Tenerife

A hotel/resort holiday is not our usual get away  Our holidays are mostly self driven round France or Germany or cruising with Marella although we have stayed at Sea Star hotel in Icmeler a few times.

Having visited the Canary Islands as day stops on our cruises we decided to have a week in Tenerife to explore the island more .... it didn't quite go as expected but we have some super memories. 

It was lovely to see Mount Teide high above the clouds as we flew into Tenerife South Airport, it's Tenerife's largest volcano and is responsible for much of the pumice and black soil found all over the island.

Our flight also flew over our holiday destination. This part of Tenerife has developed mainly through tourism. There's a 10 mile promenade starting in Costa Adeje - further left of my photo - along Playa de las Americas and on to Los Cristianos - a working port on the far right of my photo.

Our hotel was not in the hub of the hotels, bars and restaurants but slightly inland next to the large golf course. It was a 20/30 minute walk to the sea front taking various routes. Our hotel is where the red dot is, the blue dot is a building that featured in our time in Tenerife but more of that later.

We had no knowledge of where to stay and booked the holiday fairly close to actually going away. We chose Villa Mandi simply on value for money and reviews, we booked our self catering package through Tui.

It was a lovely hotel resort, built to look Moroccan or Turkish in style it's apartments were more like small village houses with many walkways and stairs.

Our apartment was on the ground floor and faced the pool with plenty of palm trees. We could see a little bit of the golf course. 

Inside was superb; a small kitchen with fridge, hob and microwave, a lounge with tv, large bathroom with twin hand basins and separate bedroom with plenty of storage space and a very large bed.

We are not sunbathers so did not sit by the pool, we do like the sun to be on our terrace but sadly our terrace was always in shade from having the apartment above so quite chilly sitting out sometimes. This did actually turn out to be a bonus as it also meant we were sheltered from the rain, unlike the sunbathers who were often seen dashing in from the rain, only to be out again as soon as it stopped.

The pool was always busy with people there quite early in the morning but never overly loud, I think it would be in the high season. When quiet the view from our patio was lovely, especially at night.

The first few days were filled with blue skies and a lovely light breeze. We strolled along towards the promenade looking at bars and restaurant menus as this holiday we booked room only (another first). The second day was St Patrick's Day and everywhere had green themed decorations up with the numerous Irish bars preparing for a very busy day.

The coast was lovely, great views in both directions with huge palm trees and gentle waves. A storm was forecast, this has been the worst winter for the Canary Islands with rain and high winds most weeks which is unusual, people holiday here for some winter sun. By the third day the wind was quite strong and the dark clouds moved in.

The main mile in Playa de las Americas is known for its high end shops, plenty of restaurants and the famous Hard Rock Cafe. It was all a bit blingy for us with everything obviously built for tourists, although impressive we missed seeing old buildings.

The promenade goes through a tunnel as it enters Los Cristianos which has been decorated with some amazing artwork. The detail is incredible and certainly makes a feature of what otherwise would be plain concrete. The turtles were my favourite, so beautiful.

Our island stops whilst on our Canary Island cruises has sparked an interest in succulent and cactus plants. We now have quite a few at home but nothing the size of those in Tenerife, some are many years old, they grow so well on the dry volcanic soil.

Of course our holidays wouldn't be our holidays without discovering and enjoying food & wine. We had some lovely meals out, a full English breakfast one morning, as well as cooking in our apartment. 

The Cava from the local Mercadona supermarket was superb, I'm not a Cava fan but this was lovely, maybe because is was semi secco so not very dry.

We found bottled wine to be surprisingly expensive, maybe because we were in a touristy area and not really Canarian wine so we took a chance on boxed wine... it was ok but nothing special.

We did however try and really really like the Tenerife Barraquito, a layered cocktail of condensed milk, Liqueur 43, black coffee and frothy milk.

And of course on St Patrick's Day we did go to the Irish bars where a pint of Guinness was a must, as was wearing a Guinness hat hee hee

Unfortunately day four of our holiday things changed.... the weather was very wet and very windy. We stayed at the apartment in the day but did go out later for a meal in a Spanish Tapas restaurant we had prebooked. Plans changed as the restaurant was closed with a handwritten note on the door, we're not sure but the rain was causing flooding and it was a cellar restaurant.

We had a lovely meal at a restaurant on the promenade all be it under the tentage with the rain pouring down. Taking a taxi back to the hotel everywhere was wet and unfortunately I tripped up rushing into the hotel. 

After a few hours in the hospital (the blue dot on the photo) we returned to the hotel early hours of Friday, me with a broken right wrist (plastered), a right black eye, a bruised left hand, two bruised knees and broken glasses. 

