When looking for somewhere to escape to the sun for a week we again considered the Canaries. We have never been there and to be honest, after going street level on Google Earth, they did not appeal to us. When we holiday we aim to find cultural and national differences from our own daily existence. As purely holiday destinations we doubted that we would find that in The Canaries.
A chance meeting, a few weeks ago, with a couple who had just returned from Los Gigantes, a couples hotel in Tenerife, persuaded us to give it a try so here is how it went, with a small selection of photos (I came home with 350, that is down to 128 so far) but just 22 posted here.
'Thomsons' are purveyors of package holidays, (we normally book our own flight, hotel and transfers so this was a new experience), we ticked the boxes for 7 nights, half board, sea view twin room, baggage and transfers. All booked, paid for and confirmed online in minutes. Even though we had checked in and reserved seats in advance we still had to suffer the manic scramble on our departure to get through check in, and security at Gatwick South. But after a comfortable flight with Thomas Cook we arrived at the hotel early evening.
The hotel is rated 4 star and is very comfortable with large rooms, tea and coffee, desk, chair and sofa and an excellent glass screened balcony looking across to La Gomera some miles distant in the atlantic.
There are two pools and most guests use the sea water pool above the volcanic rock cliffs. This was great fun and more like the dead sea in its buoyancy. A freshwater pool was at the other end of the hotel. So all good so far.
The big let down was the restaurant. The hotel can accommodate up to around 450 guests and the vast dining room with rows of tables for two reminded me of the wartime British Restaurants. 
And the food although plentiful and varied was poorly presented and in most cases overcooked. But nevertheless, many people went to the trough and piled their plates high. 
More like Butlins with sun
View from pool looking north
View from balcony looking south
Room 529, right corner five up
Room 529
Glass balcony
Sea water pool from our balcony
I did not expect anything much of interest on the island but before departure I had decided on two excursions that I would arrange myself, not the overpriced Thomsons offerings. First was a short boat trip out to find whales and dolphins. The boat we chose, from an earlier Tripadvisor search, was the Ocean Explorer. A low in the water speed boat with a capacity for just 12 people. There were only 10 on our trip.
Ocean Explorer at speed
Start of the outbound trip
I really enjoyed this and after 30 minutes our young captain found a pod of pilot whales and then a pod of bottle nosed dolphins. Both are from the 'Dolphin' family with pilot whales a little smaller than killer whales. We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the whales coming very close to the boat, many with a calf.
Two that came close to the boat and a cow with her calf
My only problem was that I took the wrong camera. Expecting to need a longer lens, I took my HS50 but with the rocking of the boat I would have done better with the smaller X10 with live viewfinder. So I just had to point and shoot and hope for the best, they don't pose and are gone in a moment.
The other excursion was to go to the top (well nearly the top) of el Teide, the volcano that formed the island originally. We hired a taxi to take us on the one hour journey up to the 6,500 feet crater level. The driver then waited for two hours while we took the cable car up near the 12,200 feet summit. At the summit we were above the clouds. From up there you can see the extent of the crater which is 30 miles in circumference. It was warm and sunny, no need for a coat, but the oxygen level was 40% down on that at sea level, and you knew it.
Teide from the crater
Cable car 44 people max (3.1 tonnes)
The peak
Above the clouds
My best pano of the crater
Our driver then returned us to the hotel down roads that were reminiscent of 'The Italian Job'.
A fascinating trip through the black lava fields of the well known 'so called moonscape', through the cloud, and then when below the tree level, through the pine forests.
Puerto de Santiago, which is the name of the locality, has little to commend it catering as it does for mostly British holiday makers. There is a small sheltered marina full of small private launches and motor boats. A few cafes along the quayside provide good coffee and very acceptable lunch time snacks.
The Marina
The return home was uneventful apart from the scramble at a far too small Tenerife South airport and then, after the flight, the long trek from the aircraft to immigration on arrival back at Gatwick South.
Oh! I nearly forgot. On the Monday afternoon we were about to leave the pool at around 4 pm when my wife stopped to chat to some people with whom we had become acquainted. As she walked away she knocked her lower right leg on the end of a lounger causing a 3 inch 'U' shaped gash. A bit of panic stations for a while, (not Mrs G or me I might stress,
just everybody else), with pressure applied to stop the bleeding. Within 15 minutes a doctor arrived. He applied a temporary dressing then by wheelchair to our room where he dealt with the injury and applied 9 sutures. So no more swimming for Mrs G for the rest of the week. The doctor revisited on Thursday just to check that the wound was OK and that she was fit to travel.Before being sewn up
Edit: Image removed at Grandads requestSo to sum up. We enjoyed the week with blue skies and temperatures in the low 30's. The injury did curtail our activities to some extent.
Tenerife was all that we expected and I am sure the other islands of the Canaries are much the same. We will not be trying another package holiday and we will not be going to The Canaries again, too full of Brits. They are not for us I am afraid.....PS: Forgot to mention. They even charge to use pool towels and for the use of the room safe.....never had to do that before. We never take towels anywhere and didn't pay to hire, we bought two outside, same price as the hire BUT we brought them home. One has already gone back there to Las Americas with a grandson who is there on holiday right now.
I sat right beside the locker and made sure the door opened easily 
