For a family week away? No cycling involved.

How old’s your family? Tenerife has a lot of family activities, choose where you stay and it’s not too chavvy either.

The big one.

Or the smaller one.

Is there a difference these days ?

Has someone painted one a different colour ?

Or do they all look the same except for the size..

I wonder.

Oh, the one that has the sand imported from Africa.

That one.

We had a great family hol in Puerto Mogan, Gran Canaria last summer. Smallish resort with no booming bars/clubs. Lots of Spanish and Italians and in general the Brits were the type you would have a drink with. Many good restaurants and bars along the beach and in the small town.

We stayed here in a self catering apartment. It’s fairly cheap and cheerful but clean and tidy. There were 3 or 4 pools and a kids club and our little fella had a great time. There’s also a quiet pool so mum can disappear for a couple of hours peace. The only negative about the hotel was no air con which resulted in me sleeping on the balcony a couple of nights but we did acclimatise.

https://www.cordialresortholidays.com/gran_canaria/cordial_mogan_valle_apartments/special_offers?gclid=CKbx2eLkyNECFaYy0wodUbAMUw

Next door is a more upmarket hotel also operated by Cordial.

God to hear that aazlad – I’m going to those very apartments for a week at Easter, having never been to Gran Canaria before. Did you get into the mountains? What were the restaurant prices like? Etc etc.

Fuerteventura for me. Full of Germans, who seem very well behaved and friendly – there’s no British drunkards shouting and having fights etc..

Also, it’s always nice and breezy, which suits me because I don’t like it too hot.

What time of the year are we talking about here? If you are talking winter/early spring Fuerteventura has the warmest climate and least rainfall but away from the resorts it’s like living on the moon.

I went to La Palma before Christmas and it was stunning.

8000ft volcano that you can walk or drive to the top.

Completely unspoilt and well worth a visit. I’m hoping to go back again later this year.

Tenerife – whatever you want you’ll find it in Tenerife. And whatever you don’t want you’ll find it in Tenerife.
Lanazarote – less developed than Tenerife but what there is is quite agreeable
Gran Canaria – potentially another Tenerife but mostly locked in a 80s – 90s timewarp
Fuerta – trying to be a bigger, better Lanzarote without turning into Tenerife

La Palma the island is the best for outdoors walking, stunning unspoiled scenery. Quietest of all the Canary islands and little known.

Family holiday Tenerife has the most to do in terms of activities such as the water parks, zoo etc. Still has good outdoors walking, but generally the island is a lot busier than the other Canary islands.

Lanzarote is pretty windswept (and as such not a place for the beach IMO), but a massive plus is no high rise and lots of interesting works by César Manrique. More suitable for a quieter chillout holiday IMO.

+1 curvature and dragon. I went to la Palma in early November. The scenery is like Leith Hill on steroids – Lots of pine trees, mist and narrow roads. OK, it’s a bit more than that but you can google the details. Probably more for adults than kids though.

Lanzarote has great beaches to the south. Playa Blanca is nice.

Lanzarote is pretty windswept

There are two sides to it – one is windswept and apparently excellent for windsurfing by all accounts. The other side is pretty calm and has some lovely beaches. Papagayo is fantastic and very sheltered. I was there over Christmas a few years ago, so quiet compared to summer. Loved every minute of it.

Tenerife purely to visit siam park. On a water park scale it’s like comparing alton towers with your local playground.

for a family tenerife. its good and as suggested siam park is ace.

furta is nice but bloody windy. takes the fun out of it if its bad.

lanzarotte is good but is more basic. better eating and slightly more expensive (but non of them are expensive imo)

Puerto Mogan looks nice, and a quick peek at google map indicates it’d be a cracking spot to take a road bike. Anyone able to confirm?

Fuerteventura

Corralejo in the north is a bit too british for me.

Caleta de Fuste in the middle is the best for me. Plenty of places to eat and not too loud. No nightclubs.

Morro Jable Very German but has amazing Beach. Long way from the airport.

