TRAVEL|WISHES

Fabulous Fun And Sun In The Canary Islands— Where I’d Take My Partner To

Iceland was a close contender, but this is less about me and more about him

Over the past week or so, I’ve been coming across stories that feature, “Where I’d Take My Partner To”. The first one was by Crystal A. Walker, who frequently contributes stories to my travel publication, Taking Off.

I loved her story and was familiar with Warren Patterson’s travel publication, Globetrotters, so I decided to learn more and participate in this month’s Writer’s Challenge that he’s hosting.

Here’s what I think is the important part for you to know as a reader:

The place can be anywhere you like. It can be a city, lake, mountain, activity, hotel, restaurant, or anywhere that you’d like to take them. As long as it’s outside your hometown, anything goes. This is your date, so you can make it whatever you want. It doesn’t have to be about a single destination also — you can combine multiple places/activities to make it one big awesome day.

Write about why you’d like to take them there. What is it about the place that would make you want to take them there? Is it romantic? or is it because of sentiment? Is it beautiful? Scenic? or is it somewhere you already know they want to go?

I immediately thought of Iceland because I genuinely want to take my partner there as soon as possible.

I’ve only gone there once, 4 years ago, before I met him and I absolutely loved it!

However, when I thought more about it, about going anywhere in the world, I realized that he would be much happier someplace where the water is warm and there’s guaranteed to be lots of sun.

That is NOT the case in Iceland!

The Canary Islands is at the top of my list because it has a great deal to offer and it’s a short flight from where we live in Germany.

My partner and I were in a long-distance relationship for 2 years. Tenerife is the last vacation destination where we planned to meet in order to spend time in person together before I moved to Europe.

It also happened to be the last 2 1/2 weeks before the global lockdown, when the world was still “normal”.

February 26th- March 11th, 2020 were the dates we were there. We left 3 days before Tenerife (along with most of Europe) went into lockdown.

One of the biggest reasons we were both excited to go to Tenerife (and wish to return) is the awesome hiking and stargazing on Mount Teide.

Both of us longed for sun and warmth that we were not getting where we lived and we were not disappointed, although we did have to drive above the clouds on certain days to experience it.

Don’t even get me started on the driving…my partner did most of the driving because the drivers and roads where we were scared me half to death!

However, everything else was INCREDIBLE!

Here are some photos of the amazing local food that we thoroughly enjoyed:

My partner has since learned how to make these “mojo” potatoes and we’ve since found a place here in Germany to buy these traditional Canarian sauces.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to give it a go:

And look at this view that we had while eating…

While sipping on local wine…

We stayed in 2 different Airbnbs in order to experience the northeast side and the northwest side of the island since the climate and terrain can vary drastically from east to west as well as north to south.

This was our view from the balcony of the first apartment in the Bajamar neighborhood:

We enjoyed a few dinners at home while watching the sunset with this view, which I would love to do again.

We spent our last 10 days in a place that didn’t have AS good of a view, but it did have an awesome outdoor balcony and tons of space for the two of us.

Also, the host was one of the best we’ve ever had and it was sparkling clean.

It was all very reasonably priced, which happily surprised us!

There is so much to explore on Tenerife that, before we left, we both talked about the things we wanted to do when we return.

We both love to hike and there are hiking trails galore on Tenerife, not to mention the other nearby Canary Islands that we have yet to visit.

I would love to do all of those things again and more!

Except, next time we go, I’d like to spend more time south of the northern mountains where the beaches (and weather) are like this:

This is by far one of my ideal places and “dates” that I dream of spending with my wonderful partner who enjoys many of the simple pleasures in life, like me.

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