We are Michael and Colette, regular visitors to Sal Island from Ireland.
We had been on Sal a few days when we were surprised to discover that there was a direct flight with Binter Canarias from Sal to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. We hadn’t realised this flight had started to operate on a regular basis. We decided to try the route on our return journey to Ireland and spend a few days on GC on the south of the island and see if this route suited us.Our Flight with Binter was excellent, arrived on time. This is where Colette and myself parted company with you Cheryl. You off to the mountains and north, we to Playa del Ingles in the south. We took a taxi from the aiport which cost us €38.
Our apartment was lovely – cost £50 per night, poor cooking facilities but it would appear everybody eats out in the Canaries and I must say, eating out is to die for. Wonderful choice of restaurants and cheaper than Sal. Needless to say the quality was first class.
The next morning I went for a walk at 7am., I was gobsmacked with the cleanliness with sealed rubbish bins with small opening traps all over the place, a mechanical road sweeper was cleaning the streets and I could not see any rubbish apart from the odd cigarette butt.
We saw very few dogs and those we did see were on a lead. In fact on Sunday morning at the market, we saw a little dog in it’s own wheel trolley. We were surprised to find that most supermarkets, although very well stocked, had no meat or fish counter. We made enquiries and after 4 days we were given the following address:
Supermercado Mercadona/ BellaVista, San Fernando.
We took a taxi to this supermarket (€4.50) it was enormous and had a large fish and meat counter. After leaving the supermarket we saw a Lidl store which was only 200mtr away, again this was stocked similar to home.
We took the bus to Playa Del Ingles on our return journey to the airport €3.50 each and took approx 30 minutes. Whilst travelling on the bus I saw a Lidl sign, then 4 minutes later we were at the airport. For further information, here is the Lidl website:
www.lidl.es
Summing up of trip, I would recommend allowing at least one full day for shopping i.e. : arrive on Wednesday, shopping Thursday and flight to Sal on Friday. Or anyone arriving early in to Las Palmas with 2 hours to spare could go to the Lidl store I saw, which I guess would take 5 minutes in a taxi.
We were really overwhelmed by the cleanliness and properly finished infrastructure and as I said eating out is to die for. no dogs running wild or barking morning noon and night, no rubbish whatsoever to be seen. There is no doubt whatsoever that Ireland -Gran Canaria- Sal will be our best option of travelling from now on.
I forgot to add earlier I noted your comments about the duty free shop at Las Palmas airport, but I can tell you that wines and spirits in the local supermarkets are far cheaper than in the duty free shop, Colette tells me the perfumes are cheaper too.
It’s great to share these experiences and compare notes. We are now looking forward to passing through and also staying in the Canaries many more times in the future. Perhaps we will try staying in and around Las Palmas and Las Canteras on our next visit.All the very best,
Michael and Colette.
