Canary Islands: A Sunny President's Day Weekend Getaway

Back in December, I got another email from Vueling Airlines promoting cheaper flights, so I started working on our President's Day Weekend plans. After not seeing any new international flights on the cheaper end, Bryan suggested I look at flights in-country instead.

And that's how I found flights to the Canary Islands for $102 round trip for the two of us! A little bit of research led me to an all-inclusive resort on the big island, Grand Canary, for three nights. BANG! Trip planned!

Saturday, February 17

Our flight left at 6:45 am, meaning we were up at 3:30 am, in the car by 4:15 and parking by 5:45 am. Did we mention we LOVE living abroad, where you can walk into the airport an hour before your flight without any stress? (Being one of the first flights of the day makes it a little easier too!)

We watched the sunrise during our 2.5-hour flight down south! With the Canaries off the coast of Western Sahara & Morrocco, this is the closest we have made it to the African continent...yet!

Gran Canaria Airport: Aeropuerto de Gran Canaria

We landed at 8 am and didn't waste any time getting to the bus stop and hoppin' on to make our way down to the resort! As we drove, we were surprised at all the brown. In our brains, we were heading to the European Caribbean, but this place was desert-dry!

Gloria Palace San Agustín

By 9:30 am, we were sitting down with a plate of breakfast at Gloria Palace San Agustin! While we were too early to check into our room (go figure,) they gave us all-inclusive bracelets and generic room keys so we could start using the facilities!

When we booked this trip, I was hopeful for good weather, but everyone I had talked to said the Canaries would still be cold in February. Seeing that the average temperature for this time of year was around 65... I was a little nervous. But, boy did we luck out! The entire weekend was in the upper 70s and low 80s!

We spent the entire day sitting in the sun on the upper pool deck of the resort! Being down a flight of steps from the pool bar, but far enough from the pool to avoid screaming kiddos, this was THE PLACE to be! I'm officially in heaven!

Once the sun started to go down, our remaining energy was going with it. We headed up to our room for showers and a two-hour nap before dinner! Waking Bryan up for dinner was a real chore, but we made it. Did we almost fall asleep at the table? Yes. Did we sleep good this first night in the Canaries? Heck yes!

Sunday, February 18

After sleeping nearly 10 hours, I was up with the sun for a nice quiet morning on the balcony. I grabbed my book and a bottle of sparkling water and then enjoyed the sunrise while Bryan slept another two hours! This is his kind of vacation!

Eventually, the man got up, and with sunscreen in hand, we headed back out for another day of soaking in the rays! THIS is my type of vacation! My main goal was to keep Bryan from turning into a lobster, so we were sure to reapply his sunscreen throughout the day!

As the sun went down, the temperature dropped and Bryan came up with the brilliant solution of heading inside to watch a futbol game in the lobby. So while Bryan found his people watching the Machester United game, I enjoyed reading my book and making friends with the local stray cat!

Don't worry, Bryan may look like his team is losing in the above picture, but they did win!

Monday, February 19

Now, y'all know I'm not good at chilling the entire vacation, so we decided to head out for a morning of exploring a local beach.

English Beach: Playa del Inglés

The resort's shuttle dropped us off near Playa del Ingles, outside of Maspalomas. After walking around the area a bit, we headed down the steep staircase to put our feet in the sand and enjoy some beach exploration.

We had been told that the Canary Islands is packed with old British couples, and we saw how true this statement was. Old leathery people filled the beach here and reminded us to reapply sunscreen.

The morning was a bit windy, so after sitting in the sand for an hour and a half, we agreed to make our way back to the resort. While the beach adventure got us out and about, our beaches in Rota are prettier; call us spoiled back home!

We ended Day Three back at our upper pool deck. I wasn't ready to let the day end, so a nap wrapped in towels was my perfect ending!

Tuesday, February 20

This may have been the day we headed home, but we weren't going to let that stop us from enjoying another day by the pool! By 9:30 am, we dropped our bags in the lobby storage room and then enjoyed breakfast. We then tallied our time: two hours of "all-inclusive" left on our reservation, so we passed our time with vodka tonics with a splash of lemon juice back in our pool spot!

At 2:30 pm we had to accept that it was time to leave this sunny paradise! We changed into flight clothes and made our way to the bus stop.

Bryan is our public transit guru, so he got us boarded and to the airport with ease! Once through security, we found our tried-and-true Priority Lounge and enjoyed a snack while watching the planes take off.

While not our normal action-packed sightseeing trip, visiting the Canary Islands was the perfect way to spend this long weekend in February! Going home with the start to some tan lines and memories of a chill weekend with the husband makes my heart happy!

'til next time,

Katie