With Fuerteventura's extensive dunes and volcanic areas and just the general scenery there is no problem to take lots of photos whilst on holiday on Fuerteventura. The weather in the Canary Islands are ideal for a late Autumn holidays - we especially like October and early November for that bit of pre-winter sunshine (Usually). We normally stay in Fuerteventura's Caleta de Fuste, which, being located halfway down the island is in an ideal position for driving/getting to various parts of the island for our walks and sightseeing.
Nothing too much has changed that we could see except perhaps the
increased building around Caleta, Costa Calma and Morro Jable - a lot of
this building seems to for either Timeshare or for people to buy as
retirement homes rather than hotel accommodation. The fantastic
Morro del Jable to Costa Calma 16 km beach has been left alone (we have
walked this both ways in the nude without any problem) and new buildings
behind the beach have been generally kept low and fit in ok with the
landscape. If you like walking and finding your own private beaches etc
the island is unbeatable, with generally very little sign of life apart
from the occasional jeep safari or other walkers.
As mentioned Fuerteventura is an excellent holiday destination for nudists and
there are some really good beach walks possible - you can find quite
isolated beaches if you prefer to be alone or go onto the often quite busy
beaches around the dunes north of Caleta. We have two pages with walks
instructions/ideas on the island as well as other bits of interest -
our Fuerteventura Walks and photos page
contains pictures including Costa Calma and Morro Jable whilst our other
More on
Fuerteventura includes items and topics around Caletta de Fuste, Lobos and Antigua.
Corralejo has a small beach, numerous shops and holiday accommodation and an
interesting harbour semi surrounded by tavernas and bars - the local wildlife seems
very well - trained at scrounging food from the restaurants customers - wildlife being the various seabirds and of course the cats.
Many visitors head for the miles of sand dunes just along the
coast - a paradise for nudists. Ferries leave here for Lanzarote
and for Lobos - when we visited Corralejo we originally planned to have a
day out (possibly with our car) to re-visit Lanzarote but the ferry prices
were in our personal opinion outrageous ((not just our view)) with
apparently two tariffs i.e. a local and a much higher tourist rate.
The Jandia Peninsula is well worth a
visit, with all guidebooks etc saying you should only use a 4wd vehicle
for your trip.
The dirt road surfaces are very rutted and in places very rutted however on our trip we did see a few people using ordinary
hire-cars (several stuck in sand or lodged on unfriendly rocks).
Just driving in our jeep was hard going at times with the ribble surface
shaking us badly even at low speed - goodness knows what damage and so on
was occurring with the hire-cars. Our hire-car company let us exchange our
car for a jeep for the day so the cost was only a few pounds - surely
worth while. There are several restaurants at
Puerto de la Cruz and also one at Cofete (where we sat outside looking at
the hills and had an excellent salad and omelet).
We started off just before Morro Jable Port on a signposted gravel road (clearly marked on the right) and
bumped our way up and along what was often a quite narrow and hair-pinned
experience, however after a few kilometers the
track improved a little to
become only awful. After around 12kms there is a turn-off to the right to
Cofete but we kept straight ahead towards Puerto de la Cruz and the
lighthouse at Punta de Jandia - this being the southernmost tip of the
island. There are tracks off to the left at various places but we decided
to check these out on our return trip. You will find the only bit of
tarmac surface on the Peninsula which heads from Puerto de la Cruz to
Punta Pesebre on the most western tip. The coast line is really worth
exploring right along this area and the sea crashing in on the rocks is
quite impressive.
Eventually we retraced our route back to the Cofete junction and turned left - this track to Cofete is very very steep and heavily rutted in places as you zig-zag up and over the pass. At the very top of the pass there is a small parking area and you have a really good view of the golden beaches of Cofete and the Barlovento de Jandia. From here we zig-zagged steeply down to Cofete, diverted to the Villa of Senor Winter (a German who once owned the Peninsula) and then backtracked a little and turned right down a track to the beach. This sandy beach with it's superb waves is enormous and stretches well out of view both ways.
However as with most western
beaches their are very strong currents and the sea is really only safe for a
paddle. When we eventually left the beach we returned over the pass and at the
junction turned left towards Morro Jable, however we diverted down several
of the tracks to look at the beaches and coves we had spotted previously -
well worth doing. We really enjoyed this trip and
will certainly do it all over again when we get the opportunity. However
next time if we use an open jeep we will put our belongings into plastic
bags or we will get a jeep with a roof - we were unbelievably covered in
dust by the time we got back to Morro Jable - as we drove back through we
were being stared at because of the state we were in and the guys at the Hire Company
laughed loudly!!!
Pozo Negro is a very small fishing
village with a stoney beach, cafe and seems to be quite unaffected by
tourism -
very pleasant place for a stroll and some sea air.
Las Playitas
is situated in the mouth of a barranco and has a
largish black sandy beach - it's considerably larger than Pozo Negro
but
still very quiet. On leaving Las Playitas you find a road leading off to
your right which goes to El Faro de Entallada
(a lighthouse very very high up on the rocky coast).
The road is always quite narrow but once you start climbing it narrows to
about car-width, climbs very steeply with numerous switchbacks and has
more than it's share of potholes - however the views on the way up and
from the lighthouse car-park make this well worth the drive.
Gran Tarajal is very much a working town, pretty
good to have a wander around but always seems terribly busy. It can
be a
nightmare just getting there let along trying to park; the best time we
found was on a Sunday morning since most other times we went it was
swamped with cars, farmer's pickups and lorries.
