THE Canary Archipelago is composed of several islands but the most popular of them all are Tenerife and Las Palmas. In turn, there are two kinds of attractions in Tenerife – El Teide National Park which is actually a dormant volcano and the beaches along the coastline. There are two kinds of beaches there as well – the typical beach resorts and the nudist beach resorts. Both of these are regulated by the Spanish government since all of them receive the blue flag accreditation by the European Union. It simply means that these beaches excel in terms of quality service. On the other hand, one cannot go to the nudist beach resorts if one is not naked as well. These beach resorts are understandably unoccupied during winter because it’s too cold in there. So during winter, people in Tenerife just stay in their homes and wait for Christmas celebrations.

Meanwhile, El Teide National Park is reachable only through cable car. By the Canaries are located off the coast of Africa. But planes coming in from Europe, Middle East and South Africa do not necessarily go to Africa. They fly straight here and all visitors carry with them Spanish visas because the Canary island paradises belong to Spain. There are three international airports in the Canary Islands. Two of them are in Tenerife, the Reina Sofia International Airport, named after the reigning queen of Spain and the North Tenerife Airport. The other is located in Las Palmas. Being a tourist destination, the Canaries still attract foreign visitors even though it’s the middle of winter. Aside from the regional airlines, there are also flights from smaller airlines such as Ryanair. Aside from the planes that fly here every day, there are also various cruise ships calling port here all year round. If you want to know the schedules of their port calls all across the archipelago, then just call your favorite travel agency.

But even though the Canaries is located in Europe, it is not as humid there as you think. The Canaries has a temperate climate all-year round but in winter, skinny dipping is still not a choice because it is still cold at -3 degrees Celsius. There are no snowstorms or ice storms as well as tropical cyclones here and there is no impending danger of a tsunami because the Canary Islands to not sit in a ring of fire and there are no volcanoes in the vicinity except for Mt. Teide of course but this is a dormant volcano.

The trend in Tenerife and Las Palmas Gran Canaria nowadays is the surge of spas. Spas offer various treatments as body wrap, body scrub, shiatsu massage, Swedish massage, exotic massage, facial scrub, jacuzzi, seaweed body scrub and hydrotherapy, among others. The therapists in these spas are graduates of a course uniquely available for them – they are trained on how to handle Western tourists, they know both English and Dutch since those are the ones used by most tourists here and they are trained in physical therapy.