Travel writers hotel recommendations
By Joe | December 18, 2009
As a travel writer I was asked by Sunday Times writer Mark Hodson for a hotel I’d recommend at under €150 per night for a double room. The best small hotel in Tenerife, Hotel San Roque was an obvious answer, but was KO-ed by the crappy exchange rate, which means it works out at around £160 at the mo.
Anyhows, check out this page (I’m at the bottom) on hotels recommended by travel writers, to see which hotel I did recommend - and it’s not on Tenerife.
Topics: Tenerife | No Comments »
Tenerife advice for Globespan passengers
By Joe | December 17, 2009
In the words of Freddie Mercury… another one bites the dust. Globespan has gone into administration, stranding thousands of passengers at destinations such as Tenerife. For those stranded on The Rock, the Tenerife Tourist Board puts out the following advice:
In the wake of yesterday’s news of the collapse of Globespan and its low cost airline Flyglobespan, Turismo de Tenerife is liaising closely with Ashotel (Tenerife Hoteliers Association) , Aena, (Spanish Aviation Authority), APAV (Provincial Association of Travel Agents ), the company itself and tour operators who operate with it in order to ensure that any affected passengers who are currently holidaying in Tenerife will be able to enjoy their holiday to the full before returning to the UK.
Globespan flights scheduled from Tenerife Sur are as follows: one today Thursday [17 December] and a further three for Saturday [19], bound for the Scottish cities of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. All these passengers will be offered accommodation at special ‘contingency rates’, independent of any agreements they may reach with Globespan for their return to the United Kingdom.
The island councillor for tourism Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, stresses: “This is unexpected news but we believe that the number of seats, which amounts to around one per cent of the total airline capacity from the UK to the island , will be covered in the near future by other airlines operating to Tenerife.
“As well as the action being implemented by Turismo de Tenerife, companies like Easyjet and Ryanair have already offered special prices for these passengers, so we are confident that they will be all able to fly home in the next few days.”
There is a customer helpline 0044 141 332 3233, and an official statement with useful information on their web: www.flyglobespan.com. Passengers affected by Globespan’s failure can also check out the British Civil Aviation Authority’s web: www.caa.co.uk
Locally, the Spanish Aviation Authority AENA at Tenerife Sur airport has activated a customer helpline for stranded passengers: 922 759 027 or 922 759 028, where they can get information on extending their stay until they have been able to make alternative travel arrangements.
Topics: General musings, Tenerife | No Comments »
Win a spiffing holiday in Lanzarote
By Joe | November 9, 2009
Fancy a bit of that for free? (Ahem... the resort, not the talent).
Oh! Those nice people at Sands Beach Resort in Lanzarote are offering the chance to win a free holiday for up to 4 people just by becoming a fan of the marvellous new online wonder that is Tenerife Magazine. As they say in the cheesiest of cheese shop competitions, ‘You’ve got to be in it to win it’, so hop along now to the Tenerife Magazine Facebook page and where it says ‘become a fan’… well, click it and become a fan, pronto… if not pronto-er.
You still here?
Away with you. Now.
Topics: General musings | No Comments »
A word about Istria
By Joe | August 11, 2009
Red Island, Istria
One of the questions you get asked a lot when you live in a tourist destination like Tenerife is, ‘Where do you go on holiday?’ Sensible question seeing as we’re all enjoying a permanent holiday on the rock. Or so people seem to think. Usually the answer is “back to Blighty”, followed by, “but it’s not really a holiday”. Well this year, the Cawley clan decided to do it different. We went to Istria. That’s the heart-shaped bit at the top of Croatia, for all the geographically bewildered. And man, was that a good decision.
Istria is a land of simple pleasures - which is just as well, as we’re just simple folk. No scream-inducing theme parks; no mammoth beaches awash with hip-to-hip Brits; and no Olde English Pubbes baying for your trade with laminated images of egg and chips. It’s all good, clean, natural fun in Istria.