Do yourself a favour and have a drive round. Some amazing scenery and great little places to visit.

When I was in Lanzarote we traveled all around the island and it was always windy, so I’m sticking with my opinion that it is windswept.

Siam park is great, such a shame the rest of the area is an huge dump. I wasn’t impressed with that end of Tenerife at all.

La Palma is not the quietest – that would be El Hierro

which is great by the way.

My favourite is La Gomero, closely followed by La Palma

La Gomero can only be reached by boat if that helps.

Not been to them all, but I really like Tenerife.

Lanzarote had a quieter feel, but not sure how much of that is down to the particular resort we stayed at.

Fuerteventura was a bit barren & really windy. It was fine for a bit of springtime sun, but wouldn’t be rushing back there.

Next on the list for us to visit is La Palma, I reckon.

Tenerife & GC for play
LP, LG or EH for rest
Lanzagrotty for the volcano park, but that’s about it
Fuerta & Lanza for getting blasted by 40kt winds for a week. Never again.

Wait4me,
Yeah mogan had a road leading out of it that one way, east ish, takes you out to all the other resorts, Playa,maspalomas,Puerto Rico etc.
Going north on it takes you up into the mountains, switch backs, huge climbs, there is one from maspalomas that is about 40km long.
Mogan is a lovely wee town but not much to do at night. Maspalomas is the ideal base as it has nice hotels and food / drink spots with the night life of Playa del ingles a 5 Euro taxi ride away.
I’ve not cycled gran canaria even though I’ve been about 10 times (always with non cycling wife and kids) but have hired a car to go into the mountains and the roads look amazing, great condition, fantastic weather. The off road routes are meant to be great aswell.

Have been to Mogan a couple of times, never cycled there but there’s some fantastic looking climbing just up the valley.

Also a new hotel is under construction just opposite the Cordial, may be a bit noisy if you’re staying at the top end of the complex but was fine down the other end.

Puerto Mogan looks nice, and a quick peek at google map indicates it’d be a cracking spot to take a road bike. Anyone able to confirm?

Excellent place for road riding.
Bike hire is fairly cheap and easy over there as well from Freemotion.

My Wife is from GC, but from the capital (Las Palmas), which is where we stay. Its a city, with a big port, shops bars and restaurants etc as any other city. But it does have a good beach (Las Cantaras) and good parks to take the kids to. It works for us and we are off again at Easter. I’ll be talking the road bike again – the road biking is from Las Palmas is good once you are out of town. some of the villages and sights towards the top of the mountain are pretty spectacular, its a great way to see the island and you get plenty of climbing practice. The south is better for road biking as its so easy to get out of town, there are some big climbs and it can be very hot in summer.

I’m sure there is some great MTBing (15 odd blokes on nice bikes burst out of the tress as I rode past on the road bike in Firgas) but finding the tracks would be hard, the limited time I have makes the road bike an easier option.

Although I have not visited all of the islands I have to agree with wrightyson. Siam Park is definitely worth a visit if you like that kind of thing.

Only visited Lanzarote (8 maybe 9 times) and Fuerteventura, the later was a disaster of a holiday other half broke her ankle on the beach, so I had 2 weeks to myself. Back then my fitness was poor, I had a road bike but with the winds and distance between towns it just wasn’t enjoyable, the beaches at Jandia was stunning and great for a day or 2.

Lanzarote I really enjoyed, beaches yes imported but small and friendly places to be, road riding its doable to do the entire island in a day and then find different routes. The weather in the winter wasn’t too bad. I do recall one day which caught me out, took the hire bike which is really easy to arrange in Lanzarote, rode out of the resort into the volcano parks. The weather changed from stunning sun to thunder, heavy rain, probably the best storm I’ve ever seen. I was caught in a small town no where to shelter, one of the locals took me to a local café, let me bring the bike in and shelter from the rain. Its wasn’t ridable as drain covers popped up and floods across the streets. Its always the terrible weather conditions that make the best rides!