Given our great buffet experience the night before, we were pretty excited about our hotel breakfast. Initially, it looked like our expectations would be met or even exceeded as vast spreads of fruits, meats, cheese, breads, and hot foods were set up in the buffet room. However, the food itself fell a little flat, and I’m not sure any of us particularly loved our food. That was okay, though, as we would appreciate having bigger appetites when we returned to Kamala Kafe for a final lunch.
It was a beautiful morning in Fuerteventura.
An assortment of thick juice-like drinks, including mixed berry and kiwi.
The honey display was impressive!
We’d planned to do some indoor swimming in the morning at the spa (which was closed to kids by the time we arrived the night before) but realized that our plan was flawed, as we were checking out before lunchtime and would have had to shove our wet swimsuits in our luggage for our flight to Fuerteventura. We decided instead to return to the playground and take a leisurely walk through the park grounds. Along the way, Emmie found a friendly black resort cat that she spent some time petting and posing for multiple photos.
Everyone agreed a final lunch of pizza and pasta justified the hourlong round-trip drive to Kamala Kafe near our original Fuerteventura home. This time around, the older kids each ordered a Margherita pizza, I tried the Pancetta pie, and Amanda ordered the daily pasta special with a cream sauce and broccoli. Eilidh tried a bit of everything, eating some of Amanda’s pasta and pizza from Noah and me along with vast amounts of parmesan cheese. Emmie received the award for eating the most, demolishing her entire cheese pizza.
We returned the rental car, checked our bags, then boarded the turboprop Binter plane for the 40-minute flight to Gran Canaria. The hotel we were staying had a shuttle service, but its next scheduled airport stop was nearly an hour away. There’s no Uber in Gran Canaria, but we found the taxi service to be easy and fairly priced and were to our hotel in less than 30 minutes.
We left one of Emmie’s many drawings on the island but were sure to take a photo of her displaying her artwork before we left.
Airport hugs
The plane ride was Eilidh’s first without sitting by mom or dad!
Noah was thrilled to sit in the front seat of the taxi into Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
We had rooms on the 18th floor of the AC Hotel in Gran Canaria, which appeared to be the tallest building in the modest downtown skyline. Our rooms both featured views of the Atlantic Ocean and plenty of space for the five of us for our single-night stay. Noah hung out with Amanda while I took the girls to explore a bit, including stops at Ale-Hop and Starbucks. Emmie was able to order from their brand new holiday menu, trying a Gingerbread Latte. We enjoyed our drinks outside overlooking the sandy city beach and the Atlantic Ocean.
Before we left, the hotel staff brought a complimentary plate of cheese and a bottle of wine to our room.
There were many well-rated dining spots within walking distance from our hotel, but we made the kid-friendly decision to eat at McDonald’s at the nearby downtown shopping center. The kids were happy to play at the play place and we worked our way through a majority of the 25 McNuggets in the bucket we ordered. After a little shopping, Amanda and Eilidh retired to the room first while Noah, Emmie, and I ventured back out for a bit.
A world music festival was happening in Gran Canaria, so there were vendor stalls, food trucks, and three stages for live music all happening close to our hotel. We didn’t buy any souvenirs but did pick up some treats from a local chocolate shop that had a tent at the event. The kids washed down their sugary roasted sunflower seeds with a little 7-Up. They were quickly asleep after we returned to the hotel; I stayed up a little while later to catch up on blogs and work and take advantage of the hotel’s very high-speed internet.
View from our hotel room.