returned from our first visit to puerto del carmen last week and what follows are my thoughts on the resort.initialy we(wife) did our usual research for an hotel/apt although not in the peak of summer we did not want a place up any serious hills,not on the busy strip and possibly around the harbour/old town.we settled on the agua marina apt's even though there's still a bit of noise from the harbour improvements it did not affect our stay,the apt's were fine and would return tommorrow.other apts with good reviews were la penita,bandama bungalows, el dorado and velazquez.

eating out.
we had a list of restaurants beforehand off the web to eat out which had good reviews but in all fairness the variety was huge when we got there.you could go into many places and have a set meal 3 courses for around 9/10 euro's some with a drink, steak for as little as 7 euro's you could eat even cheaper again for your stand alone chicken/lasagne/fish type meals or in the numerous chinese restaurants.if you decided to eat in some of the classier places some around the harbour, a meal for two comprising 2 courses could set you back 40/60 euro's or more with a drink each.so you could if you wish go through a fair bit of cash if you eat out for dinner and an evening meal for the duration of your stay(we visited playa blanca for a day and found less competition when eating and drinking and resulting higher prices on the front, but in all fairness we were only there for a few hours).we ate in the busy bodega restaurant but our best quality meal was in the da vinci restaurant which is to be found on leaving old town, up past casino and its on the same side of the road.
drinking
pdc has its fair share of irish bars(some say 40+) i never once seen a billboard for their drink prices but heard they were on par with the restaurants or more.thats not to say people go to pdc just for a 1.5 or 2 euro pint of lager (which was advertised outside some bars) but remember as in dublin, irish can and will affect your pocket, the only irish bar i found reasonable was the matchmaker bar (the owner actually came around twice with free jameson's whisky shots for all) its in the small precinct(up steps) in the old town.
entertainment
a few bars around the old town had live music i cannot comment on the main drag we did not visit there in the evening.
walks
we both enjoy walking, sorry i should say ambling along and frequently stopping for coffee, drinks or food and not necessary in that order, but you could walk past the harbour up the winding steps initially on a paved path then a coastland path for approx 3 miles to puerto calero marina (via a small gorge). in the opposite direction you could walk 6 miles approx to arrecife (we made it as far as the airport) also along this coastal path you could rent bikes or buggy's if you wished.

for our first visit to lanzarote we were quite pleased with our winter break, we would normally stop in hotels on half board which could perhaps cut down on your food bill. theres problems in finding one in pdc which is not up an hill, there is the idealy situated relatively expensive hotel los fariones but we did not find another?, perhaps someone will come forward with a suggestion, but consider then you would miss the good variety of restaurant food.

our transport from airport was 16 euros by a wild reckless taxi driver who was just interested in getting back to the airport for another fare our return was just the opposite a courteus minibus driver booked through an agency on the strip "last minute travel" for 10 euros.you can also book them online.
our views are solely on what we saw over our week stay
thanks