Brilliant time to rent apartment on La Palma, thanks to strong pound

13.05.2015

Are you thinking of renting a holiday apartment on beautiful La Palma? If so, you’ll be pleased to learn that it’s now far more affordable to do so, because the pound to euro exchange rate has hit a 7-year high. To be specific, sterling recently touched 1.4256 against Europe’s common currency, its strongest since November 7th 2007.

What this means for you is that, when you exchange currencies to rent a rural holiday home on the Canary Islands, you’ll get far more euros than in the recent past. For example, if you exchange £2,500 to spend a fortnight enjoying yourself on La Palma, you’ll now get +€560 more than if you’d done so back at the start of 2014, when the pound was far weaker.

In other words, that’s +€560 extra sitting in your pocket, at no additional cost to you, just because the exchange rate has risen! With that sort of money, you could extend your rural holiday on La Palma a day or two, splash out, in brief really make the most of what the Canary Islands have to offer!

Moreover, it could soon become even better value to rent a rural Canarian home, if sterling climbs higher versus the euro. The pound could exceed this 7-year high, first, if Greece exits the Eurozone, as looks entirely possible. Second, the pound may also continue to climb, because the UK economy is easily outpacing the Eurozone’s.

With this in mind, make the most of this advantageous exchange rate, and book your holiday on La Palma today!

By Peter Lavelle

Pure FX

http://www.purefx.co.uk

+44 (0) 1494 671800

peter.lavelle@purefx.co.uk

Flying to La Palma by Norwegian Airlines

The direct flights to La Palma with Thomsons are just great - with flights from Manchester and London Gatwick, it makes a really easy way to get to La Palma.

Flying over La Palma

Other options are flying via Tenerife, Madrid, Gran Canaria plus Germany, Holland and Belgium. You can read about the logistics for this here - http://www.holiday-lapalma.com/transport.html
But now .. ta da! .. we have Norwegian Airlines.
Incredibly cheap prices - yes, you can fly from London Gatwick direct to La Palma for under £100 per person return including taxes. It's amazing! 
Check out their website here - http://www.norwegian.com/uk/
Other airports they operate to/from are Edinburgh and Manchester to La Palma.
You can also fly with Norwegian airlines to other Canary Islands (Tenerife and Gran Canaria) from the UK. Lots of options - do give me your feedback on the option you have found best for you whether it be one of the other Canary Islands or a direct flight to La Palma.
As always, don't forget that the airport code for La Palma is SPC.
Happy flying!

New cabin baggage rules flying with Ryanair

Go Ryanair! Yes, they've come good, the airline that is the most loved to be hated. They are renown for their high hold luggage costs, their lengthy booking procedure with a sales pitch for hotel/car/Ryanair cabin bag at every turn and their zealous checks on the size of hold luggage.
But now they really are being trying to be the darling of the airways. And - by the way - they are a big favourite with me especially as I virtually never check in luggage.

Ryanair flights to the Canaries

Last year when flying from Manchester to Tenerife, I was very pleased to see that a second bag for duty free was allowed as cabin luggage. I made sure that I kept the receipt just in case I was asked to prove that two books, a sandwich and a drink had in fact been bought at the airport.
And whilst queueing, I was even more interested to hear from the girls in front of me that they had a friend who, on returning from a holiday on Tenerife, that she filled her duty free bag with the overflow from her suitcase, but that she was well and truly rumbled by the airport staff.
Now though there is even better news in terms of extra hold luggage when flying with Ryanair - in addition to one bag, a second bag is allowed.
These are the details:One cabin bag per passenger weighing up to 10kg with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, plus 1 small bag up to 35 x 20 x 20 cms. Yay, skip, hop, skip, hop!But be warned, it is not guaranteed that your cabin baggage will actually be able to go with you in the plane as space is restricted. In some situations, it will have to go in the hold although there is no charge for this.Easyjet on the other hand says that your cabin luggage will always go in the cabin with you. But they only allow ONE item of cabin baggage per passenger. If you bring ONE piece of cabin baggage no bigger than 50 x 40 x 20cm including handles and wheels, they  guarantee it will always travel with you either in the overhead locker or, if necessary, under the seat in front of you.  http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Planning/baggage

Jet2 also only allow one cabin bag. This should weigh less than 10kg and it should be no bigger than 56x45x25cm, including wheels and handles.
So next time you are searching for flights to the Canary Islands, you might want to bear this in mind. Happy flying!

Flights to La Palma via Barcelona

Looking for flights to La Palma in the Canaries?

Santa Cruz de La Palma

First stop then is Thomsons for direct flights from both Gatwick and Manchester (Manchester in winter only).  They fly every Friday - but what if a Friday flight doesn't suit you?
Then there is a whole range of indirect flights to La Isla Bonita, this little known island in the Canaries.
A flight to Tenerife and then on to La Palma is a real favourite. From there you can either fly by Binter or Canary Fly, the inter-island airlines from the north of Tenerife or take a ferry with Fred Olsen or Naviera Armas from Los Cristianos in the south.

Naviera Armas ferry docked in Santa Cruz de La Palma

Another excellent way to get to La Palma is via Madrid or even Gran Canaria.
New kid on the block though are flights via Barcelona. Flights to La Palma from Barcelona start on Saturday, 1st June and continue throughout the summer. So if a Saturday flight to the Canary Islands is what you are looking for, check out Vueling flights.
For your flight to Barcelona from the UK, Skyscanner is - as always - a great website for finding some of the cheapest flights around. Just to give you a quick example, there are flights from Manchester to Barcelona from just 49€.
Whether you are flying direct to the Canary Islands or with an indirect flight - there are heaps of options out there. So take a break and head south to the Canaries!

