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Getting to the Royal Mónica

From Lanzarote airport to Playa Blanca it is half an hour's drive south, with the sea at the end and Fuerteventura across the water. The Papagayo coves lie just beyond, down a track. Here is the way, in six stages: scroll and follow it.

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Lanzarote airport

30 min · 36 km

You land at Lanzarote (ACE), the island's only airport, on the outskirts of Arrecife. From the terminal you join the LZ-2, the road that runs down to the south: half an hour and thirty-six kilometres to Playa Blanca, by car or by transfer, and it is the same road the whole way.

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The road south

via Tías, Uga and Yaiza

From the coast the LZ-2 climbs to Tías and runs along the high ground of the island: it skirts Uga, where the vines of La Geria grow in hollows dug into black ash, and Yaiza, where the lava of 1730 stopped, with the volcanoes of Timanfaya on the right. Past Yaiza the road drops towards the Rubicón plain, the southern corner of Lanzarote: on the left the massif of Los Ajaches, a natural monument with the coves hidden behind it; ahead, the Bocaina strait with Fuerteventura beyond, and Playa Blanca below, beside its harbour and its marina.

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The house, at Playa Blanca

the island's southern tip

You cross Playa Blanca to its western end, where the house stands: two hundred and fifteen rooms in five low buildings set around the pools, with the sea in front and Fuerteventura beyond. This is the southern tip of Lanzarote, the corner that catches least of the northern wind and has sun nearly every day of the year; the hotel closes on none of them.

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The Papagayo coves

an unpaved track

From the house you retrace the road to the far side of town and pass Marina Rubicón; there the tarmac ends and the last kilometres are a dirt track inside the Los Ajaches Natural Monument. At the end, the coves: pale sand, turquoise water and no development around them. Kayaking, snorkelling and swimming are on the hotel's list, and the hotel tells it its own way: you can reach Papagayo without a car.

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From the airport to the southern tip

Half an hour's drive through the south of Lanzarote, with the sea and Fuerteventura at the end, and the Papagayo coves a short track away. The rest is the house: its rooms, its three pools. And if there are dates in mind, they can be asked about right here.