There’s nothing like family time but we all need a bit of me time on holiday too. Step forward the hotel that nails both without short-changing anyone

Going on holiday with young children can often feel like an all-or-nothing scenario.

You let them stay up extra-late one night to see a show or musician, and all of a sudden, they think sweets at 10pm and bed by midnight is a holiday norm. The extra ice cream, even though you know there’ll be more later, isn’t treated as a one-off, but a daily divine right.

When it comes to kids’ clubs, off they go on their merry way to develop their own holiday hinterland for however many hours a day, leaving you free to chill. If you don’t go down the kids’ club route, then you’re most likely trying to divvy up your time between being chief entertainer and having a good time yourself.

But on the perma-sun-kissed island of Fuerteventura, I think I’ve found the hotel with the perfect middle ground that gives kids bags of freedom and entertainment, while offering adults the chance to relax – without the need to commit to a kids’ club.

READ MORE: Beautiful Welsh market town packed with independent shops is one of UK’s ‘best places to live’READ MORE: Abandoned Welsh village being reclaimed by nature that’s ‘vast and wild’

Barcelo Corralejo Sands, to the northeast of the year-round holiday isle that’s now got a direct Tui weekly route from Cardiff Airport, doesn’t set its stall out as a place geared purely towards families, nor as a bolthole for frazzled grown-ups.

Rather than feeling like it has no identity or isn’t sure what it is meant to be, this place feels like an optimum stay for families, solo travellers, and couples of any age.

The main reason for this is a fantastic design that maximises the compact footprint of the site by putting the two pool areas within an easy line of sight of one another down a thoroughfare bordered by accommodation on either side.

It means there are no distractions between one side and the other – if you’re on a child-free getaway or couples’ holiday, you can lounge by the larger main pool (where kids can also swim, play, and use floats) in what we found was generally a very relaxed and quiet atmosphere.

Meanwhile, a matter of seconds away is a genuinely exceptional environment for children.

There’s a shallow pool with two slides – one smaller and designed like a humpback whale that would be suitable for even the youngest of kids, and another part of a pirate ship setup that was easily safe and accessible (my children are six and nine and used it easily with no help required, though it didn’t stop me from having a go too).

Advertisement

The water, which also features a palm tree waterfall, is only the beginning of the fun. There’s a generously-sized climbing frame suitable for toddlers, a set of football goals and a spacious enough area for kids to play games of two v two or three on three, table football, a table tennis table, and also a pool table (this is chargeable, though, at €2 (£1.73) per game). And there’s a small classroom-like building filled with things like toys, such as a role-play kitchen and colouring (not to mention offering shade).

Combine it with a set of nearby loungers around the water, access to both the bar and your room, and you’ve essentially got all you need to satisfy everyone for a full day in the sun.

Kids can play freely and easily make friends. Provided your child is old enough, you can take it easy while being on hand to splash around in the water, act as cannon fodder in goal, or take them on in one of the tabletop games.

Advertisement

If you want to divide and conquer, one thing we found ideal was setting up a lounger or two at each pool within line of sight of one another.

That meant when one child wanted to sit in the whirlpool jets of the bigger pool while another wanted to play with their new friends or take some time in the shade to do colouring, we could easily do those things while both of us adults got the chance to do as we pleased too. The kids moved so easily between us.

In purely logistical terms, Barcelo Corralejo Sands is a complete delight. It feels like you can get the best of all worlds as a family with the absolute minimum of stress and effort.

All that would count for a lot less, though, if the rest of the hotel did not rise to the same levels. Thankfully, it does in just the same non-showy way as it bills itself.

It’s elegant and classy without being overblown or fussy. The staff are discreet, friendly, and almost without exception absolutely lovely and willing to help. Our poolside suite was light, airy and comfortably spacious for four, even with the ‘lounge’ area having been converted into a second bedroom.

The balcony was large and sheltered and, on our side of the pool, the staggered design of the building meant it was completely private from the neighbouring room.

There were lots of neat points of attention to detail, such as the provision of cute bathroom sets for the children, and handy features like the use of beach/pool towels and the use of a mini fridge to keep any drinks you buy off-site cool (do note, though, that if you want to use the in-room safe you’ll be charged a daily rate).

We stayed on a half-board basis and loved the array of included daily options for breakfast. It felt particularly decadent to start the day with cava, smoked salmon, and capers, as well as the nightly themes for cuisine from around the world (Spanish, Canarian, and Arabic being my particular highlights).

Bottles of wine ranged between roughly €20 (£17) and €30 (we sampled a very tasty Mar de Frades Albarino over dinner one night – would recommend), and a large beer was €3.80 at the time of our visit.

We aimed, though generally failed, to have eaten by the start of the mini disco in the bar each night at 8pm. If I were being picky, I’d say this could maybe have run a shade longer than 15-20 minutes, and perhaps the setlist could have been mixed up, though full marks for the Europop hits.

