Spain’s Canaries offer adventurous, affordable travel
First published by The Journal Gazette
Want a Hawaiian adventure but can’t afford a Hawaii vacation? Try Spain’s Canary Islands. It’s probably cheaper to visit and just as adventurous, if not more. Really!
Although I only visited two, the Canary Islands includes Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro. They are close to Morocco.
My adventure started on the third largest and second-most populous island of the Canary Islands, Gran Canaria. My first night I was pleasantly surprised to find an orchestra playing in a park outside my hotel. It was a “black tie” event, and the women were wearing full-length gowns or sharp dark outfits with pants. Their outfits helped keep them warm from the 60-something temperatures as they sat on metal folding chairs.
I was shivering in my shorts and T-shirt as I stood and listened in the distance. Travel tip: Check the forecast before you travel.
The next day I explored Playa de Las Canteras. It’s a long beach where there is room to sprawl on the flat of sand that sits between the bustling Paseo de las Canteras promenade and the Atlantic. Sun worshipers were on the beach with some males wearing Speedos and some females topless – a scene rarely found or allowed in the U.S.
Along the beach there are several shops, open-air bars, snack cafés and small hotels. I barhopped and enjoyed some tapas. I did tip the servers, though tipping in Europe isn’t as common as in the U.S. I spent the day people-watching and enjoyed the performances of street entertainers.
I finished my trip of Gran Canaria by going to a boat show and taking a sightseeing bus tour. At the boat show, I went on a small sailboat, which I was expected to help steer. There was a communication challenge, so I relied on nonverbal cues to pull and push and occasionally their elevated tones of voices to move.
On the bus tour, I got to see why Gran Canaria is known as a continent in miniature form. In the northeast there are sandy beaches; in the southwest there are cliffs, and in the middle is a mountainous region. The tour was in English. Travel tip: When you see the United Kingdom flag next to language options, that means English.
Tenerife, the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, is my favorite. I spent the least amount of time there, but it was love at first sight. It has beautiful black and golden beaches, an active volcano and cliff-side towns. There’s also Teide National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Because tourism overall is just starting to spring back to life, I was able to take a private tour of the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín, the famous auditorium in Santa Cruz that kind of looks like the Sydney Opera House from the ground, but from the air, it’s in the shape of a human eye. There is plenty to do on Tenerife, so two days is not enough time.
This once-in-a-lifetime trip is affordable. I bought a round trip, no-frills airline ticket from Chicago to Gran Canaria on Iberia airlines for $550. I bought a separate round-trip ticket from Fort Wayne to Chicago on American Airlines for $150. A decent hotel is about $80 a night, but if that’s too much, there are hostels.
While there, I kept my expenses low and only carried a backpack. Many people there speak at least broken English and were patient with non-Spanish-speaking travelers like me.