Canary Islands Holidays in the Hills and by the Sea

The character of your Canary Islands holidays depends on which of the islands you choose. Each of the Spanish islands has a different personality to absorb outside of your luxury hotel. The Canary Islands can offer you winding sandy coastlines perfect for sunbathing, mist-shrouded mountains with clear streams that can be explored on foot, and vibrant towns with colour and night life.

Although the islands belong to the European Union, the climate here is closer to being tropical, with sea temperatures as high as 19 degrees in winter and much warmer still in summer, so Canary Islands holidays are good all year round.

Tenerife

Staying in Tenerife, the largest island of the Canaries, you might enjoy a hotel that is an architectural marvel of the Canary Islands. Luxury hotel with a difference, the Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque Resort has intricate levels set into a hillside overlooking a beach. It has been designed to look like a traditional village, with towers, fountains and arched footbridges making it resemble something from a fairy tale.

The highlands of Tenerife are craggy and yellowish sun-burnt mountain ranges which contain Spain's highest peak, Mount Teide. With the right permission from the National Park, you can take a cable car up to the top of Mount Teide, and look down on Tenerife from a height of 3718 metres.

Lanzarote

The National Parks are also an appeal of Canary Islands holidays in Lanzarote, where you can take a tour through the Timanfaya, which is an alien terrain formed by volcanic activity. A favourite trick of the guides here is to pour water into one of the less dormant volcanoes to see it turn to steam and shoot up from the ground. You can take a camel ride over volcanic beaches or guided bus tours to see this lava landscape. Lanzarote is home to many of the best deluxe, five star-rated Canary Islands luxury hotels; the Gran Melia Salinas, the Gran Melia Volcan Lanzarote and the Princesa Yaiza won't disappoint.

Fuerteventura

You'll love the amazing golden coast of Fuerteventura. This is where you'll find the longest sandy beaches of the Canary Islands. Holidays focused on the beach here have more than a hundred and fifty to choose from, including sandy spits and promontories reaching into the sea that create shallow bays and beaches with water on both sides. The warm African wind makes this a good spot for windsurfing.

Gran Canaria

Like Tenerife, Gran Canaria has a rocky landscape at its centre rising over the rest of the island. By taking walking excursions on your Canary Islands holidays, you can sit high on seemingly precarious rock stacks, high over the terraced mountainside and enjoy dramatic views of the island. After a day's hiking, you can return with your lungs full of fresh mountain air, to one of the Canary Islands' luxury hotels, such as the Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia or the Santa Catalina.

Gran Canaria has colourful towns with deep beaches of rich, gold coloured sand, expanses of sand dunes, and hidden coves on a sea-worn coast line.