Advertisement

Part of the reason for its brevity, though, was the nightly bingo at 8.30pm. This was genuinely pacy and fun for all ages, and had us all laughing on several occasions.

Each night, there was a musician or another type of performer on at 9pm. The resort, tucked away neatly down a side street, was only a matter of minutes on foot from the buzzy bars and famed ‘music square’ of Corralejo town.

It’s an easy walk to an array of different beaches, too, though we generally preferred the relaxed vibes and on-tap fun of being around the pool, which doubled up with the advantage of the buildings offering screening from the island’s famous breeze.

If you want to take a day or two further afield, there are plenty of boat trips and excursions on offer.

We took a dolphin-spotting trip through Tui Musement (from £132 for a family of four, based on two adults and two children), and we were so glad we did peel ourselves away from the pool to do so because it was a mesmerizing experience to see those beautiful creatures at such close quarters.

Put together with the island’s year-round sunny climate (roughly 320 days of sun a year means you’d be very unlucky to have more than a glum day or two, no matter when you visited) and a delightful setting, and in Barcelo Corralejo Sands we’ve found a family holiday spot that could easily become a go-to.

Emergency services are currently responding to an incident in the Gilmerton area of the capital.

A residential area in Edinburgh has been locked down this evening amidst an ‘ongoing incident’. Riot police were spotted on Hyvot Green in the Gilmerton area of the city at around 3.15pm on Wednesday, May 6.

Emergency services are understood to have been responding to reports of concern for a person and a cordon has been put up around a block of flats. The exact nature of the incident is currently unknown.

According to one local resident, around nine police vehicles were in attendance. Speaking to our sister title Edinburgh Live, one person said that an individual was allegedly “throwing and kicking items out a window”.

Pictures taken from the scene show the huge response as worried locals watch on. Officers can be seen on the top floor of a block of flats.

One worried onlooker said: “The flats at the end of Hyvot Green have all been cordoned off by police, there’s about nine police vehicles there too with officers stationed outside the flats.

“I don’t know what’s happened but I saw a woman in the back of a police van and there’s ambulance here too. It seems like there’s a lot of officers here so it’s quite worrying. I hope everyone is okay.”

Police Scotland were contacted for comment.

Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google’s preferred sources. Click HERE.

The European fishing fleet has long been a powerhouse at catching tuna, with a fleet of massive vessels known as purse seiners that can hold as much as 4 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms) of fish at a time. Dozens of them roam the Indian Ocean, fishing for skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna destined for cans on grocery store shelves.

So when Jess Rattle began seeing purse seine ships fishing the Indian Ocean under the flags of Mauritius, Tanzania and Oman, she wondered whether European corporations might be involved.

“We wanted to understand who really owned these vessels,” said Rattle, head of investigations at the London-based environmental charity Blue Marine Foundation. “Were they owned by the coastal states whose quota they were now using, or in fact, were they owned by the EU?”

A new report released Thursday by the Blue Marine Foundation and Kroll, a global investigations firm, and shared with The Associated Press in advance reveals the extent of the European fleet’s access to Indian Ocean tuna stocks, finding that European companies have taken a third of the tropical tuna catch at a time when yellowfin and bigeye tuna are under pressure and still rebounding from being severely overfished.

They have done so in part by registering their ships under the flags of the Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Oman to gain access to a greater catch limit, Rattle’s team found. The practice has allowed the European-owned fleet to expand to more than 50 purse seine ships and supply vessels and increase its catch of tropical tuna despite the European Union’s commitments to cutting back.

The finding comes ahead of an annual meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission in the Maldives, which brings together the EU and 28 countries with a stake in the tuna fishery.

While common in the fishing industry and not illegal, reflagging a vessel to a foreign country makes it difficult for observers and regulators to gauge the impact of European companies on the fishery. Parent company ownership is often obscured via layers of shell companies and foreign registries, which Rattle and the team at Kroll tracked down over the course of months.

Though European companies have long fished under the Seychelles flag, Rattle said, their registering under the flags of Oman and Kenya is new. Europeche Tuna Group, which represents the European tuna industry, said in a statement that the industry’s relationship with coastal nations reflects its long-term investment in the region and strong local partnerships.

Spokesperson Anne-France Mattlet said the European industry benefits the economy of regional countries by paying taxes and fishing license fees, investing in local infrastructure, and unloading tuna and other fish in their ports and canneries.

Mattlet concurred with the report’s findings that Europeche has more than 50 purse seine and supply ships operating throughout the Indian Ocean, including with non-EU flags.

Maciej Berestecki, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said in a statement the reflagging of fishing vessels is a private business decision not influenced by public authorities, and that the EU does not defend or represent the interests of vessels flagged to other countries.

