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Tenerife
Chasing the sun our week in Tenerife – September
We both felt that despite the excellent holiday in the Lake District and the late dash of fine weather towards the end of that break that we needed some guaranteed sun. But where?
Thanks to John & Beryl, two friends at short mat bowls, we appeared to have the solution. A week in Tenerife at this hotel that the couple highly recommended using Jet2 as the provider, the conduit by which we finally travelled to find sun and relaxation and at not too heavy a cost on the wallet.
Decision taken, dates chosen, which was difficult, so as not to clash with our less than likely sunny trip to Kent with the Foresters, for which we had already booked and paid. After a quick search on Jet2 web site the hotel we had been recommended was available and on dates we could fit into our schedule, the holiday was booked and gulp, paid for along with airport parking. All we needed now was the sun on arrival or as we get in early evening at least, please, when we awoke the following morning.
Easy drive to the airport with plenty of time to spare, caught the free bus and quickly cleared booking in, as most carried out over the internet in advance, to sit and await our flight. Once on board our seats adequate for leg room and our meal, which again we had pre booked was brought to us not long into the flight which was warm and most welcome. Relatively short flight just under four hours saw us circling the island of Tenerife, our first visit to this part of the Canaries, having only ever visited Fuerteventura in the past.
Walked out of the terminal having collected our bags to be greeted by the lovely warmth of the Canaries a good omen of what was to follow over the next seven days.
Our coach drive to Los Cristianos and our hotel complex of “Paradise Park” gave us an opportunity to see parts of the island if only a brief glimpse as we had no intentions of travelling around further than what our legs could manage. Very much like Fuerteventura in appearance with large barren areas of desert like landscape suddenly changing to highly developed spots with hotels and all the accompanying business – car hire – petrol stations – restaurants. In addition, the inevitable areas of development, yet more hotels for the tourists to fill.
We finally arrived at “Paradise Park”, which it hopefully will be, paradise that is, just as it was getting dark. We had seen the hotel and its brightly illuminated sign for some time as we made our way, descending towards the harbour through the outskirts of Los Cristianos, stopping, inevitably, as we did to drop people off at other hotels.
Initial reaction as we piled into reception, not the only ones on this flight to pick paradise, was of a bright modern hotel with, when it came to our turn to book in, polite friendly staff, which happily prevailed throughout the entire hotel and our stay.
Our stay in Paradise was not in the hotel but in the block of apartment style rooms adjacent, thankfully still within the grounds and within easy access to the restaurants and bars, not that we used the latter, preferring as we always do to buy local and drink in our room.
The room large with a bedroom facing onto the pool which stood between hotel building and the apartments (see pictures) a bathroom with bath and shower over, with then a large lounge area leading through patio doors onto the balcony. From the balcony we had views down to the seafront and the harbour of Los Cristianos and an adjacent pool which, we learnt next day was also part of our complex and one which we used in preference to the main centre complex pool. This tended to get occupied early, by the same early morning towels on lounger brigade, a lot surprisingly, for the time of year, with children. The lounge area and furniture in the apartment was a little tired and dated which, we commented on in completing a questionnaire. We were told on leaving at the end of our stay that all of the apartments are due for major upgrading during the winter period, the hotel already aware of the need for change.
We had booked full board so having deposited our bags and washed returned to the hotel side to investigate the range of food on offer in the restaurant. To our pleasant surprise what was on offer was an amazing array of foods, some we wouldn’t entertain but a goodly number we would. This was the case throughout our stay for breakfast, lunch and evening meals. All help yourself which, in a way we prefer, especially abroad, we tucked into our first holiday meal. After we had a wander around, getting our bearings on what was available, although other than the restaurant and the pools, we would make little or no use of the others.
After our first evening meal, we returned to our room for a nice relaxing time sitting out on the balcony taking in the pleasant evening heat as we drank our coffees, prior to retiring and dropping off to sleep looking forward to the week ahead.
Not to early a start to the morning, in fact quite leisurely, as we sat sipping coffee on the balcony, looking out onto the clear blue sky with the sun glistening in the pool. A nice what I would call English breakfast cereals, toast and tea before returning to our room to finally get into swimming cosies, picking the right book and heading, towels in hand, ready for the nearest pool, the one we had spotted last night, adults only right outside our building. Midday we would break off return to the room to change walk down to the restaurant and then return back to the pool. Same again in the evening although after dinner we would return to the balcony and sit sipping wine, purchased from the local shop opposite, whilst playing cribbage, reading or doing crosswords.
We did venture out of the hotel occasionally, once in fact for Pam when we caught the free bus from the hotel to the harbour and a couple of times for me as I walked down to explore further around the harbour and surrounding area. We were there to rest, read and relax and to soak up the sun and that is what we did and thoroughly enjoyed doing so.
An excellent week in a thoroughly enjoyable hotel with extremely hospitable staff with genuine friendship shown by all, ranging from the front desk, through to chefs, waiters and even the domestic staff. Good value for the money just a pity it wasn’t for two weeks, never mind, what we had we enjoyed.
One of those rare events. I took the camera on holiday but took very few pictures, mainly because we didn't venture far from the complex. The first picture clearly shows why we chose to go away, dull and overcast in the UK. The next picture shows the weather as we awoke on our first full day. Sun and clear blue skies. Through the palm trees can be seen the adjacent pool to the main complex which we tended to use, it was less noisy, fewer children. Final picture is taken on our last day with Pam sheltering from the sweltering heat, yes sheltering and not basking!