Hotel Corralejo Beach

Petroleum's Fuerteventura memories

by Petroleum

I visited Fuerteventura with my girlfriend Mila in April 2001. We lived in Hotel Corralejo Beach in Corralejo.

The hotel was nice with pool and pool-bar etc.

The weather was really sunny and warm the whole week, and we enjoyed the sun and the warm water.

There is, in my opinion, not much to see in Fuerteventura, except for the sandy beaches. All the rest of the island is sand and dry landscape. Nothing really grows on that island.

If you want to have a vacation with lots of sun, sand and warm water in the sea, Fuerteventura is a place to consider. On Fuerteventura you can turn your brains off and just enjoy your holiday on the beach.

Fuerteventura

by eva_oberg

"Winter holiday?"

When we were planning our once-in-a-lifetime vacation for the dawn of the new millenium, we had some desires:

- We wanted to be able to get a nice suntan, relax and read a good book on the beach without freezing to death
- We wanted the distance to our destination to be resonable, because we only had a week off from work. Not too exciting to be spending half of the week on an airplane...
- We wanted to go somewhere where the gastronomical experience is filled with thrilling bungy-jumps

That's why we ended up on Fuerteventura - one of the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands are a VERY popular destination for Scandinavians on vacation, and to avoid having to eat at restaurants where the waitors speak Swedish, we didn't want to go to Gran Canaria or Teneriffe. Fuerteventura hasn't been a tourist island for many years and still has a lot of it's charm left and feels a bit genuine. But I have to admit, all restaurants on Fuerteventura has a menu in Swedish, a disappointment when you hope to find that exotic Spanish tavern to tell all your friend about when you get back home.

Anyway, after a 6 h flight we landed on the airport on Fuerteventura. Dressed in cool summer clothes and with great expectations. The first disappointment was that one of our bags had mysteriously disappeared somewere over Portugal and was not to be found anywhere. But that's another story, just don't trust the airline Brittanica with your bags. The second disappointment was when we stepped out in the sun to swallow every ray of sun light with our pale bodies. It was COLD!!! And I mean really cool, with nasty winds. I quickly covered up with my wool-coat, because I didn't want to get a flu a couple of days before New Year's Eve.

"No swimming?"

The cold weather continued for the whole week. We couldn't go to the beach, we couldn't swim in the sea and we surely couldn't swim in the hotel's swimmingpool (colder than the sea). We ended up sitting on our balcony (with the lovely view over the island Lobos, take a look at the photo) or lay sunbathing by the pool. Every day, we had to bring our warm blankets from the bed to cover our frozen bodies, when the sun went behind the clouds. Sounds pathetic, huh? The hotel room was without heating, even but it was one of the best hotels in Corralejo (Hotel Corralejo Beach). I woke up every night trembling with cold, even but I slept under two blankets. I know, I've got some Viking blood in me, I should be able to handle some cold :-) Well friends, I have to admit the I have never ever in my whole life freeze so much for so long without being able to do anything about the situation.

So, my conclusion is:

Don't visit the Canary Islands in winter but visit the islands any other time of the year.