Golf Holidays in Lanzarote & Fuerteventura

Lanzarote, less than 80 miles off the coast of Africa, is the most easterly of the Canary Islands. At just 37 miles long and 12 miles wide, Lanzarote is the fourth largest island in the Canaries, and enjoys a mild dry climate with comfortable daytime temperatures and very little rainfall. This makes Lanzarote the perfect year-round golf holiday destination for golf breaks in Spain.

Lanzarote, like the other island in the Canaries, is volcanic in origin. Eruptions during the 18th and 19th Centuries left many parts of Lanzarote with a landscape often described as being other-worldly. The arid climate and lack of erosion means that this ‘lunar’ or ‘Martian’ scenery appears much as it did just after the eruptions, and results in many stunning features such as the longest volcanic tunnel in the world, the Atlantida Tunnel, which is over 7 km long and includes the La Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua.

Despite the volcanic nature of the island, Lanzarote has several beautiful white beaches such as Playa Blanca and Papagayo. With its enviable climate and a number of new golf courses planned, Lanzarote is set to become a very popular holiday destination for golf breaks in Spain. The first golf course on the Island, Costa Teguise, was opened in 1978. A championship par 72, 18 hole golf course offering a fine standard of golf in very pleasant surroundings of Lanzarote, the course was designed by John Harris and was labeled by none other than Severiano Ballesteros as the golf course with the best design in the Canary Islands and as a course which forces you to use all your resources.

Lanzarote’s second golf course is just a couple of minutes’ drive from the popular and busy holiday resort of Puerto del Carmen. Also a par 72, 18-hole golf course with a total length of 6,040 metres, the course was designed by previous partner of Jack Nicholas, Ron Kirby. Further golf courses are planned for the southern holiday resorts, Playa Blanca and the Marina resort, Puerto Calero. Fuerteventura, the second largest of the Canary Islands after Tenerife, was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2009, and is home to a surprising variety of flora and fauna, and hosts several migratory and nesting birds.

The island’s name roughly translated means ‘strong wind’, and Fuerteventura attracts plenty of sailors, surfers, wind-surfers and kite surfers to its clear blue Atlantic waters where whales, dolphins, marlin and turtles are all common sights. A sandstorm known as the Calima blows southwestward from the Sahara Desert and can cause high temperatures, low visibility and drying air. The wind brings in fine white sand and can even bring African locusts to the island. Nevertheless, the climate overall is very pleasant, with around 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, and since the sixties when the first hotel and airport opened, Fuerteventura has established itself as a major European holiday destination.

Whilst having fully developed tourist facilities, the island however has not experienced the overdevelopment found on some other islands and consequently caters for visitors attracted by its rugged natural beauty. Fuerteventura has a couple of spectacular golf courses and more are planned. For a golf holiday or break in Spain, the Playitas Golf and PGA Golf Academy, with its 18-hole golf course in the southern part of Fuerteventura in the Playitas Grand Resort offers impressive views over the Atlantic while the bay provides the ideal conditions for golf at all times of the year. With a pleasant ambient temperature and stunning scenery, Fuerteventura makes for an interesting alternative destination for golf holidays and breaks in Spain.