Things To Do in Jandia

Located at the beginning of the Morro Jable promenade, right in front of the beach, this restaurant prides itself on serving high-quality classic dishes. Specialities include lightly-battered calamari and grilled swordfish steak. The mains are served with potatoes drenched in creamy mojo sauce, and the almond liqueur to round off your meal is usually on the house.

The soft sand that lines Playa de Mattoral gives way to salt marshes, which is how the place got its name – it’s literally translated as ‘thicket beach’. Watersports enthusiasts are well looked after here, with windsurfs to hire and diving trips to sign up for. It’s worth remembering the beach’s unwritten rule – naturists to the east of the white lighthouse, swimming costume wearers to the west.

If it’s an intimate spot for a quiet drink you’re after, there are few places better than this small bar. The owner, Roberto, has been proudly running the joint for 25 years. There are 4 varieties of lager on tap, including German and Spanish brews, and if you want to catch the summer season of sport, the bar has a big screen so you won’t miss a second.

This wide, palm-lined avenue that joins Jandia to Morro Jable is peppered with outlets. Surf and skate wear are easy to come by, with a Carhartt concession store as well as Hodge Podge, a trendy surf shop. You’ll also find Esprit and a Macy’s selling this season’s must-haves. And the best part? Everything is tax-free.

The promenade behind Playa de Mattoral is where you’ll find fish restaurants that are leagues ahead of the competition. Try the chargrilled tuna fish or the swordfish. Be warned, they’re served in whale-sized portions, so you might want to share. Give one of the Canarian wines a try, too. The Listan Blanco is a good bet.

It’s tax-free shopping here, so you might want to stock up on perfumes and brand-name spirits at the retail spots in the large Cosmo shopping centre and down on the waterfront. They do a good line in electrical bits too, while souvenir-wise you’ve got locally-made aloe vera creams and balms.

On the main stretch of road running between Jandia and Morro Jable, you’ve got a mix of Spanish- and German-owned bars serving up cheesy tunes and karaoke with occasional live Canarian music. You also get Brit pubs and surfers’ haunts around the Cosmo shopping centre. And from here, a 5-minute walk gets you to the Mafasca Disco for late-night drinks and dancing.

Head uphill to the old town of Morro Jable. Here you’ve got traditional restaurants and seafood spots serving up the real deal – octopus, skate and red snapper, battered and fried. Try the patatas mojos, too – sweet island potatoes covered in spicy sauce. And if you’re going for tapas, be sure to order the Majorero goat’s cheese.

This wildlife park, 7 kilometres outside Jandia, has something for the whole family. The zoo is home to a large number of animals, including an African safari of elephants, monkeys and giraffes. You can steal a kiss from a sea lion around the pool area, watch the skateboarding parrots, or saddle up for a bumpy 40-minute camel ride, which provides aerial views of the surrounding landscape.

Just opposite Jandia’s resident lighthouse, this friendly Brit bar is a real home from home. Drinks-wise, it does a good line-up of beers, ciders and Guinness, while on the entertainment front you’ve got large screen TVs to catch up with all the footie games. And if you’re feeling peckish, the place does burgers and fish ’n’ chips.

If the wild and rugged 40-minute drive to Jandia Peninsula’s western coastline doesn’t get your heart racing, dramatic Cofete beach most certainly will. It’s a huge expanse of golden beach, sandwiched between the rolling Atlantic and a peaked volcanic ridgeline. As for crowds, keep walking and chances are yours will be the only footprints around.

Jandia is pretty laid-back, so the party antics are generally kept under a lid. But if you do want to let your hair down, there’s an array of music bars, some specialising in salsa and merengue, others serving up funk and hip-hop. The Cosmo shopping centre, on Avenida Saladar Morro, is where the bulk of them lie, although it’s also worth trying the Atlantica centre.

With its breezy spot and warm Atlantic waters, Jandia is top windsurfing territory. If you’ve never tried it before you can pick up the basics in a day at the watersports centre here, or if you’re up to speed you can just hire out the equipment and go. And if you fancy a change of scene, about 20 minutes away you’ve got a big surfers’ hangout at Sotavento.

Once a year, Playa de Sotavento becomes the destination for the world’s elite windsurfers and kite-surfers who converge here for this hotly-contested competition that includes slalom and freestyle events. The beach is just a 20-minute drive up the coast from Jandia, and you can easily catch the action while nibbling on tapas at one of the promenade-side cafes.