Category Archives: Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The following islands make up the Canary chain:
Gran Canaria — The largest island by population, its capital city (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) has the shared title of capital of the Canaries. Green and steep in the north, dry and flat in the south.
Fuerteventura — windsurfer's mecca
Lanzarote — Low lying and arid, with a spectacular volcanic landscape in the west of the island (National Park of Timanfaya). The capital is Arrecife and has its own airport (ACE code). Lanzarote is also of volcanic origin. The island, along with others, emerged after the breakup of the African … Read the rest

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FRUGAL TRAVELER; A Canary Island, Away From the Flock

IF there is such a thing as tourist hell, it might look something like the view from my taxi as I rode from Tenerife Sur airport in the Canary Islands to the ferry dock: a wall of anonymous concrete-box condos along a beach covered with a thousand blue deck chairs, lined up like parading soldiers. I smiled, for this tourist was only passing through on her way to a place she was pretty sure would be paradise, just an hour's hydrofoil ride away.

The Canary Islands, which belong to Spain, have become well known as a haven for mass … Read the rest

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Lanzarote

WHY GO NOW Lanzarote's other-worldly volcanic landscape is one of the most dramatic on the planet and is in danger of being consumed by package-deal tourism. While vast expanses of Lanzarote are protected by a national park and several preserves and Unesco designated it a Reserve of the Biosphere in 1994, there is still the quiet creep of development.

The easternmost of the Canary Islands, part of Spain about 100 miles off the coast of Africa, Lanzarote is nearly 40 miles long, culturally rich and blessed with an average temperature of 72 degrees, which may be why its expatriate … Read the rest

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