Arrecife, Lanzarote

As with many of the port stops on this cruise, we’ve been to Arrecife, in Lanzarote, many times before. Because of this, we’ve booked ourselves onto excursions to places that we haven’t seen before. Today’s tour was to Puerto del Carmen, a popular tourist town several miles round the coast from Arrecife.

Because it was a ‘do it on your own’ tour lasting five hours, we were provided with a packed lunch, which we had to pick up from the South Cape Bar before heading to the Playhouse Theatre where places on buses are allocated and managed.

The drive to the town only took about 20 minutes, and when we arrived, I think both Tracey and myself were a little concerned at how long we were going to have to spend there, and whether or not there would be enough to keep us interested for five hours.

In the end, the timing turned out to be absolutely fine. We walked roughly three miles along the coast to what was described as the ‘Old Town’, and beyond… This was clearly a popular walking route, as there were many others doing the same thing.

The views across to the mountains and volcanoes were stunning, providing excellent photo opportunities, and by the time we got back to the pick-up point, we had enough time for an ice cream and a cold drink on the beach, followed by a spot of tat-shop-mooching before re-joining the bus back to ship.

In retrospect, despite the fact that we managed to fill the time well, I would say that five hours is just a little too long, and that three and a half, or four hours would be ample for most people.