I heard an interesting stat last week which prompted me to finally think it was time to share my holiday last year with you all! Apparently 38% of people in the UK are thinking of/are booking their main summer holiday this month, I suppose it makes sense with spring in the air and lighter mornings and evenings, plus finances finally recovering from Christmas, but it’s still an awful lot of us!
With that in mind I thought it was only right to share my thoughts of my Tenerife holiday last year. You may remember this post here, where I talked about my trip to ‘Sunchester’ with Jet 2 Holidays , well I’m pleased to say I won best blog post about the event , I think it was the references to Leo Di Caprio that swung it! And for that I won my trip to Tenerife. Of course I took Luke along for the ride, I think he may have divorced me if I hadn’t!!
We set off from East Midlands airport, it’s my fave as its small, easy to get to and has a Superdrug (which does the best travel mini’s and has a Makeup Revolution stand!!) and we were given our Luxury Escapes welcome pack -a lovely leather travel wallet, security fast track and a welcome drink on the flight there! I could get used to all that special treatment I won’t lie. Of course I headed to Superdrug, where whilst buying the Make Up Rev double ended eyeliner I was recognised- so hey to that lovely reader I hope you had a fab holiday too. We were soon on our way enjoying our free Koppaberg, and a few proseccos too, it is a longer trip than I’ve been used to at around four hours and it was an hours transfer to our resort, however as it was a Luxury Escape we had a private transfer, so the last leg didn’t feel so bad. For the time of year we went it is worth travelling that bit further afield for more guaranteed sun I find, which is why the Canaries are so popular in the early autumn months.
When we arrived at The Hotel Botanico and Spa Garden we were spoilt even more, we got an upgrade to an Ambassador Suite with sea view- just wow! The little energy I had left was spent jumping around with excitement , of course the large dressing area and wardrobe got me super excited, as did the amazing bathroom with bath (oh lush bath bomb how I wish I’d packed you!) and lovely walk in shower, plus our own living area with sofa and chairs and a massive balcony with the most amazing view of the sun setting.
The only one downside was the bed- it was two singles together, upside was having my own duvet, downside was the ‘bed crease’ as I nicknamed it on another stay away- once rolled into its not the easiest to get out of (or maybe that’s just me after wine and cava…?) I wish it had just been a full king size bed, but the pillow menu and turn down service which delivered a lovely branded chocolate every night to my pillow did make up for it!
Also very random, but having carpet throughout made it feel homely, I could have happily stayed in my room everyday for the whole holiday it was that nice. We didn’t though as the spa I talk about in this post was definitely calling. We were on a bed and breakfast rate and breakfast was so good- there was such a huge choice, including cooked chicken which Luke blooming loved as he’s obsessed with chicken but I couldn’t quite understand. On the weekends there was a bit of an upgrade where there was cava and a chocolate fountain- of course I couldn’t resist!
The spa pool area was my fave pool (they have 2!) and you may recognise this outdoor massage area from Take Me Out, as the hotel is one of the hotels on Fernando’s! We don’t watch it but caught one episode when we got back and we also spotted the gardens and the terrapins in the scenes filmed. It was lovely to be able to have a stroll after breakfast and nature watch before getting into tanning.
The Hotel Botanico is on the north of the island, with views of Mount Teide which is the biggest volcano on the island. This side of the island is cloudier than the more popular resorts of Playa De Las Americas but for us it was near perfect as it meant you could sit out in it without getting too hot and the evenings were the perfect temperature too so it was never too hot which I liked.
I really did love the place! Thanks to my terrible cold/flu/ear infection we didn’t really discover Tenerife like we wanted to, but as our bodies were telling us, we just needed to chill out for a bit. We did manage to eat out most nights and found some lovely places so I’ll share my favourite place soon.