Good and Gran times in Canaries

THE THOUGHTS of a package holiday in the Canaries have always filled me with dread.

Spending a week in a resort where high-rise hotels cast long shadows over beaches, where you have to rise at dawn to fight Germans for a sun-lounger, where Irish bars spew guff about their fry-ups — all played out in the midst of sun-burned county-jersey wearing holiday-makers — was never my idea of a fun time.

Give me a small self-catering place off the beaten track, and a hire car to explore at my own pace, and I’m in heaven.