On April 27th there was a call to arms to local businesses and people in Costa Teguise to help with a clean up of our beaches in Costa Teguise. There was a great turn out and it was shocking what people litter our beaches with.

Photo courtsey of Turismo Teguise

Divers, did great work and some of the rubbish found under the water was taken by the Lanzarote Aquarium and put on display in one window in the Aquarium for everyone to see what we are throwing into our beautiful seas. The display is very clever as in the next few windows you can see the majestic creatures that are being destroyed by mans indiscriminate throwing away of everyday beach rubbish and packaging.

Congratulations and well done to all concerned.

Sonja and Sharon came to Sands Beach Resort to share their vast knowledge with our staff and our working partners. They gave a series of talks on how we can all produce good content for our social media outlets and working together to promote each other to our future visitors.

We learnt the obvious, that we have the potential to bring sunshine into the lives of our followers every day – Sunshine is something we take for granted!!

Sonja and Sharon had Stand Up Paddle (SUP) lessons in our lagoon and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and Chris their teacher was impressed at the speed with which the two ladies took to the sport and we were able to move out to the open sea.

Stand Up Paddle (SUP) is a wonderful sport taught by Chris from SUP Lanzarote in our Lagoon at Sands Beach Resort. It is one of the fastest growing water sports in the world at the moment.

Thank you to Sonja and Sharon for the great information and talks.

Photo Courtesy of mummyvswork.co.uk

Paula had contacted Sands Beach for ideas for herself and her two children to celebrate her partner Phil´s 30th birthday while here in Lanzarote. We suggested she take him on the Submarine and find a way to wish him a happy birthday 30m deep down in the sea. Max from Submarine Safaris came up with the great idea of Laminating a page with the birthday wishes and the diver take it to the window. It worked a treat and the family were thrilled with the event. Phil was equally surprised and mortified!! This whole idea has taken off and already there has been a marriage proposal underwater.

Photo Courtesy of mummyvswork.co.uk

Later that night the family went to Portobello Restaurant in CC Las Cucharas in Costa Teguise. Nati the owner and her staff had decorated the table with balloons and confetti. We had suggested a chocolate cake (a creation really) from La Montagne the French Patisserie in Arrecife and it went down a treat.
Paula and her family also visited Rancho Texas Animal Park and had a wonderful day there as well.

Paula and her family have booked again for April 2014 and we look forward to seeing all her family again.

It was was great fun for all the kids at Sands Beach Resort for Easter. At the Buddy Club there was a major operation making the “must have” bunny ears. All the children assisted by the animation team made fantastic bunny ears to wear for Easter. Everywhere you went kids had their new ears on.

On Easter Monday there was an Easter egg hunt and the children searched high up and low down throughout the whole resort with clues to find the chocolate eggs that the animation team had hidden.
There was the usual laughter and screams of joy and of course those Bunny Ears!

This was a great fun event and was most enjoyable to follow and watch.

Juan Carlos, Helen and Conny leading the way on having a fabulous time during the carnival parade in Costa Teguise. Juan Carlos dressed as the director of the hotel production of Grease.

The Sands Beach float with guests and staff dancing and enjoying themselves. The enormous Cadillac gave enough space for the excited kids dressed up as little Danny’s and Sandy’s.

Well done to the animation team of Sands Beach and their ‘electrifying’ dance moves leading the party at Carnival in Costa Teguise. ‘ It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s what you do with your dancing shoes.’

Want to see and feel the atmosphere of this colorful carnival parade? Check out the video!

The first and obvious reason why so many sports enthusiasts head for Lanzarote, particularly during the winter months when freezing temperatures and few daylight hours seriously impact on European training regimes, is the weather. During the traditionally cold, dark and wet winter months of November to March, Lanzarote enjoys long sunshine hours, temperatures of low to mid 20ºC and 10-12 hours of daylight, enabling athletes to enjoy summer training regimes throughout the winter.

