I recently wrote about my experiences of golf in Tenerife and especially how impressed I was with Hotel Madrigueras. I then caught a plane and flew the 20 minutes over the sea to Gran Canaria.

On arrival and during the transfer to the Playa del Ingles I was quite taken aback by the number of wind turbines there were on the island. I guess being in the middle of the Atlantic it is going to be the perfect place for them.

I stayed at the massive Lopesan Villa del Conde Resort a fabulous hotel with the main reception area in the style of a church, very different. The hotel had 561 rooms which were quite spread out, but I liked the styling of the rooms with great views of the sea. I did take a look at the Sheraton Salobre Golf Resort  which was a stunning hotel set in the mountains with 2 golf courses attached. The hotel boosted thier sunset terrace, set at the top of the hotel with stunning views.

I played four courses in that area, Meloneras Golf which is a comparatively new course owned by the Villa del Conde Hotel. The front nine was fairly well up and down with clever uses of some water features, the back nine was completely different with a good links feel over looking the sea with some really tough yet interesting holes.

The second course was in the hills at Salobre Golf two course there, the first and oldest was set in a valley and was quite mature, the second and newest was set in a stunning location in the hills, what a test, some really tricky golf holes and not for the faint hearted.

The third Maspalomas Golf seemed to be the oldest in the area with a warm and welcoming clubhouse. The course was going through some major alterations, so I probably did not see it at its best, but well worth a visit.

The last course was Anfi Tauro Golf was a bit of the jewell in the crown for me, the golf cousre is rather like the stadium courses in Scottsdale, Arizona with well positioned bunkers with tricky fairways to find and really good fast greens. The only downside is the lack of clubhouse and facilities which did let it down abit, but appartently it is in the pipeline.

So all in all a good trip and worthwhile going to see the island.

I have recently been on a golf fact finding tour of Tenerife, to look at what the island has to offer. If any of you have been there you will obviously know, but I have to say how impressed I was with what was on offer. The climate was the main factor with a constant temperature of about 20 – 22 degrees very comfortable to play golf with shorts on.

We stayed at the fabulous Las Madrigueras Hotel which is owned by the same people that  own the Golf las Americas golf course. The hotel only has about 35 rooms but all are spacious and very tastefully decorated. You must have a meal in the hotel restaurant, superb quisine, how about this as a starter, hot lobster pieces, scallops and crispy duck with, get this, a summer fruits sauce, who would believe it, the  contrast of flavours was fantastic.

I played Golf Las Americas, Golf del Sur and Golf Costa Adeje, three good golf course for the holiday golfer. The first two could do with a bit of sharpening and tidying up, but generally they were in good condition. They both had black sand bunkers, which at first I found quite daunting, but I soon got used to it. At Adeje they have taken out all the black sand and replaced it with conventional yellow sand, especially imported from mainland Spain.

The nightlife was not bad either with a wide variety of bars, restaurants and the like, I would pretty much say that there was something for everyone.

I would certainly be going out there again and certainly recommend it to my corporate clients.