

The promenade follows the coastline here west towards a small village called La Caleta about 2-3 miles away and East a few miles to Los Cristianos via Playa de las Americas. The westward walk was nice and pretty at times. The first part adorned by restaurants and bars which were doing a decent trade. Eastwards we didn't go far, but the impression I got, and the hotel TUI rep confirmed was that the closer you got to Playa de las Americas the tackier it got. Either way, for a week away in the middle of winter, I couldn't fault it. There was something for everyone and it felt overall nicer than our stay in Lanzarote a couple of years ago.

Playa de Pinta again

Hotel sunset

The highlight of our trip was an impromptu excursion we booked having not intended to do anything other than sit by the pool and go for short wanders. The trip was called "Teide by Night" and took us up into the National Parc with several photo and cafe stops along the way before a 3 course meal and then an hour's stargazing in one of the best places in the world to see the night sky with the 9,000ft Mt Teide, Spain's tallest mountain looming over you. At over 7,000ft where we got to, it was also cold. I don't know what prompted me to pack my Rab down jacket for this trip, but I'm glad I did! If you every go to Tenerife I highly recommend this trip - we booked via out TUI rep, but I think it can be booked independently too. The downside was a long haul back to the hotel at the end of the trip - it took us almost two hours on the bus back to get back arriving back at about 11.30pm, but it was definitely worth it.

If we come again, I'd also probably book the whale and dolphin watching trip that ran a couple of times a day from the marina and goes a couple of miles offshore where there's apparently a thoroughfare for migrating cetaceans.

Canadian coffee specialty - a baraquito
Consensed milk, liquer 43, coffee cinnamon

Whilst Lanzarote just felt like mile after mile of lava fields and volcanic rock, the admittedly relatively little we saw of Tenerife suggested a much more varied and interesting landscape, of castle scrub, hilly forests and volcanic desert. I'd like the opportunity to explore a little more of the island if we come again.