2 months on 6 Canary Islands. Why it’s worth going here: incredible impressions, adventures, and experience
The Canary Islands are of volcanic origin, located in the Atlantic Ocean, at the level of Morocco and Western Sahara, about in 100 km.
There are 13 Canary Islands in total.
However, not all of them are suitable for life. 4 of them are small 1-10 km2 and you can easily get around by feet in a few hours. Natural reserves are here for the time being. And 1 small island La Graciosa has only one settlement and area of 27 km2.
There remain 7 islands, which are of large-format, populated, and almost all of them aim at tourism.
The biggest among them is Tenerife, then Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.
We were on the 6 largest. But due to the lack of popularity of El Hierro and difficult transport connection, we skipped it.
The popularity rating of the island is the following: Tenerife with short visit to La Gomera, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, and El Hierro that is visited by just 1-2% in comparison with the rest of the islands.
Why did we choose the Canary Islands for exploration?
Because all six islands are pretty interesting, suggest fantastic and unreal landscapes, natural phenomena, namely volcanoes. There are a lot of things and places worth seeing, which are found nowhere else. Some of the islands are not very popular yet, which adds motivation for the visit. The Canaries are small islands that grew out of volcanoes amid endless ocean, with Sahara winds bringing the weather and sand.
And the Canarians are very agreeable people – you can find this out in small towns and villages.
In addition, it’s warm here year-round, about 20 degrees. It’s the best choice to escape from the cold winter.
Visa.
The Canary Islands are the part of Spain. So the rules are the same – you need to have a Schengen visa.
We went for 60 days since according to the rules, Schengen visa holders are allowed to stay within the Schengen states 3 months the longest. During this time we managed to find out enough about these fantastic islands and to obtain much of inspiration and impressions.
Overflight to Canary Islands.
Ryanair company has recently launched direct flights to the Canaries from Poland. We traveled from Warsaw to Barcelona and from there to the Canary Islands three years ago. So this is good news for the Poles, who are happy to increase their presence on the islands. Tickets from Krakow to Gran Canaria are cheap enough – 60-70 € one way.
Accommodation and Internet on Canary Islands.
Accommodation takes up on average 25-35 €. Most hotels, in addition to the suit’s room, have a kitchenette and a terrace. As a rule, these large complexes consist of cottages or a large building, with a swimming pool and recreation areas within the territory. You should go by car to the ocean (if that’s not the first or the second line). The other option is not going to the beach, because it’s cold and windy in the ocean in winter 🙂
Briefly about the Internet at hotels – in most cases it’s terrible.
Overall, we aren’t attracted by tourist cities, namely quarters with hotels for tourists, since we do not come on vacation. We like living like locals. Thus we look for apartments on airbnb.
How to get discounts on accommodation via Airbnb (coupons 10 euros)
It should be mentioned that many hosts don’t speak English. We were communicating with one hostess through Google translator, because she didn’t know a single word. But the Internet can also quit on. There’s no actually unlimited Internet on the islands. Maximum we found (once) was 50 MB with the speed of 20 MB, if you’re lucky. You have to inquire and explain the need of the Internet because usually apartments are being occupied by those coming on vacation or not using much of traffic. So it was very difficult to work on the Internet during these two months, sometimes we had to do without the world wide web. We wanted to buy 4G Vodafone, but it’s impossible for nonresidents, just the mobile for a few GB, which is as a drop in the ocean for us.
There’s an option of coming to the Hubs for Nomadic Digital, but it’s from 10-15 € a day and still the Internet is far from perfect.
Car rental on the Canary Islands.
We had 7 cars on 6 islands.
Overall we are content with car rental issue on the Canary Islands. Because we found reliable local companies Cicar and PlusCar. We were fully insured and didn’t leave any deposit. See more:
How to rent a car on Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote
We have driven through 5250 km on all the islands. The most on Tenerife. The hardest thing was driving over continuous serpentines on La Gomera.
We have walked 263 km by foot for 2 months.
Local gastronomy of Canary Islands
WINE
Each Canary Island has its own wineries. Unfortunately, we plunged into the local wine only on the last island. And usually we bought Spanish red wines made in Rioja in supermarkets for 2-5 €.
FOOD
Since we mostly cook on our own during our trips, we do shopping in supermarkets quite often.
We liked the most local supermarket Mercadona or HiperDino when it comes to the goods’ range. Vegetables common in Ukrainian cuisine are expensive here, 4-6 €/kg: for instance, carrots, beets, cabbage. We gorged ourselves with oranges, cherry tomatoes for 1 €/250 g, broccoli, fresh Dorado for 6 €, cheeses, eggplants, and jamon a little.
