February 28 2017

We are very pleased to bring you Fuerteventura from a visitor’s perspective. Brian McLean and his good lady, Nati, are friends of ours. We’ve enjoyed many hours of food, wine and chat and look forward to many more.

Brian and Nati live just outside Barcelona. By birth Brian is British, but we all consider him more Catalan these days as he’s lived there for decades. This warm and friendly couple visited Fuerteventura a week or two ago and offered to share their experiences. We hope that you enjoy reading this as much as we did.

FUERTEVENTURA – ORIGO MARE

Fuerteventura

We limited our trips to the North of the island as the South is “only” beaches and toruist resorts and we don’t have to go to The Canaries to find them. A quick metro ride from home is enough. However, they are supposed to be very long, with white sand and quite spectacular.

The scenery is absolutely wonderful, if you like volcanic deserts which I do. We only made three day-trips to see the main tourist attractions in Tindaya, La Oliva, Betancuria, Antigua and Isla de Lobos. However, architecturally it is a little barren like the countryside.

Tindaya is a sacred mountain near La Oliva, the village from which the “Colonels” ruled the island under the direct orders of the Bourbon Kings from early 18th century till the mid 19th. Their absolute power meant their patrimony increased greatly during this time. The village has several interesting buildings including the Art Centre and a small craft market on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Betancuria is the original capital and Antigua, as its name suggests, the oldest village on the island. They are interesting to visit as they give a glimpse of old villages. In the rest of the island there is very little to see and even the capital, Puerto de Rosario boast very little in the way of visitable paces excluding, of course, the church.

Isla de Lobos. This gets its name not from the canines but from the, now extinct, colony of Monk Seals which are sometimes called “Lobos Marinos” (Sea Wolves) in Spanish. This is a Natural Park which can be visited (on foot – there are no private vehicles) easily in three hours and the energetic can scale the volcano for spectacular views over Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. These is one VERY small “village” with an equally small bar. Beer is plentiful and, considering the logistics involved, cheap; less expensive than many places on the main island. Seating and food at the restaurant is limited, so book early or take your own. There are a couple of small very picturesque beaches within 10 minutes walk of the quay. Nature lovers and walkers will adore the place, others like us just had a very relaxing few hours in virgin volcanic scenery.

There are very strong currents between the islands so the trips can be a little choppy, but nothing to worry about. You will need to book your return trip if you plan to get any of the later boats.

Corralejo. This is the nearest town to where we were staying and offers a wide range of opportunities to shop, eat and drink. I would especially recommend Cantante Café, but there are a lot of others around. It boasts a small beach in the town itself, from where you can get ferries to Gran Canaria and Lanzarote as well aas the boat to Isla de Lobos.

To the South of the town is an area of sand dunes and the “Grandes Playas” a pleasant place to sunbathe and, for those brave enough to face Atlantic Ocean temperature, take a swim.

Origo Mare

The first thing about the place is that it’s a very large extensive complex of villas. This is especially appreciable when arriving at night as you come over a hill in the road and can see it all laid out below. It will be larger, roads for further building are already laid out and some are even paved. Nevertheless, when we were there, parts of finished areas were “mothballed” and appear to have been so for some time. Crisis?

The villas are set out in separate areas called “Oases” by Pierre et Vacances who own the place. This makes for easy navigation around the site. Each of these oases has an individual pool, a children’s play area and a communal garden set out at the back.

The “centre” has the reception area, theatre for entertainment, restaurants, a bar, supermarket, laundry, kids playroom, mini-golf, office to hire bikes and similar vehicles and the two main pools: one (slightly heated – we were there mid-Feb) strictly for over-eighteens and another well-appointed children’s pool area which contained many attractions including a large pool with artificial waves. There seemed to be plenty of life-guards on duty to make if safe and family-friendly.

Staff: our experience was excellent as everybody we came across was helpful and cheerful. I must, however, point out that, when talking to non-Spanish speakers, there were a couple of niggles, but not anything that would ruin a holiday. My partner is Spanish and, when in Spain, I am always taken as being Catalan, so language was no difficulty for us.

Main restaurant (we did not try the À la Carte restaurant) is large enough to cater for, what we were told was, a near capacity occupation. We had full-board and, though we skipped midday on a couple of occasions, had most of our meals there. The quality, quantity and variety at the buffet was amongst the best I have ever had. Obviously, it is not Michelin-star cuisine, but very, very acceptable. Full-board included unlimited wine (red, rosé and white), beer, a selection of soft drinks and juices with all meals. Cava was available for breakfast and evening meal but not for lunch. I never could fathom that one out and, although I meant to, did not enquire about. “Dry” meat and fish (steaks, lamb chops, hamburgers, fresh tuna, white fish fillets, etc.) were cooked to order on the grill in front of the customer.

The installations are clean and very well maintained by an army of workers who were out and about all day and every day. The gardens are, to my mind, exceptionally attractive. Though I have read some very disparaging comments on TA (taken with the requisite kilos of salt) that they looked like weeds. These are volcanic gardens on a very dry island as you know. There was a very wide selection of succulents and cacti and the gardens boasted an elaborate irrigation system to keep them that way. It is also noteworthy that these are not mature gardens and will, no doubt, be more “lush” in a few years time.

The bar is small, but at no time (even during the PSG – Barça match) could it be described as crowded. It has a pool table, sports on 2 TVs and music on a third. Prices were OK. € 7’00 for a premium G&T.

The supermarket is reasonably well stocked and prices are not extortionate. Some of the spirits are, in fact, cheaper than in town – if that name applies to Corralejo.

The villas themselves were very well appointed and perfectly adequate for self-catering which was quite popular judging by the number of people partaking of meals on the private gardens in front of each. Kitchen was equipped with vitro-ceramic and oven, fridge/freezer, kettle, coffee-maker, toaster and dishwasher.

In all fairness, I must now come to the less positive aspects.

As I said earlier, the whole complex is very large and being “at the far end” may entail walks of 15 minutes to get to the centre. We were less than 100 m from reception so no complaints.

Walking: the paths are paved with soft stone from the local lava and are, thus, quite badly deteriorated in the more well-trodden parts. However, this does not represent any real danger, just a little inconvenience when using prams or wheelchairs.

Traffic is very light in the whole complex and is, again, no cause for alarm or fright.

This complex is for families who wish to avail themselves of the installations for the duration. There is no beach nearby and the little “village” of Majanicho (20 minutes walk) is a quaint curiosity as an, almost, shanty town. If you want to go out, car hire is a must. The unpaved coast road to Corralejo is a delight for lovers of volcanic scenery, waves to make a true surfer slaver and the home to the beautiful “majorero” goats.

Car hire: try to avoid the service offered in the hotel (Wendy Cars) they are expensive and not very well organised. Having said that though, their inefficiency means that they don’t check fuel on return, prices include fully comp insurance so they don’t worry about knocks and scrapes and all hires are unlimited mileage. When I tried to point some out to them, the response was a shrug of the shoulders and a “don’t worry”. But, if you only need the car for one day and to avoid taxi fares (not cheap on the island, about €25 each way into Corralejo), by all means contact the, rather attractive, young lady on the desk. BTW, she is from Moldavia, the first person I have ever met from the country.