Last year me and Marymum went to Corralejo in Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands. We decided, since we had never been, to go to Lanzarote for the day. We could have taken the Fred Olsen express (which, as I've mentioned in previous reviews, Marymum was completely obsessed with to the point where I thought she fancied it), but if we had done that, we would have ended up in Playa Blanca. We wanted to go to Puerto del Carmen, which seemed to be where all the action was. So, after a bit of research, we found out about the Princesa Ico, which would take us from Corralejo to Puerto del Carmen in around about an hour. This seemed far better, especially to me, as I like being on boats and the Fred Olsen trip only took about ten minutes, which seemed a bit of a non-experience! I've always believed you get a better tan out at sea too (how sad am I???) so it seemed a better option for me.

The boat begins in Lanzarote and drops people off in Fuerteventura, so if you are starting off in Corralejo in Fuerteventura, you will have less time at your destination than you will if you are going in the opposite direction. By the time we reached Puerto del Carmen, we had about three and a half hours to explore the town and do any sunbathing we cared to do.

Pictures of Princesa Ico Lanzarote to Fuerteventura Express

Me on the Princesa Ico

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On our way to Lanzarote, dolphins were spotted, so they stopped the boat so that we could have a look at these. Apparently they do appear quite often on these outings, but obviously the staff can't guarantee it!

Obviously, if you go from Lanzarote to Fuerteventura, you have to wait for the boat to bring the people BACK from Lanzarote before you can catch the boat, therefore you are getting around two hours longer to play with. Realising this, the people behind the Princesa Ico excursions must realise there should give people more options once they get to Fuerteventura. On our boat, the majority of people were doing the Three Island Tour like us, but there were also people who were just going over to Fuerteventura to do their own thing, and also a few who were going to the water park in Corralejo.

Straightaway, this was more organised than the previous excursion. A bus picked us up from outside a hotel nearby to our own hotel to take us to the port at Puerto Del Carmen. It was an early start, eight fifteen I think. There were quite a few pickups along the way, and the tour guide began to talk to us as we drove along. He predictably spoke in Spanish, English and German - then a French person shouted out "en Francais s'il vous plait?" and, to his credit, he made a pretty good attempt at it! When we reached the port, he advised that anyone who hadn't already paid for the excursion would need to pay before they boarded the boat. We'd done so already so headed along to the boat to find it was already busy. It turned out buses had also been organised from Playa Blanca, Teguise and Arrecife. The fact that people were having to pay for their tickets also held up our departure, which was a bit of a pain, but luckily the weather was great so it wasn't a problem.

Once the boat set off, the guide started talking to us again, explaining the timetable for the day, and informing us that a water taxi would be taking us to Lobos (after all, the Princessa Ico would be otherwise occupied taking the tourists over to Lanzarote and back in the meantime). Once again, the inevitable photos were taken, although this time it was slightly more amusing. In order to make us smile, the guy taking the pictures sung off-tune accompanied by a guy dancing behind him, clicking castanets in a way that reminded me of Bez from the Happy Mondays dancing around with his tambourine! I think the whole boat was laughing at these antics.

There is one restaurant on Lobos. The guide had told us that if we wished to eat there we would have to make a reservation in advance. They only do two meals - paella or fish (what a choice). The guide also said the restaurant housed the island's only bathroom. Apparently there was a key for the bathroom as it was for customers only. Except the key had got lost so now if you asked to go to the toilet you were given the door handle. The guide warned us not to lose the door handle, or they would probably have to give you the door.

The water taxi was much smaller than the Princessa Ico and when we went over to Lobos it seemed like we were in a tiny toy boat getting tossed about by the waves. (Not as bad as the way back though). Disembarking from the boat was a little scary as we didn't have a gangplank or anything like that, and had to rely on the boat staff helping us out onto the dock.

Once we got off the boat we had to wait for the Princessa Ico to arrive back to pick us up - and that was when the real problems began. There was no queueing system whatsoever, and only after the passengers had disembarked did the guide decide to start trying to order us into one. Therefore no one paid the remotest bit of attention and it was a total free-for-all crushathon to get onto the boat. I think my mum got on about ten minutes before I did!!! The journey back was awful as I found myself suffering from my first ever bout of seasickness. Quite a lot of people seemed to be suffering as much as me, so I think it was maybe related to us suffering such a choppy journey on the water taxi and then having to get onto the other boat again fairly soon afterwards.