And it isn’t just winter temperatures that attract athletes and enthusiasts, summer temperatures remain comfortable thanks to the trade winds that cool the island and unlike Britain whose excessive summer rainfall has become the default setting in recent years, Lanzarote gets a miniscule average of less than 2 millimetres of rainfall a month during the summer.

The Lanzarote weather is a strong attraction for holidaymakers as much as for athletes and is reflected across the Canary Islands in general so that alone doesn’t account for the attraction of the island when it comes to sports. As anyone who has ever trained or competed on the island will tell you, Lanzarote’s very soul beats to the rhythmic sound of physical exertion.

Hire a car to explore the beauty of the island and you’ll pass endless cyclists and runners enjoying the long, straight roads, the challenging inclines, exhilarating descents and breathtaking vistas that accompany training routes. There is very little traffic on Lanzarote and those who do choose to drive are used to seeing lycra-clad athletes and to affording them the respect and space they need. Get off-road and you’ll discover why the extraordinary volcanic landscape attracts athletes, cyclists and hikers to enjoy its motivational terrain.

Head to Teguise and the beaches of Famara to watch the acrobatic kitesurfers riding the waves in world championship conditions, and to Las Cucharas to watch the summer rainbow sails of the windsurfers and you’ll soon understand why Lanzarote’s coast attracts the board riders. Enjoy the calm, warm waters off the coast of Puerto del Carmen where Lanzarote Ironman is staged or the superb 25 metre swimming pool at Sands Beach Resort to see why swimmers choose to train here all year round.

But apart from the ideal weather, superb terrain and excellent sporting facilities, there’s one other key ingredient that goes to raising Lanzarote above many other European sports destinations, and that’s the island’s enduring spirit of pushing yourself beyond the limitations of everyday living. Never a month goes by without some major sporting event taking place on Lanzarote, from the smallest family fun run to the demanding rigours of Ironman and throughout them all, you’ll experience the warmth, mutual support and enthusiasm of Lanzarote’s sporting community.

Sports enthusiasts feel at home on Lanzarote, it’s as if the island was created just to suit their needs and it’s the reason why it’s rapidly becoming the number one European sports destination.

“And the winner of this month’s social media savvy Valuable Content Award is… Sands Beach Resort!”

There may not have been glamorous dresses, tearful acceptance speeches and celebrity audiences but the internet savvy award bestowed on Sands Beach Resort by online marketing experts, Valuable Content, is just as welcome as if it was an Oscar because it means we’re doing our jobs effectively.

‘To win a Valuable Content award your business website needs to be packed with helpful, authentic content, written with passion, presented with the user in mind. We only verify sites that we believe are genuinely useful to web users. Winners get the coveted Valuable Content Award badge to display on their site.’ So states the valuable content website whose founder, consultant Sonja Jefferson, interviewed our Head of Marketing – John Beckley (pictured centre, above, pink shirt). John told Sonja:

“Two years ago, we launched a sports brand Sands Beach Active to coincide with our campaign to promote Lanzarote as the Sports Destination of Europe. We host two top events (our Duathlon and Lanzarote Marathon) and we also sponsor several of Europe’s top athletes — our Ambassador Athletes.

We set up a separate microsite for the sports community: ActiveLanzarote.com. Here we publish blogs and we are active on YouTube, Flickr, Google+, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.”

For us here at Sands Beach Resort, it’s engaging with our customers that drives us forward and we are in continuous online conversation through social media channels such as Facebook where we can share upcoming events and promotions and in return, our guests share their holiday photos and plans.

One of the things that impressed Valuable Content was the way our Director Juan Carlos Albuixech (pictured top, yellow scarf) has embraced social media, sharing sports content from and with own Facebook page and having a continuous dialogue with our sponsored athletes, business partners and guests.

