I wanted some winter sun and we didn’t want to do long haul, so I convinced Steve to do a 10 day all-inclusive in Lanzarote, an island I’d visited many times in the past. We weren’t doing a package holiday – God forbid – I booked a Jet 2 flight and hotel separately. I’m not sure who I am trying to kid though.

Playa Blanca – a resort I’d not been to before was nice enough. Steve said that it’d be lovely when it was finished!

The Hotel – H10 White Suites – was described as a ’boutique’ all-inclusive. If boutique means small then yes – small pool, small bar, small restaurant (just the one), relatively small number of sunbeds (more on that later), but a pretty large number of rooms so it felt crowded and with facilities too small for the number of guests.

The room was good, with a separate living room and a balcony overlooking the pool. The food was fine but nothing special. You had to be in the know on which was the decent red wine. The pool area was nice, but there just weren’t enough sunbeds and chaos ensued. Sunbed wars broke out so strict rules had to be imposed! I can’t remember exactly what they were, but woe betide anyone who tried to grab one early morning and then go off for breakfast, and there was no chance of a leisurely lunch if you wanted your sunbed/belongings to still be there when you returned after a bite to eat and a few drinks. Average guest age was probably over 60, and it was a relatively expensive hotel, so we aren’t talking about pissed up chavs looking for a fight – but one particularly angry bloke decided to remove the towels of a group of posh pensioners while they were at lunch and all hell broke loose when they returned with him shouting and calling them “scum” – amusing for those of us sitting smugly on our beds with a drink in hand, but not nice for the poor old dears on the receiving end of the vitriolic outburst.

Anyway, there’s only so much poolside ‘entertainment’ one can take – Lanzarote is a stunning island and I wanted to show Steve around, but there were no hire cars available for the entirety of our stay. Apparently a lot had been taken back to the mainland during COVID and had not yet returned, so we were forced to do a tourist coach trip instead of being intrepid independent travellers. An early pick up, stopping at what seemed like every bloody hotel in Playa Blanca before an hour later picking up from the hotel next door to ours! Once we finally left the resort and the tour guide started with the blurb, I became a little worried as there was no mention of many of the things we’d expected from the day. That’ll be because they’d put us on the wrong bus! A frantic changeover at the rest stop, it was like the tour company were doing us a favour rather than correcting their mistake, and we were off. I think we must’ve done 2 day trips as there’s no way we’d have fitted this all into a single day…..

Apart from the trip(s) we mainly relaxed and read books. We did intend to do some diving to the unique underwater museum off the coast of Playa Blanca, and take the ferry across to Fuerteventura, but the weather gods weren’t on our side. Apart from quite a bit of cloud and a few downpours, there’s a reason why Lanzarote is good for windsurfing!

Logistics

Outbound:	Jet2 LS 1801 depart: Bristol (BRS) 24/2/22 08:05 GMT arrive: Lanzarote (ACE) 24/2/22 12:05 GMT
Accommodation:	H10 White Suites Address: Janubio 1, 35580 – Yaiza, Playa Blanca, Lanzarote
Inbound:	Jet2 LS 1802 depart: Lanzarote (ACE) 6/3/22 18:45 GMT arrive: Bristol (BRS) 6/3/22 22:45 GMT