Want to see the sun, feel warm sea breezes, and bask in clean air and relaxation ?

One difficulty is that even hot summer sun destinations such as Spain, Italy, Greece, and the Greek Islands are not so warm in December, January and February. So where can you reach an ideal summer break (without the time and expense of flying to Australia or South America) ?

Los Gigantes, Tenerife - 31st December 2006.

One delightful solution is the Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife, La Palma, Gomera, and Hierro - those are the larger islands. The quieter smaller islands of the Canaries include Alegranza, Graciosa, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este, Roque del Oeste and Lobos. These islands became part of the Kingdom of Spain in 1496. They were a port of call of the ships commanded by Christopher Columbus en route to the "New World".

There are plenty of travel guides and books that tell the fascinating history in detail, but we'll concentrate on the places today.

Just to give you an idea or two, here are a few photographs of parts of the South-West of Tenerife taken during December 2006 / January 2007. The temperature was in the mid-high 20s, with only very light breezes over sea and coast.

Relaxing in a cove north of Los Gigantes, Tenerife.

The main attraction of the boat trips from Los Gigantes Harbour is dolphin and whale watching. We asked about the probability of actually seeing any and were assured of it !

We were not disappointed, and it wasn't just our friendly Thomson Rep who was so confident. Notices next to boats in the harbour read:

"No Whales = Money Back".

Even if you don't know that you'll like Pilot Whales, this is a "must" ! Seeing them swim up to the boats and appear to enjoy "showing-off", and I certainly hope that they really DO enjoy it, is incredible!
Well worth a 4,000 mile round-trip. ...

Oh yes, back to the weather in Tenerife in December/January, get a sun-tan in a weekend, no problem at all. Those boat trips invite passengers to swim for a while (it's a scheduled "stop"), and there are plenty of keen swimmers.

Everywhere we visited was comfortably busy, no problem getting a seat on a bus or at a restaurant, but not noticeably quiet.

The biggest challenge was finding accomodation over the New Year weekend.