We were very disappointed with olives. No delicious and natural, while green olives were too salty and all identical in appearance, and black ones, as usual, of coaly color, they are being sold at home – we don’t eat them. And Spain, by the way, is the largest supplier of olives. Eh, Greece (Tasty article is here) remains the leader in delicious and natural food.
On the Canary Islands they grow bananas, pineapples, and oranges. On La Palma tobacco and almond trees grow.
Restaurants and coffee shops in Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands are not popular among young people if to have a better look. And you won’t meet there many of local youth. Perhaps because there’re few modern, exciting, and delicious establishments.
We still found some: on Gran Canaria in Las Palmas, on Tenerife in La Laguna, on Fuerteventura in Corralejo. Everything else is mostly tasteless fast foods, restaurants for tourists that are unappetizing and unaesthetic.
Local Canarian crown dish wasn’t tasty for us – oversalted (since it’s boiled in salted water) and uninteresting – it was Canary potatoes and mojo sauces served with bread.
We paid no deep attention to exploration of the Canaries food but our vision of all matters was such.
Coffee.
We’re fans of this heavenly beverage. In previous travel by our own car over the Balkans we took coffee machine with us. We failed to do that this time due to traveling by plane, so at least once a day we had to go somewhere or drink that coffee water we managed to prepare in the Moka pot out of ground coffee we found in supermarkets …
At first we ordered cappuccino at cafes or bars, and it was a mistake, since coffee was tasteless everywhere. Once we were brought the local drink – barraquitos – and it was the salvation. Barraquitos is espresso+ liqueur + condensed milk + cinnamon + lemon. Very tasty combination, and the condensed milk covers all the disadvantages of coffee beans 🙂
Traveling between the Canary islands.
We planned our route depending on the place of arrival and departure in Krakow. The main point was Gran Canaria, just because this island has conjunction with Krakow.
Then we learnt how ferries sail between the islands and where from and how it’s better to sail. Distances between the boundary islands are quite large, so we also used air services.
Overall we sailed on ferry 4 times and twice flew between the islands. And another 2 flights 5 hours each from and to Krakow. See more details on traveling between the islands here.
How to travel between the Canary Islands: Ferry and Aircraft
The weather in Canary islands.
Everlasting spring cherishes the Canary Islands. It’s quite warm in winter, 18-20 degrees and 28 degrees in the sun without wind. It can be a bit too cold for swimming in the ocean but many people take up hydrotherapeutics.
Nationalities.
The Canary Islands were first discovered for the vacation by the Britons and Germans, who are here in vast numbers. You can come across the French, and the Poles’ number is growing slowly. (and the Russians are everywhere). We have seen natives of Africa only once, in Maspalomas, despite the fact that many Africans stop on the Canary Islands before going to mainland Europe. In short – they stop but not stay here. By the way, we encountered the largest Chinese “shopping center” on Gran Canaria, not just souvenirs from China, but with the Chinese sellers, who probably moved to live here.
Deserts in Canary Islands.
We visited three large deserts: Maspalomas on Gran Canaria, and Jable and Corralejo on Fuerteventura.
The most interesting miradors (observation decks) on Canary Islands:
Roque Nublo on Gran Canaria, Teide volcano on Tenerife, mirador de Abrante on La Gomera, mirador Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma, mirador Morro Velosa on Fuerteventura, mirador El Rio on Lanzarote.
The most amazing beaches on Canary Islands.
Maspalomas on Gran Canaria, playa Teresitas on Tenerife, Cofete beach on Fuerteventura, Papagayo on Lanzarote
Volcanos on Canary Islands. Must visit from us:
We ascended the highest Teide volcano on Tenerife, 3718 m high, by foot.
We visited the largest crater of Taburente volcano 9 km in diameter on La Palma, the highest point of 2400 m.
We drove along the Volcanoes road on Lanzarote
We went up the largest crater of Lanzarote.
The Spanish language.
We ended our trip with the idea of learning Spanish. Language skills will be the best souvenir. It’s mellifluous, interesting and one of the most popular languages in the world. Speaking Spanish you can understand all of South America and part of Africa.
The US residents learn it as the second foreign language. In general, it is the second language by the native-speakers’ number after the Chinese! And the third after English that’s studied as the foreign language. These reasons provide for inspiration. Vamos hablar Espanol!
The most interesting about every Canarian island:
Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote
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