Arranging the trip to Lanzarote (two months earlier)

Lanzarote VI
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It is full of all inclusive holiday promotions to fly to the Canary Islands in winter, especially during Xmas time. Since an unfortunate trip to Morocco where we highly regretted the choice of the all inclusive package (awful food, quick visits to everything interesting, hours in shops sponsored by the local guides, etc...), this time we arranged the whole trip about two months in advance, thanks to the Net.

For the flight we chose the company BINTER CANARIAS, a low cost of IBERIA which flies twice a week to Gran Canaria or Tenerife from MILAN BERGAMO. It takes about 4 hours of plane to get there either from Italy or from UK for instance. And from Gran Canaria to Lanzarote, it is another 45 min flight. Prices aren't that bad. If we had decided earlier they would have been even better. We payed 400 Euros each. A lot for a low cost, but we chose the most expensive period of the year (26th Dec-2nd Jan)!. Then the idea was to choose the fly and drive option. We found that the most common car rental in the islands is CICAR (www.cicar.com), which is easy to book on line at their site. We chose an Opel Astra for 7 days for 180 Euros. Then the last question: where to sleep. We didn't want huge hotels with buffets at lunch and dinner with hundreds of other people. We wanted to relax over there, take our times, eat where and when we want while we were wandering all over the island. So we chose the option of renting an apartment. To be honest, if you have a look all over the Internet, it is full of sites where you can rent apartments and holiday villas (with small swimming pools!!!). This is especially convenient if you have children to take with you, but it is definitely a nice way to live the island chosen by many English and German tourists. God knows why our Italian tour operators like Alpitour etc. do not sponsor this way of spending holidays....Anyway, as we were in two all together, we excluded the villa (too large for us) and we looked for an apartment. Where? In this case, travel forums helped me a lot, as I understood that the main options were Playa del Carmen, Playa Blanca and Costa Teguise, next to the coast. Inside the island, but still not too far from the coast there was also the hydillic village of Yaiza. As we had never been there, we relied on what guide-books and forum told us. Playa del Carmen is the most famous place. Full of hotels, restaurants, discos...had heard it was crowded and noisy..so we chose Playa Blanca, once a fishermen's village, now quickly growing as a new tourist spot in the southern coast of Lanzarote, about 35 km from the airport of Arrecife. It is a very nice touristic spot, full of restaurants along the sea, shops, supermarkets and near (5 km) to the beautiful Papagayo beaches of white sand, facing the other island of FuerteVentura. I had also heard that the weather in Playa Blanca is always sunny and beautiful as there are no mountains nearby to stop the clouds and to produce the rain, differently to what happens in the north of the island. The apartment, which I describe separately with some photos, was just outside the centre of Playa Blanca (car needed, therefore!) in a quiet residential area named Faro Park. Owned by a couple of young and very nice local people. It costed about 450 Euros for a week. OK, we definitely payed more than with the all-inclusive package...but guess what? Freedom of enjoying an holiday at your own pace has no price...we were ready to fly!