Flight only to La Palma or an All-inclusive Package

If you are thinking of flying to La Palma, direct flights come up trumps for speed and convenience and are often the cheapest option too. But of course that's not always possible, especially as the direct flights from Manchester to La Palma go on pause at the end of April until they re-commence in Autumn.
Although you can still fly direct to La Palma from London Gatwick, Madrid, Netherlands, Germany and, intermittently, from France and Belgium too.

La Palma airport (airport code SPC)

 If you are not flying direct to La Palma, then probably the best indirect route from the UK is via Tenerife.

Just be aware though that there are two airports in Tenerife - international flights use the Reina Sofia airport in the south while the inter-island flights use the Los Rodeos airport in the north. You can find out more information on how to get from A to B on our website page Flights/Travel.

Flying from La Palma to Tenerife

As many people know there used to be two flight companies offering flights between the Canary Islands - Binter and Islas Airways. Unfortunately, Islas Airways ceased offering flights although theoretically they were going to make a comeback. That hasn't happened so far.
But now, there is a new airline, Canary Fly, with flights between the Canary Islands. You can check out their website here.
For those who are looking for an all-inclusive holiday to La Palma, then head on over to Thomsons website who have various options around the island. There you'll see that apart from all-inclusive, they also offer half-board and self-catering holidays. The price for flight and hotel only starts at £356 per person.

Hope you'll find an option to suit you and you'll soon be on holiday in La Palma!

Winter sun in the Canaries

Are you the sort of person who likes statistics? I know I am. And of course with pre-Christmas and New Year statistics immediately followed by post-Christmas and New Year statistics, we haven't been short of a few figures. You name it - super Saturday, black Friday, wibbly Wednesday and any other day of the week they want to throw at us! (OK, so I made the Wednesday one up ..)

So you might like to know that in 2013, in the month of December alone, over one million foreign tourists chose the Canary Islands for their holidays which was an increase of 13.2% over 2012. British tourists who travelled to Spain in that month increased by 20.3% with 46% choosing the Canary Islands for their holidays. Yay, winter sun!

Puerto de Tazacorte in December

However, the reason that I find the figures interesting is not so much that I believe them, disbelieve them or am about to do anything about them, but because of the mental picture they conjure up. I can just image crowds of people patiently waiting for the day to arrive when the statistics say they buy presents, take their presents back or book their winter holiday. It's not allowed to go before or after! So whilst you might think that you are 'home alone' booking your holiday in the sun - you might be at home, but you're far from alone!

There is one thing that's clear though, if you're thinking of a holiday to La Palma for Christmas or New Year, whether it's flights or accommodation that you are looking for, don't wait to be a part of the peak, get in there early!

A guide to Santa Cruz de La Palma Airport

As airports go, Santa Cruz de La Palma airport - airport code SPC - is quite user friendly in that you can't get too lost. Ah yes, I have 'done' Madrid airport a couple of times and think I have earned the sticker it deserves. And been lost of course. But at least La Palma airport only has one terminal and that obviously helps. However, as it is laid out over several levels, it can initially be difficult to understand the layout ... hence this blog post.

But first of all, where is La Palma airport? Some years back, the airport was located inland above the capital of Santa Cruz. Now however, it's located at sea level, just 9km south of Santa Cruz, the historic capital of La Palma. Incidentally, in between the two, lies the small resort of Los Cancajos with a selection of hotels, apartments and three excellent beaches.

The small and charismatic airport served La Palma very well, but a couple of years ago it was replaced by a larger airport with underground parking as opposed to outdoor parking. This is certainly an improvement although it does lead to confusion over which level your car is parked on or where you should go to collect your hire car. But once you get an understanding of what's where, it's quite straightforward.

The main entrance is the ground floor (Floor 0 in the lift) and this is where you will find the following:
Check-in desks
Arrivals and baggage re-claim (4 carousels)
Shopping (pharmacy and Jerónimo (funky clothes and gifts:)
Airport information desk (sometimes with free bananas)
Flight information offices for Iberia, Condor, Air Berlin and Binter where you can make enquiries, buy tickets and make a late check-in if your gate is closed (not a popular move by the way).
Car hire offices - we highly recommend booking your car hire in advance because otherwise you will have to queue up just to ask the price as prices are not displayed. (Or you can just book a rental car with us and you will be met with your car in the airport car park on the S2 level.)

The 1st floor (floor 1 in the lift) is departures.

Once through control (no photos please ... oops, sorry about that) there is also a snack bar and vending machines. From here there are flights to fourteen destinations - London Gatwick, Manchester (winter only), Stuttgart, Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Bonn, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Tenerife North and Gran Canaria.

The three subterranean levels are reached either by escalator or a glass-sided lift. Actually the lifts, two of them at the side of the escalators, is a bit difficult to spot, simply because they are glass sided. These are the basement levels:
Level S 0 is the entrance to the car park where you collect your ticket
Level S1 is staff parking and for certain hire cars
Level S2 is public parking, and the main bulk of hire cars
Level S3 is to the small sea pools set in the rocks by the waters edge.

 Taxis are available immediately outside of the airport building or you can pre-book a taxi here - www.taxilapalma.com. The website also has a very useful list of prices and guided tours of La Palma.
There is also a regular bus service, the number 500 bus, between the airport and Santa Cruz de La Palma. Generally, it runs every 30 minutes except weekends and fiestas when it is every hour - except for the big fiestas such as the Los Indianos fiesta when it runs more frequently. Here is the bus website.
If you're keen to find out more information about La Palma airport itself, here is the website:  La Palma Airport website.
Happy travels!