Hi all,
Can anyone tell me what it is with Playa Blanca. Lot's of people rave about it but having just got back from a stay in Matagorda ( which is quiet,and you hardly hear the airport ! ) I must be missing the point. It is similar to Milton Keynes,little boxes on straight roads going nowhere,unfinished groups of villas,no real heart and a bit of a wasteland. Is it that property is cheap there ?

Its simple, you either like it or not. We people who love it, perhaps see a little further.

??? That's because you are not in Playa Blanca!!

Its pretty simple - you have the port. And then the old town. The two have grown and merged together.

You then have the lighthouse developments and faro park on one side, and then the Dorada Beach developments and then finally the new Marina and Papagayo developments.

Just because you got lost miles from anywhere is hardly the fault of playa blanca.

Milton Keynes - I could throw the same accusation at Matagorda - bland satellite suburb that is too far from PDC to be useful......!!

Rome, everyone raves about it, but when you get there, it's endless suburbs of blocks of flats, warehouses and factories, joined together with straight roads - all leading to Rome of course. Unless - you find your way into the centre, where it is absolutely packed with stunning architecture!

Phil, I kinda know what you mean. I'm a Matagorda fan but I go for a daytrip to PB everytime I come to Lanz and I think it is a nice resort and I enjoy a walk along the prom, but I certainly find it more expensive than the other two. I feel it is trying to be a more up-market or exclusive resort from the other two (it probably is more up-market, lol). I even went on market day once and it seemed they only had nice stalls compared to all the mish-mash and tat you find at Teguise on a Sunday. And in my opinion, Papagayo is over-rated and not a patch on Famara. Saying all that, I'd buy one of those unsold villas for a tenner, no prob. Think the PB Front have taken offence, Power to the People.

Thank's foodie, I didn't want a slagging match just some positive responce from people as I may be missing something about the area. From the top of Montana Roca it just looks like a hinterland with roads just finishing and going nowhere. Sell it too me,tell me how great it is to live there,share the best places to go. As for your negative comments about Matagorda,everyone who has stayed there enjoys it,maybe you should visit it sometime.

Hi phillloyd, like everything, it comes down to personal choice. What it looks like from the top of Montaña Roja doesn't reflect what the beaches, restaurants, shops and promenade are like. Certainly, Matagorda/PDC looks pretty grim from the hills above. I don't really see the point of trying to sell it to you, we just think it's a great place to live, (and for that matter, visit on holiday) but I don't feel the need to prove it! BTW, what negative comments about Matagorda? Foodie, just threw your comment about PB back at you!

We started going to Playa Blanca five years ago, twice a year and am not even tempted to look anywhere else....the area is clean, safe, friendly, restaurants are fab, reasonable and the waiting staff brilliant. We do not even get tempted to other parts of the Island as we find it so peaceful and relaxing and have lots of fun when we are there. That is my own personal opinion.

The world would be a dull place if we all liked the same thing

I notice the noise and the light now in PB - if I was moving elsewhere would be somewhere quieter - maybe up the montana roja if I won the lottery.

What is strange is that Phil saw fit to comment on the empty units and unfinished roads - yet didn't mention the million pound luxury pads who's back gardens you can spy on from the top of the hill!!!!

And am sure when Matagorda and other developments over in PDC were built in a similar way - ie road network laid out first, then buliders all go bust/planning permission refused, wait for a couple of years bung brown envelopes to new mayor then start building etc etc

I've looked at the north of the island - I like Haria in particular but this is a strange thing to say - the weather always seems better in the south especially in Jan and Feb.

PS how can you compare Famara with Papagayo?! You can't even swim properly there! They aren't comparable - 2 very different places.

When we first went to Lanzarote Matagorda was the biggest building site on the island, in fact for years there was a half built hotel on the road in from the airport. (There was no circumvalacion then).

This has always been the case in Lanza, resorts take years to build and quite often hotels are left half built for years. Matagorda was no different and PB is the same, although the main part of PB is more or less complete.

We went to PDC for years and loved it but always felt that Matagorda was just a suburb of PDC and was too far out for our liking. Then we went to PB for a few years and loved that too. Last year we went to CT and I really liked it too, although there are a few things I wasn't too impressed with. All in all I don't think there is a bad place on Lanza, it's just that people have different tastes and those tastes change over the years.

There is a lot of light in PB now, which tends to spoinl the view of the night sky, however, the noise is limited to some bits. We live West of Montaña Roja, and at night it is silent - you can hear planes flying so high they are leaving contrails.

Hi Walker - I guess as the Faro park developments have filled up there is more through traffic heading out that way which pisses off us in the older developments!

I think César Manrique would turn in his grave if he knew what was happining to his beloved Island......

I suppose so, Foodie, but peole say that all over the world about where they live.

deepsix, I think Manrique was more realistic than that. He's been dead 19 years, and his influence is still pretty strong. There are places where money talks, but as a percentage of the island, it's tiny. What walking the length and breadth of the island has taught me is that 99% of it is either untouched, unspoiled or at least built up in a reasonable way. If you ignore the urban areas - Tias, PB, PDC, Arrecife, CT, Playa Honda etc, the rest looks pretty good from a hilltop, and from the roadside.

I imagine in about twenty years, the Manrique effect will have been driven out by money, although the recession of the last few years will have slowed that.

Hi walker,

Yes I agree with you, I just hope that those unspoiled areas will stay unspoiled for years to come so visitors and residents alike can still enjoy the Island.

Deepsix