The Cawley clan in Istria
For the first week we stayed on Red Island, near the medieval ‘damn-that’s-pretty’ town of Rovinj. The whole island (all 1.5 kilometres of it) is just a big park surrounded by the clearest sea imaginable. Pines, poplars and olive trees shade grassy knolls and Mediterranean flora sprouts from almost every orifice (the island’s, not mine!). Another even smaller island was reached by rocky walkway.
We ate grilled squid and drank one too many frosty beers at the islet’s only restaurant, before adventuring off-path and gorging on wild blackberries. Suitably juice-faced, we took a quick dip in the Adriatic to shed the red, and escape the heat. The water was around 25 degrees, ideal sea temp to get refreshed without risking heart stoppage.
The result of one frosty beer too many
Daytimes were mostly spent mithering the sea life with snorkels and masks, or long lazy lunches while the Molly and Sam ran amok in a timber play park. We thought we might make use of the kids club, but our two were totally content chasing butterflies, lizards and splashing around in the pool and sea.
Rovinj
Most nights we’d venture aboard the free boat taking us 10 minutes across the bay to the mainland and the buzz of Rovinj - a town with more seafood restaurants than you can shake a knife and fork at. As you’d expect from a medieval town, the lanes are small, cobbled and lead to the most unexpected of places. We had a near miss when we trailed an alley that led to a sudden 20ft drop into the briny.
The second week was spent further north, within walking distance of the town of Porec, another historical settlement albeit on a tinier scale. All of the hotels along this stretch of coastline are cloaked in pine forests. It’s like someone moved the Lake District to the shore. Energised by the proliferation of good food, foliage and sunshine, we were even so bold as to rent bikes for half a day - though why we envisioned we had such energy is still a mystery. Cycling along the coastal path with Sam strapped to my back, was certainly a scenic way of seeing the forests and coves of Istria, and an even more certain way of shedding several kilos (and years off my life) in the process.
After two weeks, we returned to Tenerife with newfound love of creamy truffle pasta, Istrian Merlot and vows to go back and explore some more of Croatia’s 1200 islands and Istria’s green and pleasant heartland. Think I may lay off the biking next time though.
Topics: General musings, Life in general | 2 Comments »
Funky flirtations with luxury Tenerife hotel
By Joe | July 14, 2009
Had the good fortune to take the venerable Mrs Joe to the restyled Hotel Sir Anthony for her birthday recently.
The Sir A, as it’s now tagged, is an oasis of tip-top styling at the heart of Playa de las Americas. Cheap it ain’t - but damn fine it is.
Picture private rooftop plunge pools, smoked glass windows, a pillow menu that divides into chapters and al fresco massages amidst the shade of leafy palms. The staff are totally on the ball, even housekeeping knew it was Joy’s birthday and cheerily reminded her whenever they passed.
The restaurant is also fab. A private lawn-side pagoda had been decked out with starched linen and shiny silverware, surrounded by flickering oil lamps and an assortment of stray cats. I don’t think the cats were supposed to be there, but they were good company and fully appreciated the scallops in puff pastry, fillet steak in red wine and the foie gras.
Fair play too with the breakfasts. Yes, there was the full english variety if you cared to venture for it. But every day they also invent a selection of creative alternatives, such as smoked bacon on crispy noodles, and goats cheese with apple and cranberry parfait.
Although there’s a barrow-load of facilities and amenities at the four other neighbouring Mare Nostrum hotels, including a gym and wellness spa, they’re all hidden away behind the Sir A so you wouldn’t even know they were there.
The only thing you do notice is the golden stuff on Compostela Beach, a mere arm’s length from the lawned gardens. In fact there’s no other hotel in Tenerife within such close proximity from rooms to sand.
Can’t help but recommend the Sir Anthony and will definitely return, only if to rest my weary head on the other 130 different pillows on offer.
In Tenerife, if you’re looking for a romantic break, a flirty fling or just a bit of high class pampering in unpretentious yet gorgeous surroundings, check into the Sir A, you’d be a fool not to.
