Cycling on the Prom in Puerto del Carmen

This is a guest post about Lanzarote, from Katie, who blogs at Delightsome.

We were staying at the quiet end of Puerto del Carmen in Lanzarote but we wanted to see more of the resort and what it had to offer. We’d been on the beach for a good part of the day but, while the kids had been pretty active swimming, building sandcastles and burying each other, we thought some exercise wouldn’t do us any harm. We had seen the four wheeled cycles going up and down the promenade and decided that would be a fun way to travel.

We went to Fliston’s bike hire shop in the Matagorda Commercial Centre where you can hire them by the hour, the day or the week but a couple of hours would be plenty long enough for us. There are three seater versions with extra space for little ones in the carriers on the front or the six seater “limousines” which is what we went for.

On setting out, we found it was harder than it looks to start with but once you get going it’s fine. It would have helped if the kids had put a bit more effort in, but they were just along for the ride and the two of us would be doing most of the work. Fortunately we had waited until late afternoon so the main heat of the day had passed.

The promenade at Puerto del Carmen is around 14km long from the old town all the way to the island’s capital, Arrecife. We just wanted to do one end of the resort to the other.

We started off heading for the airport which was about ten minutes away and you can get really close to the planes as they come in to land. It feels as though you could reach out and touch them when they’re overhead! Our eldest has already decided he wants to be a pilot so he was fascinated to see them that close. Smaller children might be a bit scared by the noise though.

After watching a couple of planes landing and taking off we turned around and headed back to Puerto del Carmen. The promenade at this end used to be a road but is now just for pedestrians and cyclists, which makes it lovely and safe.

One thing you see here which you don’t back at home is free gym equipment on the seafront. We stopped to have a little go – and to see the youngest trying to work the cross-trainer was hilarious.

We passed the bike shop again and, a short way along, we found a beautiful stretch of blue flag beach by the Sol-Lanzarote Hotel. This was good to know as the beach we had been on was quite rocky at the shoreline and the Sol beach was only ten minutes further to walk, and there were sunbeds to rent.

The next area we came to was Playa Pocillos where there is another huge beach. Apparently Pocillos means puddles and when there is a storm, or a particularly high tide, pools form at the top of the beach, so it is called Puddle Beach!

One thing we noticed was that all the beaches had life guards and they put up green, yellow or red flags so you know when it’s safe to swim. They take safety seriously which gives you confidence when you take the kids to the beach.

At some points along the prom there are what look like watch towers, but we think they might have been windmills, and you can climb to the top for a panoramic view of the beaches (or to play pirates!)

Here the road joins the promenade but the cycle sections are well marked and there are reflective bollards separating the traffic and the cyclists.

This section took us all the way to what is known as ‘The Strip’ which is where the busy part of the resort begins. There are many shops, bars and restaurants to keep the grown-ups happy but also recreation centres where older kids can go and well-equipped playgrounds for the smaller ones.

The main beach of Puerto del Carmen, Playa Grande, is along the strip and has lovely golden sand which shelves gently into the sea. We stopped for a rest alongside the beach and had delicious home-made ice cream from a kiosk on the front which was a real treat – and well-deserved!

With several stops, it had taken us about an hour to get this far, which was near the end of the strip, so it was time to turn around and head back to return our “limousine”. We had found it a great way to explore the prom; you wouldn’t see much by car and walking is tiring and boring for the children, but they loved this.

We’d certainly worked up an appetite for dinner and we wouldn’t have any trouble sleeping either!

Katie is an aspiring travel and food blogger from the UK. You can follow her adventures in cake and on foreign shores on twitter.