MYND Yaiza Hotel in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote – Reviews

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post with Jet2 Holidays, visiting Mynd Yaiza hotel.

Is Lanzarote Worth Visiting?

The short answer is YES! Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands, around a 4-5 hour flight from UK airports. Each of the Canary Islands has it’s owin charm and are all a little different in their appearances. Although all of the Canary Islands are volcanic, Lanzarote looks like another world! Due to its vast old rocky lava flows and ash fields in the local landscapes. Very little vegetation grows here without some hard work by the land owners! You will be glad to know that there are plenty of places to stop to taste the Lanzarote wines. These are grown in little depressions in the barren ground. Really interesting to see how they grow and of course wine tasting is fun for the adults.

Aside the wine you will find plenty of other places to visit, from stunning beaches, to Caesar Manrique’s architecture and of course volcanic activity in the National park. I list all the fantastic activities to do here further down thIs article.  But to re-iterate my answer above, YES, you should definitely visit Lanzarote! Read more about the island and Mynd Yaiza below for some happy holidays in the Canaries!

How to Get to Lanzarote From The UK?

There are many direct flights to Lanzarote airport (Arrecife) from the UK. We flew with Jet2, with flights from Edinburgh airport to Lanzarote. They also have direct flights to Lanzarote from Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, London Stansted, Birmingham, Leeds, East Midlands, Newcastle, Belfast and Liverpool. At an over 4-hour flight from Scotland it’s not too bad a journey. Especially when you like warm weather in the UK autumn and winter months. Jet2 have great deals on all-inclusive holidays or half board in Lanzarote, so check out family holidays to Lanzarote with Jet2holidays rather than just flights.

It’s also possible to take a ferry to Lanzarote from mainland Spain. It’s a 27 hour and 30 minutes ferry from either Cadiz or Huelva. A great idea if you have plenty of time, but from the North of the UK, with limited holiday days it would just take too long to travel this way for us.   

Where is MYND Yaiza Hotel Located?

You can find Mynd Yaiza hotel in Playa Blanca, on the Southern coast of Lanzarote, a short walk from Playa Blanca beach. It’s easy to get to from the airport, only a 30 minute drive along the main roads.  If you choose a Jet2 holiday, like ourselves, a coach transfer is also included as part of the package (you can opt out if you choose to hire a car). It’s really easy and the Jet2 staff guide you to where the coaches are at the airport and then to the correct bus for your hotel. Makes it a lot easier when you arrive later in the evening and don’t feel like driving a hire car!

Of course Jet2holidays provide options of other hotels in Lanzarote too, this is just the one we chose to stay at ourselves. I’ll explain below why I’m happy with Mynd Yaiza, but there are other hotel options for all budgets.

It’s only around 10 minutes walk to Marina Rubicon from the hotel and an even shorter walk to the nearest beach!

What to Expect at MYND Yaiza Hotel, Playa Blanca

Once you arrive at the 4-star hotel you will need to get yourself checked in and collect your room card. As Mynd Yaiza hotel is located at the back of Playa Blanca, it’s one of the first hotels that the coach transfer drops off at. Making it really quick and easy to get to.

Check-In

The check-in at Mynd Yaiza Playa Blanca is a self check-in. You are also able to fill in some check-in details online in advance, although I didn’t realise this! You will need your booking reference handy to type into the computer screen on arrival.  Then once you have scanned all your passports you should get a room key issued from the box beside the screens. Don’t forget to check the room number that flashes up on the screen before you press finish! I have to admit that I almost didn’t register the first room number, whoops!

The Rooms

There are a large range of types of rooms depending on your requirements, all with air conditioning. We chose a double pool view family room, which was two adjoining rooms with interconnecting door. One room had a double bed and the other two single beds. You could also change the layout if you wanted to push a single bed up against another to make a double. There are both ground floor and upper floor rooms. With the upstairs rooms requiring the use of stairs to access. The ground floor rooms could be accessed via a long sloping path if you can’t manage steps. There are also plenty of other room options from superior suite with small private pool and garden area to a family room with double bed and sofa bed. One of the largest rooms of Mynd Yaiza are the Superior suite with private pool.