Topics: General musings, Tenerife | No Comments »
If Carlsberg scored goals, they’d probably score them like this
By Joe | June 8, 2009
That cheeky chappy is called Andres Vasquez, a Swedish Under-21 international who is currently looking to switch from Swiss side IFK Gothenburg to Premier League side Stoke.
Wonder how many times he tried THAT before popping one in?!
Topics: General musings | 1 Comment »
Looking for Clash of the Titans in Tenerife
By Joe | June 6, 2009
It was Saturday. Pancake day in the Cawley household. A day when Molly Blue and Sam gorge themselves silly on flour and water. But after the feeding frenzy, what to do?
Answer: Go and find Hollywood in Tenerife. Yip, we’d heard that the film set for the Clash of The Titans re-make was being built in the wilds of Teide National Park, so off we set to have a ganders. Joy plastered on her best lippy in hope that they’d had a casting disaster and urgently needed to pluck a complete stranger from the crowd of gawpers. Bit of a dreamer, our Joy.
Anyways, it was easy to find the set. Clearly marked by miles of Crimewatch style ticker tape, a scrum of equipment vehicles and two roadside security guards looking clearly baffled as to why they were there.
The actual set building was roped off just at a great vantage point metres from where the painters were dabbing ochre onto God-world pillars. ‘What’s a pillar?’ you can hear Molly ask in the video. I was tempted to answer the question ‘what’s a pillock?’ as there was clearly one standing in front of the set in a yellow vest, wagging a finger at anybody who dared lift a camera.
“No picture, no picture,” he barked 20 metres across the volcanic wasteland. Most people lowered their cameras and skulded off bewildered. A few, like us, waited till his back was turned then snapped away anyway.
“It’s Teide National Park, for goodness sake,” Joy rightly points out in the video. “I’ll take a *&88ing picture if I want.” The observant amongst you will spot that we didn’t use that particular take. Sky Travel is a family channel, after all.
Anyways, depite Joy mithering the life out of various members of the production crew, they all refused to be interviewed, those in postitions of authority tutting about ’something has to be done about all these people taking pictures, it’s supposed to be a closed set.”
Well don’t stage a Hollywood set in the middle of a national park then, for *&%^’s sake! Or at least build it further than 50 goddam metres from the roadside of Spain’s most visited National Park. And cover it up. A shower curtain, a pair of Ann Widdicombe’s knickers. Anything!
Anyway, here’s the Tenerife Clash of the Titans video, including Joy’s (toned down) rant. Enjoy.
Topics: Inane rants, Tenerife | No Comments »
Canary Islands under the sea
By Joe | May 18, 2009
This should attract dive and snorkel-fiends. Great video by Rafa Herrero showing the underwater world of Tenerife and the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands under the sea from Rafa Herrero on Vimeo.
Topics: Tenerife | 1 Comment »
Rod Stewart in Tenerife - review
By Joe | May 18, 2009
What’s going on in Tenerife! We might be woefully short of tourists at the moment, but it seems that all the celebs are taking advantage of the quietness to visit our shores at the same time. Or maybe there’s a celeb party going on that only those with a spread in Hello magazine know about. Stuff ‘em. I didn’t want to go anyway.
Jenny Bond has just been. Daniel Craig is currently here. Sam Worthington, Gemma Atherton and some of the cast of Clash of the Titans are all drinking our beer (but not Liam Neeson or Ralph Fiennes - they won’t be coming to film any of their scenes here). And then there’s Rod.
Last year’s fiasco with the organising of the Elton John concert left many people worrying if Saturday night’s Rod Stewart concert in Tenerife would turn out to be the same shambolic jamboree. The organisers promised not. They assured the island that they’d employ more vigilance in actually staffing the entry points with real people instead of monkeys this time. They’d made the decision that it would be wise to let 15,000 punters in gradually rather than all at one time. And check their tickets so they don’t all stand in the same spot. And they agreed that pretty little signs pointing people where to go would be quite a neat idea. So did they deliver? And did Rod for that matter?