We may not have a podium being broadcast worldwide on which to make our acceptance speech, but that isn’t going to stop us ‘virtually’ thanking everybody who made this award possible.
For his direction and active social media support, a big thank you to our Director Juan Carlos; for his endless video and photo editing and his constant drive and innovation, we thank John Beckley; for their superb talents and their unswerving support we thank all our sponsored athletes and our ambassadors, for their endless hard work we thank our team of wonderful staff and for taking the time and trouble to recognise and reward our hard work we thank Sonja Jefferson and the team at Valuable Content.

But most of all, for sharing your memories, plans and hopes for the future and for being our friends as well as our customers, we thank each and every one of you who follows us on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google+ and YouTube. Without you we literally could not have done it.

A fun day of sailing, swimming and kayaking was in prospect as Alberto and Julie left Sands Beach Resort on their morning pick-up to head off to board their beautiful glass bottom boat and sail to the paradise beach of Papagayo. As Alberto and Julie took in the bracing morning sea breeze and the glorious views over the Lanzarote coastline, there was a free on-board bar with sangria, beer, water and soft drinks to keep thirst at bay.

By the time the boat moored the sun had risen and so had the temperatures – time to cool off and have some fun. With the stunning Papagayo Beach as the backdrop, there was swimming, kayaking and snorkelling to be completed and a ride on the bouncing banana to get through before lunch.

Never one to shy away from the prospect of Atlantic antics, Alberto dived straight in with his Hero camera to capture the action in the water and on the banana boat before heading back on board to enjoy a delicious hot buffet lunch.

Time to dry off, enjoy life beneath the waves from the comfort of the glass bottom boat and then it was homeward bound with that free bar to round off a brilliant day of sun and surf.

And what did Alberto and Julie think of their Atlantic Adventure excursion? We think the grins on their faces tell us all we need to know.

Atlantic Adventure is one of the fabulous excursions you can enjoy through Sands Beach Resort. You can find all details and book your own adventure on our Out & About website.

Heading into the Geria region, the heart of Lanzarote’s wine growing industry, the tour introduces guests to the history of the island’s wine growing industry and explains how the lives of the people who live in the region were dramatically altered by the eruptions that formed its distinctive landscape.

But this is no classroom history lesson and it’s certainly not dry as Carmen and Alena take their guests walking through the vineyards of a selection of Geria bodegas, explaining the vine growing process as they go and sampling the results.

There are 17 bodegas and Denominacions de Origen (accredited wine growing regions) on Lanzarote and almost half of them are in the Geria region. As specialists in wine tourism, Lanzarote Active Club choose four different bodegas to take their guests to, touring parts of the vineyard that are not normally open to the public and tasting the best wines from each bodega.

Along the way, wine enthusiasts are taught the correct way to taste the wine, checking its colour, scent and viscosity as well as the all important taste. After sampling nine, top quality wines the tour rounds off with a sumptuous lunch at Bodega Rubicon with tapas and, unsurprisingly, wine, served beneath the eucalyptus trees.

And what was the verdict of our Sands Beach Resort guests on their bodega tour? A unanimous thumbs up and a grin-filled “¡Salud!”

The Bodega Hopping Tour lasts from 9am to 4pm/5pm (depending on how much chatting Alena is doing!), costs €55 which includes pick up, transport, tours, lunch and wine, and is bookable through Sands Beach Resort.
For those who would like to combine some walking with their wine, the tour can include a 4km walk into a vineyard set within a volcanic crater.

Everything on this website has been tried by one of the Sands Beach team and so you have first hand honest information to make the right choices for you and your family´s precious holiday.

Sands Beach just don’t hand you your ticket and send you on your way. You are invited to tell them all about your adventure and to rate it for them. The Sands beach team feel this is the way forward in creating great days and nights out for their guests and so making the holiday a wonderful experience creating memories you will have for life.

Rose has come to work in this area for Sands Beach and has created an incredible range of activities to suit everyones´ taste. Rose has many years experience working with a tour operator here in Lanzarote.

Rose has an information desk in reception and can answer any questions on the hotel, the resort and the island as well as information on excursions.

This new initiative by Sands Beach is just part of the continued commitment to the needs of our guests and leading the way in customer services and making everyones holiday special.