Canary Islands

Choose by island, not by beach. Tenerife's north is green and rough with black sand, its south is warm and built up; Lanzarote is volcanic and windy; Gran Canaria has the dunes at Maspalomas and a calm city bay at Las Canteras.

Playa de Famara and the Papagayo coves on Lanzarote, Las Canteras in Las Palmas, which is a city beach that genuinely works, and the black sand of the north. The Atlantic is cold and the currents are serious.

Papas arrugadas with mojo, ropa vieja, fish grilled without fuss, and gofio in everything from breakfast to dessert. Island cooking is simple and Atlantic, closer in spirit to the Portuguese coast than to the mainland.

La Laguna is a UNESCO-listed colonial capital and the best preserved in the islands; Santa Ana cathedral and the old quarters of Las Palmas show where Spain left for the Americas. There is also real pre-colonial Guanche archaeology, far less visited than it deserves.

Inter-island flights and ferries are frequent and work well. On the islands, buses cover the main towns and the big roads, but the mountain passes, the lava fields and the small villages need a car.

The Teide crater road, the Anaga passes, Lanzarote's lava coast and the Garajonay laurel forest. All four big islands are small enough to cross in an hour, and rewarding to drive.

Any, which is the point. January to March is driest and mildest and the best for walking; summer is hot and busy in the south; the trade winds of July and August keep the north coasts cool and cloudy.

Late December and Easter, when mainland Spain arrives en masse and prices double — and unbooked inter-island hops in the weeks around those dates.