Just got back from Matagorda, 3 rd time we've been, we love Lanzarote and despite the dissapointing weather this winter still had a good time, we knew with the collapse of sterling that it would be een more expensive than usual but this post is really aimed at anyone with a business there as to be honest I find the vast majority of them clueless and on another planet when it comes to getting it right. How can you justify charging 8 Euro for example for a pint of Guinness and a small glass of wine in the Craic and Ceol for example or 7 Euro for a flat pint of tropical and small glass of wine elsewhere, I find it staggering that in these hard times there seems little or no effort being made to give tourists value for money other than cheap offers of breakfasts. In my humble opinion if you are going to Lanza stick to the Spanish run places, in general,they are cheaper, you getter a warmer welcome, better service and a quality product
Cacada del Puerto (Bodiga?) in the old town is superb for eating out and so is the tapas bar (Llonga?) next to the harbour at lunchtime. Also back at Matagorda Sirocco Pizzeria is really good for Pizzas and also all it's food is great quality at reasonable prices, how come they can charge 2 Euro for a large glass of Torres wine yet the English and Irish think 4Eu is fair play, they treat tourists like they are stupid and are there to be milked. There are exceptions and I would tell anyone to go to Paddy's Bar in the old town, the guy that owns it is a great man and the atmosphere is so friendly, we had a great laugh in there and the Guinness is excellent, he charges 7Eu for both drinks and that is my limit, here in the Uk I pay 5. Despite the rip off prices and tacky new strip I love Lanza especially the old town at night and Matagorda in the day, I can spend hours running and walking, watching the world go by and the planes coming in and taking off (and by the way there are hundreds doing that all the time!) plus Playa Honda is really nice going the other way. I read in a local magazine a message from the Editor appealing to local businesses to 'get their act together in 2009' I agreed totally, get real and prosper or stay greedy and struggle to survive, it's your choice, if your so stupid to choose the latter you dont deserve to succeed and long term you never will. Puerto Del Carmen has everything going for it but it needs to start giving a higher quality product at a lower price

Very well said.
I comented on this in the last post.
There are alot of these bars around that rip people off and I take great pleasure in watching them struggle and complain about business been bad
They wont last. And alot of them are up for sale now.
Like yourself I have a few bars that I enjoy and dont mind paying them.
Mucky Duck, Spenders, Bodhran, Brian Boru and the San Miguel are all great bars and well run.
Bars that I feel I have been ripped off in I simply dont go back.
I think it is bad that the Irish Bars have got a bad name now. It is not all them that charge high prices and some of them have to to pay the top entertainers: Charlies and Mulligans Old Town.
The great bars I named above will come through this rough time

King of Lanza, yes your right and I accept that when live music is on say between 10pm and 2 am there should be an extra small charge if necessary to cover the extra costs but being fair and honest with the punters doesn't come into it in the vast majority of places there, it always amazes me how unprofessional bars are both in mainland Spain and the Canary Islands, there is a big recession on in the Uk and Ireland and people coming to Lanza are more price conscious and on a budget, you'd think any bar owner with half a brain would see it as an opportunity to cut their costs, cut their prices and raise their game to give an overall better experience but no they just carry on blindly pretending the credit crunch is made up in the media and doesnt affect them, put simply greed will kill their businesses, they may as well shoot themselves in the foot or wake up, smell the coffee and realise times have just changed

I think everyone here knows there is a credit crunch and can see where you are coming from in respect of prices but those prices have been like that for a while and didn't see anyone complain then

One thing you must remeber is that everything we buy here we pay in euros and an example of the suppliers is that BRITISH beers/lagers went up 5% in price to us as it does every year. People have to make a living and like myself most bars keep the increase in house for years and then have to put prices up. I was selling Caffreys at 500pts equivalent to €3.01 7 years ago and now sell John Smiths at €3 can you please tell me your local back home has got the same prices as they were 7 years ago.....NO.

