I had never been a 'sun-person', in fact there was a period in college where I actively avoided the sun (which was pretty stupid), I only came to my senses when I walked past my Grandparents bedroom, which had the mirror facing directly opposite the door and I truly thought I had seen a ghost. Back in November 2016, La Palma was my first beach holiday.

Flight and Stay: I booked with Thomson Holidays, all inclusive. Me and my friend flew with Thomson and stayed at La Palma & Teneguia Princess. The flight from London to La Palma is approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes. The resort was massive and it took us awhile to find our room but the room was very spacious and clean, albeit somewhat dated. Also lighting, if you do not have a room that gets a lot of sunlight it is annoying when the lights in the room are dull but I guess you would be too busy soaking up the sun outside anyways. The resort has a massive lounge area where the WiFi connection is most strong so be prepared, it will be busy in the lounge and there is always new groups checking in or checking out. Connected to the lounge is an entertainment room with a stage, bar and pool tables inside. The resort has a timetable of activities throughout the days both indoors and outdoors.

Do: Since this was a relaxing holiday much of the time was spent tanning by the poolside but we did spend a day hiking Los Tilos Forest and then a quick walk around Santa Cruz town to buy some souvenirs and for lunch. For the short time that we were in La Palma, the weather was decent and sunny enough but on the day we went hiking it was pouring down so we did not get as far as we had originally wanted to but it is worth exploring.

Eat: As it was an all-inclusive holiday, we did spend much of our meals in the resort. For breakfast, lunch and dinner there was a wide variety of foods available and each night they would have a different theme. It was so hard to say no to the sweets when they are staring at you in all its temptation. In the resort there were 2 restaurants, the main one was upstairs and then a smaller but more quiet one was by the poolside. On our outing to the salt fields we dined at El Jardin de la Sal, the octopus dish we had was massive and fresh but the curry squid ink noodles with mussels was a mistake. I think the fried balls were also squid ink which I have found, that I am not a fan of. For dessert I think I ordered a chocolate pudding with hazelnut ice-cream and it was delicious! The best part of the meal.