Both our rooms were perfectly clean, with lovely notes on the mirrors from the cleaning staff. There are also large screens showing lava flowing from a volcano between the bed and bathroom areas. The only thing we weren’t so sure about were the rather transparent toilet door and wall, if you put the light on you can see quite clearly what the person is doing! This didn’t detract from our stay, however, it was just a strange choice of material for a bathroom.

There is also a safe, hair dryer and a flat-screen tv in each of the bedrooms. We didn’t use ours, but I believe they can be set as alarms, ours went on randomly on our last morning at 5am! I have no idea how you set that or stop it, but I’m sure the staff can help. 

Most of the rooms have a views of the pool area, or if you have a private pool, then you have views to that instead.

The Facilities

The main attraction for everyone here is of course the outdoor swimming pool areas. Located in the centre of the beautifully laid out gardens, the pools are where most people congregate. The complex is split into two sides, to the right, as you enter from the reception is the ‘relax’ area and to the left is the ‘family’ area.  Both areas have their own outdoor pool. Two pools on either side, however, the children’s pools also have water slides and splash park in their pool area too.

If you need to use laundry services, you will find a self serve laundry room just behind the kids splash park area. Great if you are travelling light or just have small messy children!

On the relax side of the hotel you will also find the Asana spa and wellness centre and plunge pool, plus gym facilities. The gym is free to use, but you will need to book a time for treatments in the spa at the spa reception area. The spa includes body treatments, family spa treatments, massage and use of their private Turkish bath, just off the spa lounge area.

There are two restaurants in the main building, Lamesa and Lllama, plus a pool bar for snacks/lunch and drinks, plus another bar at the reception area for drinks too. The main restaurant is Lamesa, which is where you can find a buffet breakfast in the morning or sit-down meals at both lunch and dinner.

The hotel also boasts free parking, a small shop, bike hire (it was too hot for us in August, but would be great in cooler months), various activities (we were offered a botanical tour of the gardens and yoga) and a kids play park. There is certainly plenty to keep you busy or relaxed on site!

​Half-Board

One of the many reasons to choose Mynd Yaiza is the flexible half board.  Each person in your group gets 27 Euros an adult or 14 Euros a child each day of your stay to pay for dinner, snacks and drinks.  As it’s half board you don’t feel guilty spending the day out and buying lunch out compared to an all inclusive! It’s also better for the local economy as you are supporting them by buying lunch at local cafes and restaurants. Of course, it’s also possible to buy lunch on-site for an additional charge if you prefer too.

The buffet breakfast is included for no extra charge and is well worth it with the amazing range of options. From hot foods to cheese, ham, bread, pastries and fruit. There is definitely something for everyone!

Before you can use your half board you will first have to gain the half board slip from reception. You should be able to collect this at reception when you check-in. You also need to remember that you can’t use your half-board after 12 O’clock on the day you leave. We didn’t realise this and had planned to spend the remainder on lunch on our last day. However, lunch isn’t available at the hotel until 1pm, so it wasn’t possible to use. This does make it a little awkward when your transfer doesn’t pick you up until 6pm! So try and spend the rest of your credit on your previous day‘s stay.

Sustainability

Mynd Yaiza are a very sustainable hotel, promoting various practices to help look after the environment. The hotel has a water refill station beside the shop, where you can refill your empty water bottles. You can either bring your own bottles (we often bring ours in hand luggage, to fill up at airport water refill) or buy a reusable bottle at the hotel (around 8 Euros).  This along with the reusable cups from the pool and lobby bars is great for reducing the disposable plastic used at the hotel.

Another great practice is to reduce the use of chemicals in room cleaning, by offering an incentive. The incentive is to gain 10 Euro hotel credit per room per day that you don’t have your room cleaned. We ended up with 40 Euros in resort credit for our stay, all of which was spent at the pool bars on alcohol! So definitely a good way to save some money for drinks or snacks. There was also an extra incentive that we noticed at breakfast one morning, which was to swap the days cleaning for a bottle of cava. Not bad really.

Mynd Yaiza donate 20 cents daily for each towel reused at the hotel. This money goes to the Foresta Foundation who are helping to reforest the Canarian forests. Although there are no forests on Lanzarote, there are plenty on the neighbouring Canary Islands, including nearby Tenerife.