Must say danair you are the FIRST person I have heard call the new front tacky

Overhere,

Yes, I definitely CAN say prices have come down in my local - well not specifically my own original local because prices have increased there but it’s virtually dead in there now and I go elsewhere – as most people have. What seems to be happening is that there are a handful of pubs and clubs which will chase the custom by keeping prices low, this then creates a price war between them and the prices reduce even further. Some of the other pubs and clubs who haven’t or can’t reduce prices have still survived but many struggle and either succumb to price cutting or close.
People may not have complained before but the whole credit crunch thing AND the exchange rate now are making people think differently. Your average Joe-Punter isn’t bothered about overheads or low margins etc, all they see is the bar price and if they don’t like it they won’t go back.
But Overhere you have no need to defend yourself or your profession the complaint here is the odd few bars which charge over the odds, certainly not Spenders. I don’t think people have a problem with bars like Charlies either because they have live music with no admission chage and in fact its not that expensive anyway, maybe the same is true of some more traditional Irish music bars, but it does seem to the Irish bars where the daftest prices are.

In the meanwhile, yes I also found the comment about the new PDC strip being tacky a bit odd ? especially if you like Matagorda because I’d say if anything they’re making PDC more like Matagorda ?

Ole

What I meant that certain parts of the so called new town look tacky and I agree so does Matagorda, personally I think the old town has the most character and is the place to go at night. Re spending money on another thread we took £650 1 Eu to a £1 and spent £550 being pretty sensible, breakfast or tapas at lunch, few drinks in the afternoon, a couple at night, something to eat out 4 nights out of 7, couple of takeaways other times plus quite a few taxis which are pretty good on price

Sorry Danair, I wasn't suggesting Matagorda was tacky or indeed that there wasn't tat in PDC, just that the strip development has hopefully an improvement.
The problem now I think will be to tidy up the strip facing shops bars and restaurants in line with the new promenade - always been a bug-bear of mine that has !

Ole

Ole Ole Ole sorry think we got our wires crossed, of course yes I think the new pedestrianised works they are doing are a good thing and that now the signage of bars and restaurants needs to be more tasteful. What I always notice is the lack of individualism amongst bars and restaurants, they all look the same, menus with numbers 1 to 150 with the same pictures offering the same thing, I'd like to see less conveyor belt style churned out food and more intimate places with menus that make you come through the door, it's not been snobby or upmarket and im as common as they come!! but I'd like to see less egg and chips and more proper chefs offering better quality, same with the bars, how many get their beerlines cleaned every week and deliver the perfect pint? not many some of the beer I had was foul, it makes a world of difference to get a quality pint of Guinness or anything else, I object to paying 4 Eu a pint for what is sub standard and badly looked after beer. My appeal is for better standards all round, PDC could and should be the no 1 winter destination IMHO and it could be but it's up to the local business community to drive up standards and offer more value for money, I understand the rents, costs and it's hard but you need bums on seats it's as simple as that to grow and prosper, there's too many amateurs over there who deserve to go down and let the good ones survive and grow both bars and restaurants, I find in PDC in general Spanish is best overall, I dont want to see Football flags and banners hanging over a pub or restaurant and If I wanted to watch Coronation Street I'd stay at home, do you really come to Lanza to watch Big Brother in a bar at night??

Some of that lack of individualism I think is just down to the way they present the menus, the picture menus are just to attract attention, not necessarily a reflection of whether the restaurant will be any good. If you walk past 10 Spanish restaurants just how different are they going to be from the menu ? They’ll all have the same basics dishes, it’s what people want but doesn’t make it at all bad and they’d be daft to turn away people because for example they don’t have pizza or spag bol on the menu. There are undoubtedly a good number of similar restaurants and menus, but there’s plenty of choice at the same time. Within 5 mins of where I stay I can choose from Chinese, Indian, Dutch, English, Norweigan, French, Italian, Polish, Irish, Mexican and of course Spanish / Canarian. The Strip will always be the slightly more gaudy area but there’s some good decent restaurants along the way also.
I hear what you say about quality and standards and it does really bugs me when you’re sometimes treated as a tourist rather than a customer and I also appreciate there’s bar and restaurant owners who know what they’re doing and those not so clued up just trying to make a few quid, but it really does seem to me that if all you see is egg and chips and crap beer, you’re going in the wrong places, or ordering the wrong things ? BTW you’re just as likely to see Spanish footy flags in Spanish restaurants its very much part of their culture. As for Corrie and BB I wouldn’t watch them myself but it doesn’t bother me to know there’s a Brit pub down the road showing it and in fact from a personal point of view it’s actually great to know that the same pub will have the footy on as well.

