I tried TUI’s new route to ‘year-round summer’ island four hours from Wales

Whether it’s a winter warmer, spot of spring sun, summer scorcher, or autumn adventure you’re after, this destination has got you covered. I checked it out in April

I was reclining by the pool in mid-20s April sunshine when I got served the suggested post asking me: “Why have one summer when you could have 12?”

There followed a list of a dozen destinations, broken down by month, with the enviable temperatures they enjoy should you have the means to chase summer round the world for 365 days.

Notwithstanding the geopolitical issues, the other obvious problem was the prohibitive cost of lots of the suggested destinations.

There are, though, wallet-friendly ways to soak up the sun pretty much whenever you want throughout the year, and within easy reach of the UK. With Tui’s new year-round route between Cardiff and Fuerteventura, you can escape the Welsh weather for near-guaranteed beach vibes any weekend that takes your fancy.

The flight is under four hours, so you can park up at Cardiff Airport in the morning and be by the pool with a sundowner whenever you like, on an island that even in its ‘coldest’ winter months sees average daily highs of around 20C.

Aside from the relatively short flight time, which is long enough to catch a movie on a tablet but not so long that anyone gets cranky, if you’re coming from South Wales, it spares you the additional hour or so of traveling across the bridge to Bristol or beyond.

You also get the advantage of Cardiff Airport’s relatively compact size. The walk from even the furthest parking spot is brief and the waiting area doesn’t have the headspinning feeling that you’ve been dumped in a shopping centre that never closes.

We flew out on a Saturday morning during the Easter holidays and, with the new EU entry/exit system rolling out and some talk circulating of lengthy delays in other destinations, feared we might be in for a wait when we landed.

Quite the opposite was the case – we breezed through the airport in a matter of minutes and were swiftly aboard a coach for a slick transfer to our resort.

While there were plenty of staff about to help, I also learned you could simply locate your bus stop using the Tui app and head straight there. With free wifi in the airport, it’s a handy hack if you have a family who also all want to use the toilet before hopping on the bus.

The island itself is an object lesson in making the very best of the advantages a location has to offer.

The majestic, hulking volcano craters (many of which can be hiked if you’re feeling intrepid) tower alongside the well-maintained main roads. The towns hum with classic tourist trappings of restaurants and bars and ice cream parlours, and the sandy beaches stretch off towards turquoise waters.

The drive up to the north of the island takes you by Parque Natural de Corralejo, treating you first to the blood-red craters before they give way to the huge natural park which offers the biggest dune spread in the whole of the Canary Islands. If you happen to be exploring on foot on a particularly windy day, the regular stone circles, especially close to the coast, offer a great place to shelter.

Examples like that are indicative of the thoughtful way everyone responds to the constant breezes and winds. Hotels are generally designed as low-rise buildings that provide screening for pool areas, so unless it’s particularly pronounced, it’s unlikely to be something that’s going to bug you.

Indeed, it’ll help take the edge off the hotter days, especially if you have young kids or travelers who can’t tolerate excessive heat. I’m sure this will be a particular advantage during the summer months, where temperatures tend to sit between 25C and 30C, and often into the 30s in August.

If you’re not up for lounging on a beach or by the pool every day, and hiking a mountain or tackling the dunes seems a bit of an effort when you’re on holiday, Tui Musement offers a huge range of activities with everything from deluxe catamaran trips to snorkelling, surfing, and water park or wildlife visits.

We took a two-hour dolphin-watching trip on a glass-bottomed boat (from £40 for adults and £26 for kids including return travel from resorts) and it was one of the highlights of our week away.

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After dropping off some guests for a trip to Lobos, we ventured further off the coast and had the utter thrill of pretty much a full hour of spotting various pods of dolphins.

Given they tended to be best seen from the front of the boat, we stuck to either the top floor or the main deck, where people at the front in particular got a ringside seat to some water-borne theatrics. It was easy to move around and the crew were great at making sure everyone got plenty of a chance to take it in.

It was hard to believe, after a dismal Welsh spring where it seemed to feel like any break from the monsoon was a cherished gift, that we were less than four hours from home on an island with nearly 150km of beaches and able to relax in short sleeves in early April.

The only downside of such a lovely break is the reality check of having to come home and face decisions bigger than which ice cream to have on a given day. Thankfully, after another bang-on-time transfer, we found Fuerteventura airport had multiple kids’ play areas that helped make your getaway less painful than it might otherwise be.

On the flight home, I looked again at the list of year-round summer locations I’d been promised while I was away.

Yes, the Maldives is on my bucket list, but right now I don’t have a kidney to sell to fund it. Long-haul trips, aside from the cost, are difficult if you’re confined to school holidays or take out a fair bit of your holiday if you’re doing just a week away. And, as mentioned before, recent world events have put something of a question mark over some destinations.

This new Tui Cardiff to Fuerteventura route, though, has just opened the door to year-round affordable summer weather with something to suit everyone, from the adventure traveler to the person who wants to fly and flop.

So now that the decision’s made, all I have to think about is which ice cream I’ll have first.