First anniversary in June..

MarkY91

Hi all. My girlfriend and I will be celebrating our first anniversary on June 17th. Were hoping to go away for up to a week on a beach holiday.

I'm finding it difficult to choose where to go as it's my first holiday in Europe that won't be a "lads holiday" and first not being single so I'm not interested in magaluf etc.

What we would like to get up to would be beach activities like sunbathing, snorkelling etc, restaurants by night and maybe a couple nights in a club with others watching shows etc. Were into hiking and sightseeing and seeing local culture...I know it's hard to see "culture" in most package holiday destinations. At least all the ones I've been to anyways.

Taking that all into account, we aren't fancy, we don't care for luxery and are perfectly happy with a gourmet burger and fries as a meal so I'm looking for a bargain.

MarkY91

I don't think I would be interested in Lanzarote as I was in Puerto del Carmen last year and found it to be the worst resort I was ever in. Nothing to do and a ghost town at night.

Stheno

Malta particularly sliema and st julians would tick a lot of your boxes

MarkY91

Stheno wrote: »

Malta particularly sliema and st julians would tick a lot of your boxes

I had Malta in mind too. I'll look into both places. Thanks for the tip

Eponymous

MarkY91 wrote: »

I don't think I would be interested in Lanzarote as I was in Puerto del Carmen last year and found it to be the worst resort I was ever in. Nothing to do and a ghost town at night.

Oddly enough, PDC offers ALL of the things you list that you say you want to do...

Yes, it's not Ayia Napa, San An, Playa de las Americas etc. It's not supposed to be.

There are loads of diving sites for snorkelling, you can jetski etc off Playa Grande, plenty of museums and cultural sites on the island, if you do a search for Cesar Manrique you'll find info about museums and galleries. If you're into hiking, there are some great ones - PDC to Puerto Calero is a relatively easy walk on varying terrain along a clifftop. Take a bus out to Playa Blanca and you can hike up Montana Roja for some spectacular views over the south of the island and across to Fuerteventura. Venture inland or up north for other very interesting hikes and a change of scenery. You can do bike hire too... It's very well suited to biking and the locals are far more patient with cyclists than we are here!

The only thing it doesn't have is the mental nightclubs. Plenty of bars with music around Centro Atlantico and loads of bars with decent live music such as the Island Bar in the old town.

I'd been there as a couple a few times and have been back with family a lot. It's not geared to the "lads holiday" crowd - like you, I couldn't think of a worse place for that type of trip! Look at it again with a couple's holiday in mind as it really does tick all the boxes you listed.

That all said, it's getting fairly pricey in the last couple of years!

fdevine

Santa Ponsa? Nice beach. Quieter areas as well as bar areas. If you wanted to go on "a mental" you could head up to Magaluf.

Pop up to Palma for some culture & sightseeing, Sealife (IIRC) up the coast, water parks

MarkY91

Eponymous wrote: »

MarkY91 wrote: »

I don't think I would be interested in Lanzarote as I was in Puerto del Carmen last year and found it to be the worst resort I was ever in. Nothing to do and a ghost town at night.

Oddly enough, PDC offers ALL of the things you list that you say you want to do...

Yes, it's not Ayia Napa, San An, Playa de las Americas etc. It's not supposed to be.

There are loads of diving sites for snorkelling, you can jetski etc off Playa Grande, plenty of museums and cultural sites on the island, if you do a search for Cesar Manrique you'll find info about museums and galleries. If you're into hiking, there are some great ones - PDC to Puerto Calero is a relatively easy walk on varying terrain along a clifftop. Take a bus out to Playa Blanca and you can hike up Montana Roja for some spectacular views over the south of the island and across to Fuerteventura. Venture inland or up north for other very interesting hikes and a change of scenery. You can do bike hire too... It's very well suited to biking and the locals are far more patient with cyclists than we are here!

The only thing it doesn't have is the mental nightclubs. Plenty of bars with music around Centro Atlantico and loads of bars with decent live music such as the Island Bar in the old town.

I'd been there as a couple a few times and have been back with family a lot. It's not geared to the "lads holiday" crowd - like you, I couldn't think of a worse place for that type of trip! Look at it again with a couple's holiday in mind as it really does tick all the boxes you listed.

That all said, it's getting fairly pricey in the last couple of years!

Hmm it just felt so empty at night. Even the bars in centreo Atlantico were deserted except the workers bar after 3am. It was kinda dodgy too. Full of dodgy looking Moroccan men offering cocaine 20 times per night.

Everything else you said sounds really nice. All we really did was the go karting which was really good. We missed out on a volcano tour which I really regret

MarkY91

Eponymous wrote: »

MarkY91 wrote: »

I don't think I would be interested in Lanzarote as I was in Puerto del Carmen last year and found it to be the worst resort I was ever in. Nothing to do and a ghost town at night.

Oddly enough, PDC offers ALL of the things you list that you say you want to do...

Yes, it's not Ayia Napa, San An, Playa de las Americas etc. It's not supposed to be.

There are loads of diving sites for snorkelling, you can jetski etc off Playa Grande, plenty of museums and cultural sites on the island, if you do a search for Cesar Manrique you'll find info about museums and galleries. If you're into hiking, there are some great ones - PDC to Puerto Calero is a relatively easy walk on varying terrain along a clifftop. Take a bus out to Playa Blanca and you can hike up Montana Roja for some spectacular views over the south of the island and across to Fuerteventura. Venture inland or up north for other very interesting hikes and a change of scenery. You can do bike hire too... It's very well suited to biking and the locals are far more patient with cyclists than we are here!

The only thing it doesn't have is the mental nightclubs. Plenty of bars with music around Centro Atlantico and loads of bars with decent live music such as the Island Bar in the old town.

I'd been there as a couple a few times and have been back with family a lot. It's not geared to the "lads holiday" crowd - like you, I couldn't think of a worse place for that type of trip! Look at it again with a couple's holiday in mind as it really does tick all the boxes you listed.

That all said, it's getting fairly pricey in the last couple of years!

We didn't see any nighttime shows like Magicians and hypnotists. Just 1 underground drag queen place (it was a really good show) .

Would anyone recommend salou? I was there about 10 years ago age 16 and it had alot of shows.

Eponymous

The volcano tour is pretty good. If you drive, rather than spend a fortune on tours, just hire a car and do everything at your own pace. What you'd spend on the island tour for one day would cover a couple of days of car hire, entry to the National Park and entry to a couple of other things. It's really easy to drive around and a couple of days you'd have the highlights of the island covered and could even head off elsewhere from PdC for a meal each evening. Some nice spots at the Marina in Pto Calero and some incredible seafood restaurants at El Golfo on the west coast for spectacular sunsets.

I know I've seen hypnotists and magicians shows on the island. Chances are they may be in hotels, but many hotels are happy enough with guests coming in for drinks and watching their shows.

Again though, a couple's holiday isn't going to be the same as a lads' holiday or one you did with your parents!

Someone else mentioned Santa Ponsa. That's also a great spot with the added bonus(?) of Magaluf down the road for some madness if you need it! Loads to do there too with some excellent sights to see and Palma is a beautiful town to visit too.