Canary Islands

Back from Tenerife, La Gomera, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria

We did a three night pre-cruise stay on Tenerife. The others were ports of call.

Will be happy to try and answer any questions.

Back from Tenerife, La Gomera, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria

 

We did a three night pre-cruise stay on Tenerife. The others were ports of call.

 

Will be happy to try and answer any questions.

Hi, I was wondering if you knew of anyone for a private tour for the 1 day our ship visits Lanzarote (Arrecife), Canary Islands.

Marilee

No, sorry. We took the ship's tour there. We only had a private guide in Tenerife.

Back from Tenerife, La Gomera, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria

 

 

 

We did a three night pre-cruise stay on Tenerife. The others were ports of call.

 

 

 

Will be happy to try and answer any questions.

Whi did you use in Tenerife and what did you do?

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We used patricia little. Her email is patricialittle@hotmail.com

she picked us up at our hotel in la laguna, drove down the spine of the island and toured mt teide national park. We returned via the west coast road stopping for a delicious lunch.

she also helped us with our hotel res and transfers.

What did you do in La Gomera and Lanzarote? We rarely do ship tours and are wondering what is worth seeing in these two places. Thanks...

What did you do in La Gomera and Lanzarote? We rarely do ship tours and are wondering what is worth seeing in these two places. Thanks...

We are into scenery and those are the types of tours we took. Amazingly while the islands are all volcanic in origin, they are all very different and we enjoyed seeing them. La Gomera is very lush and Lanzarote is very dry. We went to the forest of Garjonay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on La Gomera and Fire Mountain on Lanzarote.

We too do not normally take ship tours but we were on the Windstar Star Breeze with only 140 pax. Hard to get private tours together with so few passengers.

Visiting The Canary Islands: La Gomera, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote

We too are doing the Windstar cruise... used to be our absolute favorite line but the service has gone down hill the last couple of years... was Krashmir in the dining room? He was in charge on our last Windstar cruise in the Baltic and then he joined the Breeze... Hope he is still on that ship... he is a gem.

Thanks for the info on the ports...

Hope you will excuse me interrupting with info on La Gomera as there is not well reported about.

We have been there a few times on a small cruise ship. Once we hired a car (from CICAR and quite cheap) and were provided with a good map of the island. The roads on the island are very quiet, so it was a really good day. We have a hire car booked November when we return and it can be cancelled with no cost if we need to do so.

The port (Santa Cruz) is a very pleasant, small place with a few things of interest and we have walked up the hill and had a drink in the Parador there on a couple of other occasions as well as just strolling a bit further on to the lighthouse and along the coast and then around the town.

One of the best ports ever IMO.

Thanks for this information.

Hope you will excuse me interrupting with info on La Gomera as there is not well reported about.

 

We have been there a few times on a small cruise ship. Once we hired a car (from CICAR and quite cheap) and were provided with a good map of the island. The roads on the island are very quiet, so it was a really good day. We have a hire car booked November when we return and it can be cancelled with no cost if we need to do so.

 

The port (Santa Cruz) is a very pleasant, small place with a few things of interest and we have walked up the hill and had a drink in the Parador there on a couple of other occasions as well as just strolling a bit further on to the lighthouse and along the coast and then around the town.

 

One of the best ports ever IMO.

Thanks for that, tring, we hadn't realised there was so much to La Gomera - the island has a diameter of only about 20 miles.

We only had a half-day there (and it was the island's Saint's Day) so we just meandered the seafront, a couple of watering holes that were open, and the little castlette (I don't know if there is such a word, but the place was way too small to use the word castle ;)).

But the port is San Sebastian de la Gomera - Santa Cruz is the port for Teneriffe.

BTW we also rented cars from CICAR on all the other islands (car at the port on some, or a courtesy car from ship to the town or airport depot on others).

Inexpensive, very good cars & service, maps, & tourist audio-guide CDs. Couldn't be faulted.

We took our own sat-nav. ("GPS" in American)

JB :)

Did you need an international license to rent the car?

We are into scenery and those are the types of tours we took. Amazingly while the islands are all volcanic in origin, they are all very different and we enjoyed seeing them. La Gomera is very lush and Lanzarote is very dry. We went to the forest of Garjonay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on La Gomera and Fire Mountain on Lanzarote.

 

We too do not normally take ship tours but we were on the Windstar Star Breeze with only 140 pax. Hard to get private tours together with so few passengers.

