Please recommend best Canary island for combination of beach and culture/activity

tmh106

Hi everyone.

My wife and I are planning to go to the Canaries for five or six days in early to mid November. Primarily we are looking for sunshine and warm weather, somewhere with nice beaches and that is good for swimming/snorkelling. But we are not complete beach people, we wouldn’t really spend all our time on the beach during the day. We like to take part in activities and cultural events also. So really what we would like is somewhere where there were good options for walk/hiking and/or interesting museums/sights. The plan would be to do some activities/sightseeing in the morning and then relax on the beach in the afternoon.
We are looking at the Canary Islands but cannot decide which would be best based on our limited knowledge of them. So far we are looking mainly at Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, based on recommendations from friends. Based on flight availability we may end up going to Lanzarote simply because we can’t find flights that suit our dates to the other islands. We have to travel out/back, mid-week (Wed-Tue), so most package deals are out as they are generally Sat-Sat. Nevertheless we would still welcome recommendations on which island to visit if flight availability wasn’t an issue.

Does anyone on this forum have experience of visiting the Canaries, and if so would you be able to offer a recommendation based on what we are looking for? I have searched for other posts in this forum, and have found some helpful information, but I would appreciate any additional comments or suggestions.

Thanks.
tmh

Eponymous

Lanzarote has plenty of stuff to keep you occupied on both fronts... There's a few good places for scuba and snorkelling and there are plenty of cultural highlights to visit too.

Cesar Manrique was a local artist who's work is located all over the island and you can visit his house and museum. There are sites developed by Manrique which are worth a look too. Jameos del Agua and the Mirador del Rio to name two.

Plus there's Timanfayna national park where you can see lava fields and volcanoes.

If you hire a car for a few days it's well worth it to get the whole island covered... The likes of Auto Reisen or Plus Car do great deals for a week's car hire too from the airport so it could actually work out better to hire the car for a week than to use taxis.

Don't worry about booking a package, Ryanair and Aer Lingus have flights over to Lanzarote pretty much every day even in winter so book flights to suit yourself then use a site like booking.com to get your accommodation.

Gran Canaria is great too, if you avoid the likes of Playa Del Ingles. Stay further south in Mogan and hire a car to explore the middle and north of the island. It's a real contrast to the resorts and beaches of the south. Roque Nueblo is a great hike and the drive up their is fantastic.

FunkyDa2

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has it's own city beach( Las Canteras ), and a selection of hotels and restaurants adjacent to it. The city then has the usual shopping/visitor attractions/transport options. It makes for a pleasant break for a few days

0lddog

I agree, Las Plamas is neat.

For hill walking why not go to 'the other'* Tenerife ?

Lots of great routes

Google ( both web and image )

"senderismo anaga tenerife" for the hills in the north east

and

"senderismo anaga tenerife" for the hills in the north west

The winter climate is perfect for hill walking

'the other'* Tenerife = Away from all pockets of mass tourism ( i.e. Tenerife as it was in the '60s & '70s.)