I’m just back home from an epic holiday in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. I stayed in the lovely city of Corralejo for a week. Here are some top notch places you must visit if you stop by there.
If you’ve never been to Canary Islands, you must go. There’s the best climate in the world and I totally fell in love with Fuerteventura island, so wild and sunny. Between a sunbathing session and a round of beach tennis on the seashore, I wrote down some notes about this wonderful place. Hope they’re helpful to you if you are planning to go to Corralejo, the city in the very north of the island where I spent seven awesome days of writing and relax.
Bar – Pubs
If you like all the things bakery, Mas Que Bakery is your dealer. Good internet, nice chicas staff and excellent food, from cakes to sandwiches. Good wifi.
Go to La Marea for a wide range of drinks (alcoholics and soft drinks) and comfy sofas overlooking the Ocean on Calle Maritima (a wonderful promenade on the sea you will never be tired to stroll on). The view is priceless. Wifi OK.
Sport addict? No problem. The Underground Sports Bar has several screens broadcasting football, rugby, cricket and many other sport events that are happening at that very moment. Basic selection of beers (most of them are lager) and only chips and nuts available as snacks. Good wifi.
El Chollo is one of the many bars in the so called Plaza de la Musica. Although we had a good mojito and a huge whiskey, they don’t have any wifi connection. You can’t even pay by card (cash only), so keep that in mind whilst having a sit there. Note for the internet/wifi: 99% of the businesses have free wifi, you just need to ask for their network’s password.
If you want to have a drink on the beach, make sure to have spent at least 15 Euros in drinks to pay by card. We chilled out at Corintia Bar in Playa Blanca and we had to pay cash. The view and the on-the-beach experience was brilliant but our cappuccino was just OK, maybe due to the high standards provided by Mas Que Bakery. Sorry Corintia’s guys. Poor wifi.
Food – Restaurants
We went to several restaurants, but these two are the best worth mentioning.
Meson Las Tejas: gosh, I can’t wait to come back to Corralejo and have another dinner at this restaurant. The paella was perfect. Excellent value for money (we ate A LOT) and – as a plus – the staff was very caring with me and my food allergies. We’ve been told after we had dinner there that the best paella in Corralejo is Meson Las Tejas’!
El Anzuelo: situated right before Corralejo port, the place is quite nice and humble. The staff speak little English – we spoke little Spanish as well, yet we managed to communicate with no problems, plus the menu is available in at least 9 languages. The food is excellent. We had fish and meat and everything was awesome.
Things to do in Corralejo
If you love water sports, Corralejo and Fuerteventura are your luna parks. Surf, windsurf, canoa, kite surf, snorkeling, you name it. Prices may vary but you can always get a good deal. If you’ve never tried anything like that, this is the right time to try. Do it.
There are good places to go also if you have kids. Not only kids can attend surf and windsurf classes, but there are also playgrounds for the little ones. The water is not so deep so it’s safe also for little kids (watch the tide though). A minigolf (5 Euros each player for 19 holes) is situated along the main street, while from April until October the Baku water park is open till late.
Don’t miss the dunes in Corralejo, they’re speechless. Really.
Animals
Canary Islands are Spanish territory, but they geographically belong to Africa. Keep it in mind when stumbling upon 2 inches length beetles. No lions of predators, for the record, but you might meet a lizard at some point. The sea fauna is amazing. Whales, dolphins, tropical fishes and… little sharks! You’ve got the whole range there.
Forget mosquitos, there are none in Corralejo. As our landlord in Corralejo told us, the strong wind wipes them out. Beware of Phlebotomus, though, which are quite substantial. They’re tiny and cute but they sting and can trigger allergy reactions (it happened to my sister a couple of years ago in Italy, she’d been massively stung though).
Forget the fat, dark coloured pigeons as well. Pigeons are slim and light coloured in Fuerteventura! I also saw a lot of parrots flying here and there. That was quite weird for me, but very pleasant as you can imagine.
Miscellaneous
If it’s windy, you may see that the view is not clear, like if it’s slightly foggy. People call it calima, it’s basically the desert sand lifted up and suspended in the air by the wind. It’s very cool to watch if from the plane.
Make sure to have some Euros with you whilst landing in Fuerteventura airport – or make sure to pay your stuff by card. The only ATM of the airport is a bit dodgy and sometime “eats” credit cards. It happened to me as soon as I arrived in the island and it wasn’t cool at all. Neither the bank (Bankia) who owns the ATM or the company in charge of the device’s security were able to open the thingy and give me the card back. Luckily I had a backup so my holiday hasn’t been ruined by that – but be careful with that ATM anyway.