 

Visiting The Canary Islands: La Gomera, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote

Thank you for the link to your report. We plan to visit the Canary Islands next year on our Freedom OTS Trans-Atlantic. I know nothing about these islands. We booked the cruise primarily because of the people with whom we will be sailing. But after reading your report I see that we are in for a treat! Getting excited now.:D

We too are doing the Windstar cruise... used to be our absolute favorite line but the service has gone down hill the last couple of years... was Krashmir in the dining room? He was in charge on our last Windstar cruise in the Baltic and then he joined the Breeze... Hope he is still on that ship... he is a gem.

 

Thanks for the info on the ports...

I honestly can't remember who was in charge of the dining room but we had zero complaints on the service

Thank you for the link to your report. We plan to visit the Canary Islands next year on our Freedom OTS Trans-Atlantic. I know nothing about these islands. We booked the cruise primarily because of the people with whom we will be sailing. But after reading your report I see that we are in for a treat! Getting excited now.:D

Glad I could help :)

You might look into Lanzarote Experience Tours

https://www.lanzaroteexperiencetours.com/en/

We are sailing later this month and one of our roll call members kindly organized a wonderful sounding tour. Seems like a good outfit.

We will post a review when we return.

But the port is San Sebastian de la Gomera -

 

 

JB :)

OOOPS.......You are quite right it is San Sebastion in La Gomera, I was confusing it with Santa Cruz De La Palma, which we also know very well having had a land holiday nearby. You are right of course that the Tenerife port is Santa Cruz as well.

I posted in a spare moment whilst my mind was a whirlwind of Yangon, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi!!

La Gomera is small if you measure it on a map, but it takes a while to drive across and around the island, because of hills and winding roads - they are not scary, cliff edge type roads though. Heading uphill on foot from San Sebastion is worthwhile if you can manage the hill, which is not that big and you can take it slowly. There is a second beach area to the RHS as you leave the terminal, which we did not find on our first visit. We will also go to El Hierro in November, which will be a first for us and have booked a hire car for that as well.

Someone asked about driving licence. My husband, (who is the driver as I have been banned because of eye problems), has an EU licence, so not sure about other nationalities. The CICAR website may help, or you can send an email through the website, which we have done to ask a question on a previous occasion.

The last time we went to La Gomera we also hired a car from CICAR. It is easy driving and as it is a small island it is easy to see it all in one day.

I suggest you also make time to visit the Parador, which is one of the state run hotels. The one in La Gomera is in typical Canadian colonial style architecture. Has lovely gardens and lovely views as it is on top of a hill.

 

I suggest you also make time to visit the Parador, which is one of the state run hotels. The one in La Gomera is in typical Canadian colonial style architecture. Has lovely gardens and lovely views as it is on top of a hill.

This is the Parador I mentioned in my first post, great location for a drink in the gardens. Just to clarify the location, you can see it on top of the hill at the end of the pier as you go into the town and it is a fairly easy walk uphill if you take your time, so car hire is not needed to get there. If you walk to the left at the Parador entrance, then fork to the right, you will come to the light house, whilst the left fork has views over the coast for a while, so is also good to walk around there as well like I mentioned. You are right out of town up there, yet so close to walk there from the town.

Trina

Hadn't noticed you'd mentioned the Parador. For anyone not wanting to do an island tour, all Paradores have good restaurants serving local cuisine. Booking recommended.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife - http://www.feeltenerife.com The owner of the company, Jaime, was incredible. This area is nothing but volcano after volcano, lava rock upon lava rock….. I think I took 220 photos this day, it is so incredibly beautiful. We had lunch at a LOCAL joint…. I had GOAT!!! I just can’t enough good about the day, it was breathtaking!!

Arrecife – Lanzarote - http://www.blackstonetreks.com/ This island is full of geothermal “stuff” and camels!! Lots of fun and a great company.

Dinah

BabySis

Goat is eaten throughout the Canary Islands and most of mainland Spain. I like it, tastes similar to lamb.

Which of the following two islands did you like better and why? La Gomera or Lanzarote? We've been to Tenerife, Gran Canaria and loved them all three.

http://Canary-Islands.ca

La Gomera for us definitely, as it is so unspoilt. Lanzarote is a mass tourist Island for package hols, but not the worst of them. Arrecife is quite a pleasant town to stroll round though as a cruise stop, because there are no package hotels there.

Regards Tenerife, it is an easy (and cheap) tram ride (about 30 mins) to the beautiful historic town of La Laguna, which has lots of churches/museums/restaurants etc.

The tourist info booth opposite Santa Cruz de Tenerife's port exit will help point you in the right direction and there is also a comprehensive tourist information office in La Laguna once there and they will tell you what is open, when and even if the entrance cost is waived on that day for any particular place (sometimes it is). Take a jacket if in the winter months though as it is a lot colder there as it is uphill all the way.