“The EU has done, and keeps doing, its utmost to promote and respect catch limits,” Berestecki said.

Despite Europe’s distance from the Indian Ocean, its fishing fleets have long played a dominant role there. Spanish and French tuna companies first introduced purse seine ships to the Indian Ocean in the 1980s, which allowed them to quickly increase their yearly catch. The ships get their name from their giant nets that encircle the tuna and close like a drawstring purse.

But the EU has occasionally butted heads with coastal nations that want a say over the fishing practices in the ocean at their doorstep.

Five years ago, with yellowfin tuna stocks in sharp decline, the Maldives accused the EU of not putting forth a serious proposal to lower tuna quotas at a contentious meeting of the tuna commission. In 2023, the EU objected to a proposal from Indonesia for a closure on purse seine fishing gear that passed with the support of 15 other countries.

In recent years, the tuna commission has put in place new management measures to rebuild the vulnerable yellowfin and bigeye tuna stocks, which are beginning to show signs of recovering. For instance, the EU agreed to reduce the yellowfin tuna catch for EU-flagged vessels by 21%.

Those new limits may be pushing European fishing companies to look to other countries’ quotas to maintain their catch, said Glen Holmes, senior officer with Pew Charitable Trusts.

Holmes and colleagues from Pew, Global Fishing Watch, and other environmental groups are advocating for greater ownership transparency among fishing fleets in the Indian Ocean.

Shipowners have long registered vessels under the flags of foreign countries, much to the dismay of transparency advocates, who say the practice limits oversight of those ships. Sanctioned oil tankers in the ‘ghost fleet’, for instance, frequently change their name and flags to conceal their ownership.

Certain flags have become known as ‘flags of convenience,’ offering companies low fees and lenient attitudes toward fishing or trade rules. Some countries may simply have fewer resources to enforce the laws of the sea.

A January report by the environmental group Oceana found European companies routinely register fishing vessels under the flags of foreign nations, including some countries the EU has accused of “turning a blind eye to illegal fishing activities.”

Oceana is calling on EU countries to begin collecting and publishing ownership data for their fishing fleet.

The change would help the EU better enforce its own laws, which prevent any European individual from benefiting financially from the practices of illegal fishing, said Vanya Vulperhorst, Oceana’s illegal fishing campaign director for Europe. And it would shed light on “the real EU fleet,” she said.

“What we found last year is that the real European fleet, if you add the non-EU flagged vessels, doubles,” Vulperhorst said.

___ This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___ Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

Micheal Martin is set to meet with political leaders at Stormont, as well as with business leaders, and engage with Women’s Aid.

Advertisement

Irish premier Micheal Martin has vowed to continue working towards reconciliation and mutual trust ahead of a visit to Belfast.

The Taoiseach is set to meet with political leaders at Stormont, as well as with business leaders, and engage with Women’s Aid.

He will also mark the signing of a €700 million (£604m) contract for a new fleet of cross border trains.

READ MORE: Revealed: The 18-point plan to prevent future Stormont collapseREAD MORE: Economy Minister to ‘step in’ to ensure PlaceNames project continues

Later, Mr Martin is to deliver the Lord David Trimble Lecture 2026 at Queen’s University Belfast.

Speaking ahead of his visit, the Taoiseach said he is pleased to be returning to Belfast.

“My visit includes multiple opportunities to hear directly from political, business and civic leaders and to discuss ongoing and evolving all-island priorities which benefit us all,” he said.

“I am also pleased to be delivering the Lord David Trimble Lecture in Queen’s University. David played a critical role in the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement.

“The principles and purpose of the Agreement remain central to what my Government does and how we foster relationships across these islands.”

He added: “I am committed to continuing to work toward reconciliation and mutual trust, as we collectively set out to do in 1998, including through the Shared Island Initiative.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Vehicular and pedestrian access will be permitted where practical during the closures.

Wishaw drivers are being warned of roadworks over the coming weeks.

The A721 Wishaw Road in Waterloo will be closed from May 25 to 29 for carriageway surfacing works to be carried out.

Vehicular and pedestrian access will be permitted where practical during the closure.

Vehicles on the east side of the closure wishing to access the west side should proceed via A721 Wishaw Road, A73 Main Street, A71 Overtown Road and A721 Wishaw Road.

Vehicles on the west side of the closure wishing to access the east side should proceed vice versa.

Meanwhile, Larchfield Crescent in Coltness, at the Duns Crescent junction, will have temporary restrictions due to footway patching works.

Vehicles on east side of the closure wishing to access the west side should proceed via Larchfield Crescent, Coulter Avenue, Lyman Drive, Coltness Road, North Kilmeny Crescent and Duns Crescent. Vehicles on the west side wishing to access the east side should proceed vice versa.

*Don’t miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.

And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.

READ MORE: Accounts firm marks its 25th year in business with landmark Motherwell HQ