As I’ve said loads of times about PDC it has something for everyone, but conversely that’s got to mean it will have things other people like but you don’t. It’s like a glass half full or half empty, if you go around PDC only seeing the things you don’t like then your glass is half empty (and you’ve wasted your holiday and we’ve seen posts from such people) or if you ignore what you don’t like and choose what you do your glass is half full, on to slightly ruin the metaphor it’s totally full.

Ole

Been following this debate with interest as we are due over at Easter and again in the summer. Its been just over 2 years since we've been and as much as we love the place are concerned about getting ripped off. As well as naming the cheap bars why don't people name and shame those that are ripping people off so as people can avoid them!

Thanks for all those who have recommended the cheap bars. We intend visiting as many as possible especially Spenders as that seems to have been mentioned quite a lot - I take it that the E1.50 is for a pint of the the local beer, how much does this go up to after 7 pm and what would I be looking at for a pint of Carling?

Its a rather sad enditement of the Brits and irish that they are only concerned about the price of booze.

Last time I checked there was a hell of a lot more to a holiday in Lanza.

Simple answer - drink less and you might just be sober enough to drive around the island and appreciate what a beautiful place it is.

Spenders is an excellent bar. Lots of sport, or quiz shows in the afternoon (if Nat is working). I am not 100% certain but I believe the beer goes to €3 after 7pm and weekends. The beer is actually San Miguel and very well looked after, lines cleaned very regularly. Very friendly staff, made me extremely welcome in my 2 year stay.
Jaspars also has good cheap beer and good food too.
Try DJ´s bar between Los Pocillos and Matagorda (a lovely small bar) run by Sarah and Salum. Ice cold beer at €2, and a good menu selection.
The Sports bar at the Fariones end of the strip seems reasonable as does Linekers Bar.
La Lonja in the harbour, superb value, tapas from €2.50, an absolutely excellent selection.
Mar Casa Bonito, more of a restaurant at the top of the harbour. A bit more expensive but fantastic quality.
Anticca trattoria de Verona, another superb reastaurant next to the barcarola club.
Yum Yum across the road for sandwich´s to eat in or take away, also salad boxes etc.
Bar Flamingo just down the road from the casino, nice food and pleasant staff.

Try a day in Arrecife, €1.50 each by bus , get off on the front, walk towards the big skyscraper (only one on the Island) and then start to look for small, local tapas bars.

As for the front, when I left it was definately getting there. Stunning. My only reservation is if something breaks down on the single track road then chaos ensues.

PS: Can´t wait for my return!

Foodie, I work hard all year driving around the country so it's the last thing I want to do, it would be like a busman's holiday! We try to get away a couple of times a year but with the credit crunch kicking in we have to watch the pennies (well euros) to do so. We're not actually big drinkers but with 3 little ones in tow and a glass a coke being rumoured as costing more than a pint I simply can't afford to be getting ripped off.

Cymmom, thanks for all your suggestions they've been a great help.

10 weeks and counting!

danair1973,

As much as I agree with you on some of the points you make about the menus and quality of the bars and restaurants, at the end of the day they exist to make a profit and to make a profit and more importantly, to survive they need to satisfy the demand and no matter what you personally go on holiday for, the majority of people like the whole home from home britishness of the place and actually do want to watch corrie and big brother and all that crap. Thats where the majority of the market is, so from a business point of view its the smart thing to do.

Just moved to lanza, here 3 weeks now and loving every minute of it..... Drink as far as I'm concerned is so so much cheaper than back home.... Your talkin under 10 euro for 2 vodkas a red bull and a coke.... Back home that would easily cost up to 14 or 15 euro.... The beer if you drink the local beer is also extremely cheap.... Obviously you're gonna spend a lot on a holiday because you don't cook and you go out most nights... It's not the bar owners fault that there's a recession back home, there tryin to make a living, and there's less people comin over so how can they afford to drop prices.... None of the bars back home have dropped there prices so why would they here.