Further to my early post have been back 3 days now from a great week in PDC and both me and my missus wished we were both back there, the weather was oustanding, the best we had ever had in January, it was 27c on the apartment thermometer in the shade a few days. We found to our suprise the place to by very busy and much busier than previous years from the volume of people walking up and down the seafront and the number of people running and cycling from Matagorda to the Old Town then to confirm this it was plain to see the bars cafes and restaurants were for the most part packed at night and doing reasonably well in the day, what staggers me is that prior to coming on this forum all I had heard was how terrible things are in Lanzarote moan moan moan dont come here you wont get a job what a load of old cobblers that is, what these people mean is they dont want you to come only if your a holidaymaker. If some of the miserable english on this forum some who have businesses want to learn a lesson then take one from your spanish counterparts, we found the service everywhere we went in Spanish run places to be first class, friendly, welcoming, efficient, they could not do enough to please you, yes they wanted your business but they appreciated it as well and it was very impressive Ive got to say. We passed one restaurant that had a big sign outside saying 'ENGLISH OWNED ENGLISH OPERATED' it's that kind of garbage that puts you off going in what was an otherwise nice looking place, do some of the dumb english out there that take us for granted think we just want Coronation Street and Eastenders and we wont entertain the locals????????????? another English bar owner said before we could even order a drink 'Dont use the Irish bars they will rip you off' to which I replied 'Im half Irish actually' but can make my own mind up anyway either way. It was great to see the resort so busy and full of life, the old town harbour looks so much better and in general the whole place looks in pretty good shape for 2011. iI will never listen again to anyone on here who talks the place down for whatever reason, we will keep coming back twice a year where possible for as long as we can and hope everyone else supports this lovely Island too as much as they can

It's great to hear such an upbeat report. I guess, being retired, I'm somewhat insulated from the jobs market, but I think there is a high level of unemployment here, because of the general downturn in tourism over the last few years. However, some places are doing much better than others.

I agree that a lot of the Spanish run places are better than many of the British (or Irish ) ones, but in reality there are many Spanish places you wouldn't want to stay in either. It all comes down to giving the customer something you can persuade him (or her) is what they want, then giving good value, good food/drink, good service, and clean lavatories!

If you really want to see some nice places to eat, next time you come, venture out into the villages, and try the local non (or at least less) touristic restaurants.

By the way we had a couple of inches of rain last night, and many roads were flooded. Its nice again now!

Although to be fair many of the irish bars do tend to be the most expensive. Though whether they are ripping you off is down to personal opinion - they do tend to be busy so people happy to pay obviously.

I am 100% Irish and I avoid the Irish bars like the plague in Lanzarote, for gods sake, I cant understand why we travel so far for our holidays and the first thing we Irish look for is an Irish bar that plays traditional music and charges Temple Bar (expensive part of Dublin) prices for their drink, explore the back streets or further away from the "center" and you find a welcome second to none in most of the bars. Granted, yes I have on my 1st trip to PDC been to a certain Irish bar...(underground).....but once bitten...Look don't get me wrong everyone in Lanzarote who runs a business Irish or not deserves to make their few quid but some places really need to look at their pricing structure before they complain about business being poor.
Cant wait to get back over and will be giving my hard earned cash to those who offer the value and the service............Rant over.....