After nearly 8 months in Mauritania, I finally found myself setting foot in the Canary Islands for a wonderful 1 week getaway. As some may recall, back in the fall, my wife and kids took a trip to Gran Canaria with some embassy friends, and came back singing its praises. It was all the more motivating for me to clear some time and make a trip happen.

Originally, I had a scheduled work trip to Frankfurt earmarked for the week, but when delays with congress passing the 2023 budget stretched late into December, this had to be postponed. Since arriving to Mauritania, I have used a grand total of 13 hours of leave, all of it on the Senegal trip we did in November, so I figured it was high time for a vacation. Having the week cleared on my schedule and some travel points burning through my credit card, we made the last minute decision to hop on a plane and spend a week in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria. Boy oh boy was it worth it.

Way back in the ancient times (May 2022), when I was assigned Mauritania on Flag Day, short travel to the Canary Islands, a place I had never even been to, was one of the reasons for bidding Mauritania so highly. After having been, I know I made the right decision. After a 90 minute flight from Nouakchott, once you hop off that plane in Gran Canaria, you immediately find yourself in Spain, both visually and culturally. Delicious food, wonderful architecture, beautiful churches, tapas bars, easy transportation with immaculate roads, and pristine beaches. A perfect retreat.

First things first, our humble chariot for this vacation was a Jeep Wrangler. The perfect vehicle for an American in need of some island adventuring. In true Jeep fashion, the check engine light was on the entire trip, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The folks at the car rental agency just shrugged and said “it’s a Jeep”. Even in Spain…they know. Once on the road and taking things in, Gran Canaria feels like what would happen if Hawaii and San Diego had a baby. The result is perfect year round weather without the humidity, and includes a pristine road network with minimal traffic and incredible views. See for yourself:

Having enjoyed our experience in Senegal at the Riu resort there, we decided to stay at the All-Inclusive Riu Gran Canaria on the southern part of the Island. The reason for this was two-fold. One, Riu has nice properties, but they are also incredible kid friendly. Having a very mobile one year old that can’t sit still for long made this sort of environment more appealing. There is no worrying about preparing meals or where you will go for lunch or dinner. With their numerous restaurants that are all included in the cost of the room, it becomes a very relaxing, turn your brain off kind of trip. The second reason is the location of the resort. It sits right on the ocean with a stunning view and is also walking distance to the Maspalomas Dunes, a large shopping area 2 minutes away, and there are several restaurants outside the resort in case resort food gets boring. This was great when we wanted to try some things like a quality steak restaurant or Thai food that wasn’t at the resort, or available in Nouakchott. Totally worth it. Here are some photos from around the resort and surrounding area.

If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn’t choose this resort. Although the food was fine and the people were outrageously friendly, it was a little dated, the beds weren’t very comfortable, and you could hear your neighbors on both on each side of you and above you. It wasn’t that much of an issue, but still annoying. Another reason is because of the location, we found ourselves eating off the resort quite a bit since there was just about every type of restaurant we could imagine within a 5 minute walk and surprisingly everything was SO CHEAP. Like obnoxiously inexpensive. I now fully understand why pensioners from around the world choose Spain as their place of retirement. A beer in a nice restaurant will run you $2 and a meal for 3 or 4 people, including drinks was usually under $50, all in the heart of the most touristy part of Gran Canaria. It was sticker shock in a good way.

After we got our fill of resort time for a few days, we decided to take the Jeep out and do a little exploring in the co-capital of the Canary Islands, the City of Las Palmas. The first order of business was taking our Baby E to get her very first Happy Meal. I always used to laugh when I would see Americans eating at McDonalds when I travelled abroad, but 7 months in Nouakchott had us craving the Golden Arches. It definitely was a hit. From there, we went to an aquarium and did some sight seeing in Las Palmas. It was fun going from huge wide roads, to avenues hundreds of years old, definitely not built with cars in mind. You definitely know you’re in Europe.

We closed out the trip by exploring other parts of the island, including the beautiful port of Mogán (pics below). From there we visited a nice Spanish grocery store and loaded up on goodies to bring back to Nouakchott (Iberico pork anyone?) It was overwhelming being back in a store that just has so much variety on offer. In Nouakchott, the stores surprisingly carry more than I thought they would, but items run out of stock all the time, and usually they will just carry a single brand or one type of a particular item you might need. Being back in a store with multiple competing brands of just about everything you could want had me staring off into the abyss of choice. It really makes one realize how fortunate we are in the U.S. and Western world as a whole.

Overall, this was probably one of my favorite vacations I have ever taken. It’s hard for me to think of a location that sort of checks all the boxes of being extremely relaxing, has perfect weather, an incredible culinary scene, rich culture, modern infrastructure, but also Old World charm at the same time. Somehow this is what the Canary Islands have on offer. Will definitely be going back. –Nick