You will also find Ocean Beer and Fritz Cola available to buy at the poolside bar and lobby bar. These alliances help care for the environment, for example Ocean beer donate 100% of their profits to save the ocean. 

Kids Activities

There are plenty of kids activities throughout the day at Mynd Yaiza, from Mini Club activities to playing at the pool or water activities at the pool side. Often a staff member visits the parents at the poolside to let them know when an activity is happening. Although sometimes they ask the kids instead and you have no idea when or where they need to go! Later in our stay we found that the screen at reception area has an activity section and should tell you the times of various activities each day. Usually there are 2-3 activities, such as arts or crafts or sports themed around the kids el Patio area during the morning and afternoon. 

In the evening there are kids activities such as a mini disco around the La Crew area. We didn’t realise that there were so many kids activities going, as due to self check-in nobody was there to tell us where we could find these things! It was only after seeing other people using a screen in the reception later on in our stay that we realised that there were other activities. So please do check the screen yourself, there are no signs or noticeboards to tell you all the days activities for kids!

Things To Do In Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca is a small touristic town, mostly made up of hotels and resorts. It’s definitely geared to tourists and so you will find a variety of things to do in the local area.

It’s just a short walk to Marina Rubicon from the hotel. This is the main touristic area of Playa Blanca where you can find various boat trips around the coastline, smart restaurants and a small market. If you would like a day trip by ferry to Fuertaventura then you will need the other port in Playa Blanca. It’s just a short distance west of marina Rubicon. 

Kids will love the Aqualava water park located in Playa Blanca. It’s small, but a lot of fun! You can easily spend the majority of the day here if your kids love slides as much as our do! They have 5 big slides, a smaller kids splash park area, lazy river and wave pool. Plus a snack bar for lunch and lockers to place your items safely.

You can walk from Playa Blanca to the nearest beaches at Papagayo, although if it’s too hot and you have kids it will be better to drive. The beaches are always busy, but there’s plenty of space to place a towel and then enjoy the golden sands and turquoise water. We went to the main Papagayo beach, however, if we were to go again I’d recommend Playa Mujeres, which looked just as nice, but quieter. Bring a snorkel with you if you have one, there are lots of cool fish to see!

For a beach closer to the hotel I would choose Playa Dorada, it’s only a few minutes walk. This little beach is sheltered by a break water, so it’s relatively calm and great for kids. There are also sun loungers to rent, a busy beach bar and restaurants. 

Things To Do Further Afield

Further away from Playa Blanca there are plenty of other fun activities for all ages.  Whether you want to peruse market stalls or learn about volcanos, or just wander around looking at cacti!

I’ve made a list of the top attractions in Lanzarote below (but will have a travel itinerary live soon):

• Timanfaya National Park – Visit the volcanos and witness the heat that is just below the surface. Get there for opening or late in the day if driving yourself (tour buses get priority), otherwise there is a huge queue.
• Volcano Visitor Centre – Just along the road from the National Park entrance you will find this informative visitor centre. It’s free entry, with plenty of information on volcanic activity, the Canary Islands and a small gift shop with affordable souveneirs.
• Dolphin and Whale watching tour – There are lots to choose from, however, I would like to recommend Seasafaris Lanzarote. They were amazing for us, with small, groups, informative and cared for the environment.
• Teguise Market – The market runs on Sundays and is a great place to buy artisan products. It’s also a lovely historic town.
• Jardín de Cactus – Wander around a beautiful garden with more cacti than you can count. Don’t miss the cacti juice from the cafe either.
• Cuevas de los Verdes – Enter into old lava tunnels and find a mirror like lake in the middle of cave system. Beautiful and informative!
• Jameos de Agua – A Caesar Manrique  building, which is beautiful and perfect for instagram photos.
• Mirador del Rio – Also designed by Caesar Manrique, this is mostly an excellent view point from the cliff top to La Graciosa island below.
• La Graciosa – A small island reached via ferry from Orzola in the North of Lanzarote. Perfect for a day trip.
• Lanzarote Aquarium – Located in Teguise and great for kids to explore the underwater world.
• Aquapark Costa Teguise – Another water park in Lanzarote, located further North and a bit bigger than Aqualava.

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