Going on Saturday for a week. I have been to Corralejo a couple of times before but never to the south of the island. Has anyone been to this sopt? Any advice? I am staying at the Melia Gorriones hotel which is right on the spot of the Rene Egli centre 1. I will probably get a hire car for a couple of days, so are there any other local spots worth a visit?

Forecast is for 20 knots

Thanks,

Mark

Hi Mark

I am staying at the Melia Gorriones hotel on 5th October for a week would be interested to no what u think of the place.?

Thanks Jimmy

ps: hope u have hot windy week

Now then Jimmy,
Just got back. The wind was mental all week and I was overpowered on my 7m. Not usual for September apparently. We were getting 30 odd knots, gusting over 50 most days. Lots of people getting in to bother in the offshore winds and lots of broken kites so my advice is definitely to pay the 80 euros for storage and rescue cover from the kite centre. I did. Not sure what October will be like.
The beach is one of the best I have been on. Beautiful clean sand and water. No hazards (appart from the gusts/offshore direction). The kite centre is a bit stiff and not as chilled out as they usually are. Showers, toilets compressors are all good. Sunbeds for the family with plenty of shade from the sun and wind.
The kite zone sometimes feels a bit cramped if you like to kite close to the shoreline as you are in between the pole dancers on the left and the kiteschool on the right but there is loads of space further out or past the kiteschool.
One bit of advice - when you launch then go straight to the water, keeping your kite low at the edge of the window. It was really gusty and kites were always luffing and dropping out of the sky just after launching, whilst people messed about with depower settings and fannied about with their harness. Do it before you launch then go straight to the water. There are often people walking up and down the beach and I saw a few near misses of kites dropping close to these people.
If you do break a kite then you can get em repaired overnight. Drop it off at 5pm and pick up at 11am the next day. I broke my 7 and 10 and it was 40 euros for each repair.
The hotel is great. The food and drink is very good for an all-inclusive hotel. The entertainment in the "funpub" was prety good too. Nice adults only bar and chill out area. My only complaint was the mosquitos. Make sure you take some plug-ins for your room and put repellant on for breakfast as well as on an evening!!! Great pool areas with loads of sunbeds and it you are up before 9 you can still find a decent spot that the Germans have not yet put their towels on.
I was chatting to a dutch couple on the beach and they had a car and went out to cotillo for a session and also on the opposite side of the island to Sotavnto (cant remember the name of the spot). They loved it, so if car hire and trips out are on the cards then it sounds like it is well worth it. My wife wasnt so keen when I suggested it

If you have any specific questions then ask away.

Let me know how you got on as I would like to go back to this spot if the wind is not always as gusty as it was whilst I was there.

Cheers,

Mark

I forgot to mention.. I went with Thomas Cook and they ripped me off with a 50 euro charge for putting my kite bag on the bus. I had booked a full package deal including coach transfers and I pre-booked my kitebag on the flight for 40 quid. All good until I arrived at the destination airport and they asked for 25 euros for the kite bag to go on the bus. They said it was for insurance purposes but I said I had my own insurance and would accept uninsured transportation of the bag. They said no and I needed to pay. I was stuck at the airport and had no other option but to pay the charge. If I had known about it up front then I could have considered other options.. its only 25 euros a day to hire a car FFS! They said that the charges were detailed in a clause in the small print... totally unacceptable to me. That is the type of dirty trick you would expect from Ryanair or such like. I then found out that the charge was only one way. Not only were they hitting me with hidden charges, but the charges themselves were a total piss take and disproportionate to the service I was paying for. I only paid 40 quid to put the bag on a 4 hour return flight and it was more to put it on a 1 hour bus journey!
I filled in a complaint form and I am going to try and take it further with Thomas Cook, but it did put a bit of a dampner on the whole holiday for me.
If I get no satisfaction from Thomas Cook then I will post this on every fookin kitesurf, windsurfing and surfing forum on the internet.
I should have said I had no money and no credit cards as I was on an all inclusive holiday and waited to see if they would have left me in the airport Probably would have the shameless barstewards.