Advice needed for trip to Canaries or Madeira

oliveoil54

Can you please offer any advice – We are looking for a holiday either to Tenerife, Gran Canaria or Madeira.

We would like a quietish resort & decent hotel with good views, good food, some evening entertainment, pref with not too many children and not too far to walk into a nice town. We both like a bit of walking, dancing, and local history.

We can fly from either Manchester or Newcastle and have a budget of approx £1200 each for two weeks pref to include flights, B&B and poss some extra meals, though would be willing to pay a bit more for somewhere special.

We are in our late 50s and are also celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary in April, so end of March or April/May time would be preferable (though not Easter period).

Have already looked on various sites including Trip Advisor but find there is just too much choice, and as we don’t know the Canaries or Madeira would welcome some advice especially on a suitable locations.

Many Thanks
Pat

annie123

I'd go to Madeira.
Were late 40's and had a lovely time there, we hired a villa and car, let me know if your interested in that and I'll give you the details.

The hotel area is left of Funchal the capital. Its a lovely little town, with nice restaurants and a friendly feel. No night clubs open late so it doesn't attract a young crowd, mainly couples, older travelers and families with small children.
It wouldn't cost as much as your budget to stay there so I would upgrade flights maybe as its a special occasion. We have flown with TAP and BA both were fine.

Do not sit on the right hand side of the plane if you don't want to feel you are landing in water!! I love it but not everyones cup of tea.
Its also a really nice small airport with an outside covered balcony on the top (if either of you are smokers) on departure.

I'd type in Funchal to trip adviser and look at the top rated hotels and take it from there.

HTH
x

will-he-payitoff

Have you thought of playa blanca lanzarote. Look at trip adviser for reviews. I would avoid gran caniaria and tenerife unless you like time share touts

oliveoil54

Thanks for your reply.
Am def leaning towards Madeira but not sure what weather will be like in April. Would prefer a hotel to villa, did you visit any when you stayed there?

forumfan_2

Have you ever thought about taking a cruise? That would be something special (although we said that on our honeymoon and we're about to do our 6th!).

You can get a P&O cruise starting at c. £1,000 each for around 12 nights... £1,500 with a balcony (admittedly later in the year as most of the earlier ones are sold out) and that includes all your food & entertainment.

It would allow you to try out quite a few places a then go back another year when you have had a look around.

I have been to Madeira, Tenerife, Lanzarote, La Palma & Gran Canaria on cruises and if I had to put them in order of preference then it would definitely be Madeira first, followed by Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, La Palma then Tenerife.

Madeira is great if you stay in Funchal because you can walk to a lot of tourist attractions (cable car, tobbogan run, botanical gardens, Blandys, etc)

shoppaholic_returns

will-he-payitoff wrote: »

Have you thought of playa blanca lanzarote. Look at trip adviser for reviews. I would avoid gran caniaria and tenerife unless you like time share touts

Really does depend on which resorts you choose, the more upmarket ones dont generally suffer from this problem.Tends to be los christianos/las americas, I'm talking about la caletta,los gigantes,playa pariso and upmarket parts of adeje.

Mrs_Thrify

Hello Olive, my vote is for the Canarie islands. although I can see Morocco will be just as nice.

daveyjp

Weather in Madeira is the same all year round. 20-28 degrees, but you can expect rain during any month and low cloud can be a problem in the mountains.

I'd still recommend it though. Two weeks may be too long as there's not a lot to do, a car would get you to some of the wilder areas in the mountains. If you do go for two weeks you could fit in a trip to Porto Santo island which has some great beaches - ferry or plane.

Look at Atlantic holidays if you are considering Madeira

annie123

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.
Am def leaning towards Madeira but not sure what weather will be like in April. Would prefer a hotel to villa, did you visit any when you stayed there?

http://www.belavistamadeira.com/

We had dinner here one evening, price wise for us the rooms were out of our league but for your trip and budget it may suit you. We did look at 2 just to be nosy and some rooms really do have views like the photos!
Dinner was excellent and I'm a veggie that doesn't like vegetables! DH is a meat eater and said it was perfect to.

tripadvisor reviews here http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g189167-d255375-Reviews-Quinta_da_Bela_Vista-Funchal_Madeira_Madeira_Islands.html

weather wise looking at the weather history over the last five years there it will be daytime 20c and night time 14c.
not to hot and any showers are mostly brief. It is cooler a bit in the mountains so bring a fleece for walks if you go.

It is a beautiful and friendly place.

HTH

PinkPrincess

I would recommend Tenerife as you are more guaranteed to have nice weather at that time of year. I would suggest Playa Fanabe / Costa Adeje area for your holiday. Absolutley beautiful, quieter than Los Cristianos/Las Americas but with shops, bars and entertainment nearby. Definately more suited to the older generation and the beaches are nicer too.

If you want more information about Tenerife, have a look at www.tenerifeforum.com

lily_the_pink

Madeira is great - you could always do a 2 centre holiday and go to Porto Santos for a few days for some beach.

There are masses of fantastic hotels - there is not as much danger of chosing a hotel in the wrong area (as is easy to do in the canaries), everything is relatively upmarket (as long as you stick to a proper 4 star).

I have done 2 lots of 2 week holidays - there are masses of fantastic walks, brilliant seafood and a really lovely local population. Relatively low crime levels, and not many loud discos/nightlife places along with the type of tourism it can attract.

Porto Santos is quite easily reached by boat or plane and again there are lots of lovely hotels and lots of lovely beach (unlike Madeira where all you will find is a great costal promenade walk and lots of rocks - there are Lidos though).

I think April is one of the high seasons in Madeira - I would definately want to avoid easter week if you can.

In terms of somewhere special, Reids Palace looks fantastic (even if you dont stay, do go for afternoon tea), and the Pestana Grand, should be well within budget. I have stayed in a Pestana hotel and they all seem to be well run and it is sometimes possible to pick up brilliant deals. Check out reviews on tripadvisor before making any bookings.