Fuerteventura – Not the holiday we expected

Back in November 2014, we went to Fuerteventura which is one of the Canary Islands but it wasn’t the holiday we had planned or expected. We had booked our very first holiday together to Egypt and we were so excited to get away and get to know each other more and more. We were planning so much for this trip, staying in a stunning 5-star hotel in the middle of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Not flying to Egypt

2 days before we were meant to be flying there was sadly a terrorist attack on a Russian plane leaving the Egyptian airport. We were feeling fortunate that we were not in the country when this happened but were so worried about what was going to happen to the holiday that we had been looking forward to and planning for months!

This scared us a lot and the next day the British government postponed all travel to Sharm el-Sheikh. Luckily we were insured with the booking company.

At such late notice, we rushed around trying so hard to book somewhere else for the same dates as we had our time booked off from work and were fully prepared to be travelling on holiday the next day!

We must say our booking provider was absolutely brilliant but the problem was there were 1000s of people all in the same situation looking to rebook holidays and in November time you can be limited to find somewhere to travel to that is still hot and sunny and a reasonable price.

One of the reasons we booked Egypt was you get a lot for your money, we paid roughly £1200 for a week in a 5star hotel and trying to find somewhere else to go in the same price range at such short notice was really difficult.

We decided to try and book somewhere in the Canary Islands as it was close and hot all year round as it was November going anywhere in Europe was impossible. The main problem we were having is that it seemed all the hotels knew the situation everyone was in and the prices just skyrocketed!

Booking Fuerteventura

After searching around for hours we really didn’t have many options in our budget, so finally, the travel agent helped us to find a holiday in Fuerteventura, staying at the Club Caleta Dorada.

The Hotel

Once we arrived at Club Caleta Dorada we just said to each other let’s just make this the best holiday we can after all the trouble we had been through we just wanted to enjoy our holiday together and to relax. The hotel was not the same luxury style that we were looking forward to in Egypt, it was a huge but very separated 3-star hotel.

Once we had checked in we made our way to the room. The hotel was scattered over 4 separate parts each with their own small pools.

The studio rooms were average but good enough and we were pleasantly pleased until we realised there was no air-conditioning and you had to pay to rent a fan!!

We had a studio room which meant that there was a living area/kitchen, a separate bedroom and a bathroom. We usually like to watch tv when we’re in bed and the tv was in the living area which for us was a bit annoying but this is just our personal preference.

Fuerteventura Food

We didn’t make the most of the kitchen area in our room at all as we were all inclusive. This is the dining plan we had chosen for Egypt which transferred over with our new Fuerteventura holiday booking but we must admit the food in the hotel was very basic and we got bored of it very quickly so decided to eat out, where sadly, the food in the restaurants we visited was very basic too.

Overall, our experience of food in Fuerteventura was not great and we really wished we would have made more use of the kitchen in our room and cooked some more of our own meals.

Things to do in Fuerteventura

As we hadn’t had the time beforehand to plan all the things we would like to have done in Fuerteventura as we usually would for other trips it was all a bit of a mystery to us what the island had to offer. We decided to book a couple of excursions.

Oasis Park Zoo Fuerteventura

Our favourite excursion was a trip to the Oasis Park Zoo. We had such a fun time here and would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting.

It’s quite a large zoo so there’s a lot of walking involved but they have such a wide range of animals to see making it a great day out. Our favourite part of the day was getting the chance to feed giraffes which we have never had the experience of doing before in any other zoos we have been to.

Another excursion involved visiting the Ajuy Caves. We’d highly recommend visiting these caves, we really enjoyed it. Just be aware it’s quite a rocky walk to get to, a few members of the group we were with decided not to do it but we were so glad we did, it was one of the highlights of our trip.

If you get the chance be sure to climb up the Mirador Morro Velosa mountain in Betancuria, there are stunning views over Fuerteventura.

Although Fuerteventura wasn’t the trip we had planned and it wasn’t the ideal start to our first holiday together, we made the most of it and in the end had some great experiences that we were glad we had the chance to do.

We also hope to be able to make the trip to Egypt one day that we had been looking forward to so much!

The post Fuerteventura – Our unexpected Trip appeared first on A Couple Of Idiots Abroad.