Firstly, the organisation. We got our first sniff of how “things were going to be different this time” at Checkpoint Charlie One. Despite packing enough bocadillos to kill a crowd of gluttons and enough beer to drown a rugby team, it had all been in vain. ‘No drinks or food allowed’ we were told. “Bring back the disorganised chaos of last year,” rang the disgruntled chants. But we did what every law-abiding Brit would do. Along with hundreds of other dismayed attendees, downed half of it in a makeshift kerbside bar and smuggled the rest in. It would have been good to have let people know on the back of the tickets or via media ads that food and drink wasn’t going to be allowed. Denying people even a bottle of water in a hot climate such as Tenerife is a little draconian to say the least.
The rest of the organisation was outstanding though, from the Wally Trolley chugging people up and down from the car park to the first barriers, to the size of the entry points. Last year you almost had to slip in one-by-one sideways, this year you could have driven a flotilla of beer lorries through the space. (Note to self - bring beer lorry for Beyonce concert).
There were very few queues, except for the usual portaloo posse. Even the bars weren’t mobbed, which was a good thing seeing as our secret stash soon ran dry. There were even guys wandering around distributing Heineken from a mobile pump, albeit at a price of €4 per beer. All-in-all the organisation this time was outstanding, so big thumbs up to the Canaries Live for listening to all the moans last time. And an even bigger thumbs up for getting acts such as Rodders to our shores in the first place. Perhaps you could also work on a few acts that don’t fall into the Rock ‘n’ Wrinkly category as well?
Back to the mullet-man himself.
Scheduled to appear at 9, the venue was looking mighty empty a few minutes before kick-off. Crowd size was estimated at anywhere between 6,000 to 10,000. The organisers claim 15,000 but I suspect they were seeing double.
Having perched ourselves high on ‘The Hill’, as soon as Rodders croaked out the first notes of Some Guys Have all the Luck, along with most of the other cheap seatsters we realised that we weren’t those lucky guys. We’d made a fundamental schoolboy error. We were too damn far away to hear much. It was like being sat in a traffic jam listening to the car in front’s music system, with the windows up. So, along with most of the other high hill dwellers, we shuffled our blankets and contraband picnic closer to the action. It was only after this mass migration south did the venue look anywhere near busy.
Rod continued to crack out hit after hit, pausing to rest after seven songs with a sit-down on a stool to sing Downtown Train. Well, he is 64 after all. Compared to Elton who stayed on stage for the whole 2 hours, Rod was on and off like strobe light, changing outfits and I suspect having a bit of a lie down.
He’s not a talker, Rod, much like Elton. The only real interaction he had with the crowd was when he told us he was having a 10-minute break and when he booted a dozen or so footballs into the crowd. Mainly to the high-spenders at the front though. No balls for the cheapsters, but I guess Rod ain’t no Ronaldo, and even he would have been stretched to fire a free-kick 50 or 60 yards.
After a quick encore of Sailing, he was off without a beg your leave, police lights twinkling off towards La Caleta leaving more than a few people dissatisfied with the ending. Was it something we said?
It was a great concert though, around two hours of Rodderick hits and some good showmanship from his three dancers and musicians. How sexy is a female saxophone player? I want one.
As I stood on The Hill, the lights of La Caleta and Costa Adeje flickering in the distance, watching a world legend singing and strutting on a purple-lit stage, I felt a strange sense of reassurance, a feeling that we weren’t completely cut off from the real world, that we were now somehow included and connected to the bright lights and glamour of the fame and pop-dom that we read about so much in the UK press. For one night at least, living in Tenerife felt almost like living in the real world.
Well done Sun Live Canarias.
Topics: General musings, Inane rants, Tenerife, Writing Clips | 11 Comments »
Tenerife time-lapse video
By Joe | May 11, 2009
Very much liking this new Tenerife video - Tenerife in a day and a bit… stunning visuals.
We need more of these great videos that show Tenerife in its Sunday best.
Topics: Tenerife | No Comments »