A return visit to the hospital for a fit to fly document followed the next day. The weather was not great for the rest of the week with lots of rain and high winds.

It was not how we thought our holiday would be but with Hubby's help and dodging the showers when venturing out we still enjoyed our last few days .... cake and wine sort out most of life's hiccups. 

I am now under the care of our local hospital and hopefully the cast will come off soon and all will be well for our upcoming cruise.

Tenerife was not what we expected, the area we stayed in was very touristy, maybe we should have stayed in the north of the island. It has made us realise that we enjoy our cruises where we can explore a new place every days out and our European road trips where we are free to roam and explore more than hotel resorts but it's always good to see the world and we did discover Barraquitos!

Voyage to the Canaries

Early December before the festivities began *and passed so quickly) we did a repositioning cruise with Marella. We have cruised with them before and previously enjoyed our repositioning cruise from the Canary Islands to Corfu. 

Our previous cruises have been on Marella Explorer but this time our ship was Marella Voyager, it was like going home with some of the furniture moved. I have already blogged about life on board so this blog is all about where we visited.

Flying from Gatwick after an overnight stay we arrived in Malaga. Spain isn't a country I have visited much off and although dark it was interesting to travel through this popular holiday resort, the Christmas lights added to its welcoming look.

Our second day we awoke in Gibraltar, a place we have visited before and really enjoy as a wander around stop. There were excursions to the top of the rock or the WWII tunnels but we were happy to stroll into the town and browse around.

There is so much history here with it being in a strategic position at the entrance to the Mediterranean. The Battle of Trafalgar was not far away, the sailors cemetry is at the top end of the town, and there is evidence of the previous inhabitants as far back as the Moors 

There was certainly a Christmas feel, a little odd in warmth and blue skies and birds of paradise in fill bloom. 

We were very lucky to be in the main street when the guards marched through.

Being a winter cruise the sun sets late afternoon, great to see before going to dinner. The Gibraltar Rock looked stunning with yellow and orange hues.

Arriving in our next port the sunrise was as stunning as the previous night's sunset hut to our surprise just an hour later it was thick fog outside. Even more surprising were the blue skies the appeared as we set off to explore Cadiz, a place I have always wanted to visit. 

Again we didn't take an excursion instead we enjoyed a wander along the Atlantic coast promenade and around the city square amongst its Christmas decorations and market stalls.

Cadiz is certainly a place I would like to visit again as there was so much to see. We couldn't visit the Cathedral as being a Sunday there were services on. It was a stunning view as we sailed away with another beautiful sunset once out in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlantic revealed itself on our sea day, nothing too rough but certainly choppy and quite a hazy sky which was disappointing for our fellow cruisers that enjoy sunbathing by the pool. We enjoyed time on our balcony and a wine tasting afternoon before dinner and watching another superb show.

Arriving in Funchal was quite an experience, wet and windy weather making it hard work for our Captain and the two pilot boats.

As we were docked overnight in Funchal, Maderia, we had planned to walk into town the first afternoon and stay until dark to see the Christmas lights but the weather was not very inviting. Funchal looked stunning with so many lights stretching high into the hills. Funchal is a port that is very popular for New Year's Eve cruises as the whole town is lit up with fireworks.

This was our fourth visit to Funchal, we have previously taken the cable car high up to fantastic views and an excursion into the mountains to a hidden valley. We have also enjoyed a trip to Blandy's to learn about Maderia wine so this visit we decided to wander a round and take in the Christmas atmosphere. It was a bit of a dull start to the day but dry and blue skies did appear later in the day.

Marella Voyager looked stunning looking through beautiful red hot poker plants with the blue skies. The flowers in Maderia are so beautiful.

Our penultimate day was in Tenerife after a day at sea traveling from Maderia. The weather had certainly turned with wind and rain. We ventured out but not for long as it was quite rough. As with Maderia we have visited Tenerife a few times and so did not mind going back onboard to enjoy Marella hospitality.

Our final night's crossing from Tenerife to Gran Canaria was very rough with 6m waves and 70mph winds. 

On our tv in the cabin there is a channel showing the route of our cruise. We were surprised to see how wigglely our journey had been from Maderia to Tenerife and on to Gran Canaria, our Captain was certainly trying to avoid the worse weather. It was quite rough disembarking in Gran Canaria and I know Voyager did not sail that day due to the storm, I think we came home at the right time.

Another great cruise, we do enjoy the repositioning cruises although I don't think we could manage the 8 days at sea to the Caribbean. Voyager was a lovely ship but we do prefer Explorer and are very much looking forward to cruising the Mediterranean on its Marella 30th Birthday Cruise in May.