Duration: 7 nights
Cost of flight: €60 est. (Ryanair)
Cost of accommodation: All-inclusive deal
Cost of food/drink: All-inclusive deal
Cost of transport: Very Cheap (Car Hire a possibility)
Total Shoestring Cost: €TBC
As the UK nights draw in and it remains wet and miserable, my thoughts have started to turn to a warmer winter getaway for early 2012 – to dream and have something to look forward to, if anything else.
As I won’t be able to stretch to a long-haul flight I’d be looking at somewhere in Europe or Africa. Obviously it’d need to be somewhere distinctively southwards for the warmth, and eyeing up the all inclusive holidays Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria et al in the travel agent’s window the other day, there seem to be some great deals about.
Partly it’s the recession biting that’s bringing the deals to the fore; and partly that the formerly golden boys of cheap getaways have been ravaged by revolution and upheaval. Egypt, once a haven, is looking decidedly shaky nowadays; North Africa, too, has its Arab Spring making tourists consider safer options. Seeing as a light kidnapping is not my idea of an exciting holiday activity, I was drawn to a more European option: a tempting week of Lanzarote holidays in the Canary Islands.
It might raise images of beer-bellies, bright red Brits and sun loungers occupied by German towels, but it’s actually a perfect shoestring destination in terms of cost. Currently a return flight out in mid-January, staying for a week, will set you back only 60 euros with RyanAir. All-inclusive deals run at several hundred pounds – there is a nice four-star option I have seen that checks in at about 600 pounds, but I think this is beyond my scope as a shoestring traveller. Although an independent traveller at heart, I have been tempted by such holidays before, although never taken the plunge. But once again I am seriously considering it.
Especially when looking at the weather. I could trade a week of damp, cold darkness for a minimum of 20 degrees Centigrade, even in the lows of January.
Lanzarote is a volcanic island, with little really to see apart from rugged volcanic landscapes, a few half-hearted museums and other piffling attractions. But I wouldn’t be going for that. I’d be going for the beaches, the sea (19 degrees at its coldest), the sand (not bad, but remember it is a volcanic place so the sand is darker than the usual white sand paradise image) and the odd cold beer.
Meeting people my own age is a bit of a concern, though. Although I’ve been an old fart since birth, on my nights out preferring a comfy leather armchair, fire and a warm ale to a slick, loud club and cocktail, and manage to get on with fellow old farts and wrinklies with no worries, it is nice to have people around that look vaguely your age. If I do go I will need to pick a package/resort that is popular with those under 40 too rather than Essex bricklayers and their wives.
Do I go with my urge to escape to somwhere warmer and book up something cheap (but potentially unsatisfying?), or do I save my pennies for a tropical holiday further afield, like Thailand?
Decisions, decisions…