GRAN CANARIA

With an average year-round temperature of 25 degrees, Gran Canaria is blessed with one of the best climates in the world so you can play in January as much as in July though it’s likely to be more comfortable in the former. The island is also on GMT time so there’s no need to change your watch.

The island is a recent winner of IAGTO’S coveted European Destination of the Year award and most courses can be found in the south of the island, including the Sheraton Salobre Golf Resort & Spa, home of the Old and New layouts and the only 36-hole golf complex in the Canaries.

The Old is approaching its 20th anniversary and has a terrific variety of holes while the rugged lunar landscape of the New must be like playing on the moon. It’ll almost certainly be the quirkiest and most dramatic round you’ve ever played starting with a wickedly twisting dogleg downhiller with the green perched on the other side of a gaping ravine.

Short drives away are Maspalomas, a former European Tour venue and a splendidly mature palm tree-lined layout, the Ron Kirkbydesigned Meloneras and Anfi Tauro, a sensational desert-style Robert Von Hagge layout close to the sea and plotted in a valley overlooked by mountains and rivalling Salobre as the island’s most spectacular venue.

Another strong candidate for that title is the historic Real Club de Golf Las Palmas - more simply known as Bandama – which was founded in 1891, making it Spain’s oldest golf club. Overlooked by a quaint, rustic clubhouse it weaves its way in a valley between the mountains and alongside the crater of an extinct volcano, providing out-of-this-world views. If you’re there in the off-season you might even bump into Ryder Cup star Rafa Cabrera Bello, who learnt to play here and still visits when he is home.