Probably the best scenic drive on
the island is round the Cardon. The drive can be started from the FV2 and
taking the FV511 heading inland and after only 200 metres turn left onto
the FV56 - a short way along this road you will find the turn-off to
Cardon (marked as a scenic route).
This winds up through the mountains
with some wonderful views and eventually ends up on the FV605 coast road.
If you turn left and head south take the junction marked Huertas de
Chilejia (on the left) and this takes you back across the mountains to
complete the original loop.
(The drive is actually worth doing in both directions since the scenery appears completley different).
Pajara, one of our favourite places to visit. As you come into Pajara there is a good car
park on the left which is surrounded by beautiful trees and shrubs -
running alongside the car park is a (usually dry) stream bed lined on
both sides with flowering shrubs, and crossed by a small bridge.
Pajara is really a lovely place to wander around, with it's trees and shrubs full of birds and insects, it's numerous small gardens and squares, and of course the church with it's Aztec stone-carved decorations above the main entrance. If you are lugging children around it may be of interest to know that Pajara also has a swimming pool.
Ajuy is a small fishing village with a black sandy and
pebble beach and gets quite busy since coach excursions include it on their
circuit
due to the Mirador Caleta Negra.
The walk to the Mirador leaves the
beach on the right and goes up and around the rocks - it's all clearly marked
You arrive at one viewing platform and get excellent views along the cliffs and of the caves.
Then you can also take the narrow vertigous steps down to a lower view point and in fact go right down to the sea.
Fuerteventura topics on our Site
Fuerteventura Walks
Fuerteventura Beach Photos
Places to Visit on the Island
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Other Canary Island Topics on our Site are for Lanzarote and Gran Canaria:
Lanzarote much to offer for a
Canary Island holiday - it has excellent beaches, lots of great sightseeing to do
inland around it's volcanic areas as well as coasts and usually can guarantee
some lovely Canary Island weather.
Lanzarote is a great place for
walks and on our Walks
page you will find 11 walks instructions - all of which are have many
photographs. The walks are one way or circular walks varying in
distance from a few kilometres to much longer and sometimes quite tiring 20km efforts.
The best Lanzarote beaches we think are to be found in the south
just outside of 
Playa Blanca -
with Playa de Papagayo probably being the most
well known but there also great beaches at Mujeres and Pozo.
As with most Canary Island beaches these are used by
nudists and non-nudists. One of our favourite beaches for going nude swimming
and sunbathing on Lanzarote was at Playa de Famara - this is a really wild
looking beach with no facilities
but is really scenic with it's backdrop of rugged and colourful cliffs and
quite often lovely waves.
Places to perhaps visit on Lanzarote:-
El Golfo - with it's unusual bright green water lagoon
La Geria - Parque Natural de los
Volcanos - Timanfaya area
Salinas de Janubio - huge saltplans
Los Hervidores - watch the sea pounding in through blowholes.
Teguise - a pretty town which also has a large Sunday market.
Of the three Canary Islands we have visited the round shaped Gran Canaria is
probably the best for actual sightseeing - it has extensive forests and barrancos high up in it's mountainous
interior which all make for excellent days out if you want a change from the beach. There are also an extensive
series of paths to be walked out in the hills and forests plus walks around the coastline.
There are plenty of really good beaches on Gran Canaria to explore and use with perhaps the best know
being Maspolomos. and it's sand dunes - 
these are fairly extensive and quite an experience to wander around in but do not be surprised if
a naked man or two pops out from the undergrowth - they seem to like sunbathing in the dunes. It's worth
remembering that much of the wide beach located between Faro and Maspolomos is usually red flagged
meaning going very far into the sea for a swim is hazardous due to dangerous bad currents.
Places of interest to visit whilst on holiday on Gran Canaria.
Playa des Ingles. A sprawling area full of hotels which
seamlessley joins into Maspolomos.
Mirador/Pico and Caldera de Bandama. A
little to the south of Tafira, the Mirador is certainly a place to visit - giving
excellent views of Las Palmas and the surrounding countryside.
Tejeda. Don't miss a trip out to this small town located in the
centre of Gran Canaria but it's best to go as early as possible as many round
the island coach trips go there. .
Puerto Rico Lots of people stay here for their holidays - the
hotels and apartments are built right up into the sides of the barranco and go quite
a distance inland as well. Puerto Rico has quite a large and pleasant sandy beach.
Puerto de Mogan. Much
building has occurred further up the barranco but this little seaside port is
very attractive and would always be our first choice to stay on a future visit. There
are plenty of restaurants and bars, a nice harbour area with fishing boats
etc. - perfect for an
evening stroll after your meal and Puerto de Mogan has a really good beach.
Please visit our
Greek Islands page for
Greece related travel and holiday guides on Lesvos, Symi, Thassos, Skiathos, Mykonos, Crete, Sikinos,
Santorini, Samos, Naxos, Patmos, Lipsi, Kos, Skopelos, Andros, Lefkas,
Alonissos, Paros and Paxos - or our Home Page for Sharm
el Sheikh.
Our uk-site
has lots about England - many walks, church, wildflower and canal bridge and
lock photos - also holiday guides for Cyprus and The
Algarve.
Our far-east
has amongst other items guides for Hong Kong and India.
Fuerteventura External Links
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