EXPLORING LANZAROTE CANARY ISLANDS

When booking a European holiday with my friend Hannah a few months ago I never expected to be visiting Lanzarote. I’ve always wanted to visit the Canary Islands but never really saw the appeal or knew what we could do there. When the H10 Rubicon Palace came up on our lastminute.com search we instantly knew we wanted to visit and spend our week in this affordable 5* luxury.

The Hotel

When we arrived we were blown away by how big the hotel complex was, the views that surrounded the hotel and just how beautiful Lanzarote really is. It’s very much like Santorini if you’ve ever visited, lots of volcanic scenery and rocky earth but very beautiful in the towns. We had a gorgeous room with a balcony overlooking the sea which the hotel kindly upgraded us to during our stay. The hotel itself took us a few days to explore in its entirety as it’s so big. It has an on-site cafe which does the best smoothies and lots of restaurants you can dine at each day. There are also seven swimming pools and a fun kids pool for families. Although we didn’t explore the family side of the complex fully it looked like there was lots of fun things for kids to do and activities for parents too. As we were staying for a week we got to dine in three of the different restaurants rather than just in the main buffet restaurant every night. The Dolce Vita Italian restaurant is a must I had the best pizza ever, which I’m missing so much already! The staff were all so friendly and couldn’t do enough for us during our stay. Angela the main restaurant manager was really lovely to us during our stay and made sure Hannah knew what was gluten free every single night which was a big help to her and her dietary needs. The hotel is also fully wheelchair accessible and was very easy for Hannah to get around and enjoy fully.

Things To Do

As the hotel complex is so big there is lot’s to do during your stay on site and in the local town of Playa Blanca which is about a 40-minute walk from the hotel. In the end, we caught taxi’s down as it was much quicker and only €4 each way. On a Wednesday and Saturday, they have a local market which we tried to go down and catch but were too late. There are some good shops anyway in the local town to have a look in and a nice harbour to walk around and have lunch. We were happy to stay within the hotel for most of the week and enjoyed the Despecia spa which had a Thalasso pool. The spa was really relaxing and the private garden outdoors also was a great treat in the afternoon to sunbathe and enjoy a pool away from the main complex. We also enjoyed the evening entertainment during our stay, we went to the Oh Dinner! which was a cabaret dining experience and even played mini golf! We were hoping to get a taxi to the national park to have a tour around the Volcano’s but due to the cost of the taxi’s and accessibility for Hannah we decided it wouldn’t be worth the money and that we would much rather relax around the pool and soak up the sun.

The Weather

We were really lucky in the fact that we had glorious sunshine all week. Apart from a few clouds here and there we had about 24-26 degrees each day which was heaven. The sun is really strong even in March so do take lots of high factor suntan creams and be careful of wind burn. All the Canary Islands are known for their strong winds sometimes and on the days it was breezy I burnt really easily even after applying suntan cream regularly. Lanzarote is famously known for it’s Aloe Vera but make sure to take some for sunburn just in case or you can buy some Lanzarote Aloe Vera from a lot of the shops surrounding the hotel. Also, don’t trust Apple Weather it was wrong all week and wasn’t accurate of the temperatures, BBC weather was much more reliable and even on the days, it did say we’d have cloud we ended up having glorious sunshine so I think it does change quickly in Lanzarote.

All in all it was an amazing week away in the sun and I came away feeling utterly relaxed and loving Lanzarote I’m so glad I took a chance and tried the Canary Islands finally. Hannah and I paid for our hotel stay and flights for the week and the hotel kindly gifted us a room upgrade, spa entry vouchers and a meal at the Privilege restaurant one night to say thank you for our exposure. All opinions and views are my own and are based on our experience of the hotel. I can absolutely see myself visiting again and staying at the H10 Rubicon Palace again which is why I’ve signed up to the loyalty programme they have as it was such an enjoyable holiday and great weather this time of year. You can visit the H10 Rubicon Palace website here to find out prices and more details on this beautiful hotel.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post about our recent holiday in Lanzarote I can’t wait to visit again and I’m so pleased I’ve found a gorgeous destination only four hours away from the UK! I hope you all have a fantastic week whatever you are up to and I’m sending you all lots of love xx