Sunday 13 November 2011

My Trip Recommendation: Fuerteventura




Why Fuerteventura? Simple: Good weather all year; Good food; accommodation for an affordable price if you choose the right part of the island and season; long, unexploited white sandy beaches; beautiful dunes,mountains,sea and dessert landscapes; pure and clean sea water; safe and peaceful; loads of sports : surf, trekking, biking etc ; beautiful combination of colors for photography and last but not least cheap car rental to go all over the island.

Well After my introduction I don't need to tell much more lol. A few tips:

Transportation around the island is not great and taking a taxi or tours can get out of budget so my first piece of advice would be:

1. Car rental. Have this booked online is much cheaper than arranging it at the airport and full insurance is also covered online. The cheapest company is one called: "PayLess Car". I have rented with them on a couple of more occasions and I have not had any issues. We rented one regular chevrolet small car for 100 euros a week with full coverage and it was o.k., you don't really need a jeep , the roads are in very good state.

2. If you want to enjoy and see most of the island by car , you should be there at least 4 days although if I were you I'd go at least for a week, once you are there you understand why. It's the perfect place to rest.

3. Where to stay? Uhm. It really depends on what you want and on your budget. To me the best part of the island infrastructure-wise in conjunction with kms of white sandy beaches is definitely the South of the island, a region called : Morro Jable. There you have the touristy part with cafeterias,& shops and only a couple of kms away you have unexploited beaches and mountains. Accommodation in Morro Jable will be more expensive than other parts of the island and it's around 40 mins drive from the airport, so you will need a car to get there.

If you are into wind sports and want to see the most beautiful beaches, the North part of the island is the place to be but remember , you have to like the wind, since it can get very windy in there. This area is called: Corralejo. To me it was beautiful, it had the most beautiful beaches and dune/ desert landscapes but to be honest I'd not stay on this part just because i found it a bit uncomfi to have sand on my eyes when lying on the beach! Anyway, you cannot leave the island without going to see this part, it's just superb!

If your budget is more limited and you don't mind being very close to the airport in amore touristy area where is actually a bit tough to find a true Spanish bar (it's all oriented for tourism) and want to have you own bungalow then you should stay in the centre of the island. This is actually where we stayed (booked via booking.com - 7 nights with breakfast,dinner and our own bungalow for 516 euros - but you had to pay extra for tv ,safe ,internet usage and air-conditioning usage), mainly based on our budget and that we were going to rent a car to travel around so being on the centre was easier to go one day to the south and another day yo the north of the island etc. I'm not going to recommend you where we stayed, do not get me wrong, it was clean and the facilities were good but if we go back i'd rather go to the south of the island,only due to the fact that i have already seen the whole island and i'd stayed only on the south resting and tere you have everything. The problem with the centre locations such as Puerto el Rosario or el Castillo (where we stayed) it's that they are very touristy and over there you can see and hear the planes from the beaches and your room and the beaches are the worse ones,at least for me but the families seemed happy since they have some facilities for kids. So always based your decision on your budget and if you rent a car , it's o.k. you can stay anywhere and travel around!

Places not to be missed (We saw all the below during our 8/day stay):

If you want to see windmills and beautiful little towns go to: Antigua and then to Betancuria (beautiful little town!) , La Oliva,el Cotillo, Tefia and Pajara.

Beaches: Corralejo (North) , El Paso (South) and all alrround Morro Jable.

Landscapes: Dunnes in the Natural park of Corralejo; Mirador Morro Velosa (beautiful!), Embalse de las Peñas; Morro de la Cruz; El cotillo with the beautiful Cliffs and also very nice fish restaurants, Llanos de la Concepcion. And much more!!!

To eat: Don't leave Fuerteventura without having : Papas con Mojo, typical cheese, tomates,ensalada de aguacate, ropa vieja , gambas & fritura de pescado & a coffee called "Barraquito" (uhm!!) and as a dessert: Flan and mus de gofio. We were very lucky and found very good places without having any recommendation here some tips: "Bodegon Don Carmelo" in Betancuria (uhm, try paella, papas con mojo,ensalada de tomate con sirope de Palmera, Barraquito & mousse de Gofio)! and in the little town of Morro Jable there are plenty of fish restaurants that you can try.

The People: We met a lot of friendly people, all spoke different languages so you should not have any issues travelling around the island. We were asking how they felt living there and all agreed that it was a safe, quiet island with a good quality of life.

To Drink: Dark Rum is typical drink on the island, don't leave without trying it!

Shopping: Perfumes (cheaper than in duty free shops! but don't buy them on the most touristy parts of the islands, go to Puerto del Rosario), creams and some electronic devices are cheaper on the island!

On Fuerteventura you have a wide abanico of sport activities and you can even ride a camel or a donkey!

Best memories I'm taking with me of this trip: Photos jumping and levitating surrounded by beautiful landscapes and no people interfering! Semi-nudists beaches and people dont really caring about what you do or wear on the beach! Mixture of colors and beautiful volcanic landscapes! Bike friendly island and criminality free! Easy roads to follow with our humble map, we only got lost once (this is one achievement for us lol). The Rumanian waitress when we asked here what the Canary dish "ropa vieja" was and she said: "it's food"! People talking in German and English to us in the area of Castillo and having difficulty to find a true Spanish tapas bar! and Last but not least, people seemed stress-free and happy to live on the island! Andres reading out loud to me the 5 books he read on the holidays.

You can see more photos on my flickr account:



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