Since 01/01/06 new smoking laws were passed in Lanzarote.  Much like Ireland and the UK the new bans are affecting all the Bar and Restaurants.

However, the laws which are still a little more relaxed seem to be ignored by many.

The new laws

Bars ‘under’ 100 sq feet have a choice, smoking or no smoking.  If they are no smoking then nothing else changes, if they are smoking then ALL children under the age of 18 are not allowed in the bar.

Restaurants are the same if they are under the specific size.

Bars and Restaurants over 100 sq feet have the same choice.  If they are no smoking then again nothing else changes but if they decide to be smoking, then they need a room, blocked off from the main area in which people can smoke.

All bars and restaurants on the Islands were given  until September to make the changes but a report from the town hall show not a single bar or restaurant over 100 sq feet has applied for a new licence yet.

If you are visiting and are wondering whether a bar/restaurant is smoking or no-smoking, they should all have a sign visable from the out side stating which way they went.

Lidl is a well know Supermarket and known for there cheap no frills approch has been granted a licence to open a shop in Lanzarote.

The Lidl shop will hopefully open in the middle of 2008 in Arrecife and provide parking for around 120 cars on a plot of land over 1000 sq meters.

Nexus Airways, which I reported about on June 26th Has e-mail us with an update on the situation with there cheap flights to Lanzarote. Below is part of the e-mail:-

“we are hoping to have everything finalised in the next week or two and we’ll then be confirming dates for the start of operations. At present the plan is to have the operation begin fully in May, with flights to several destinations, however we are still hoping to launch a single weekly Lanzarote service around Christmas time, this will be mainly dependant on how quickly we can move with things such as booking engines etc”

Lanzarote still does not really have any cheap flights to Lanzarote but with the start of Jet2.com and hopefully Nexus Airways before Christmas we may see a change in flights from the main companies flying to Lanzarote.

Nexus Airways have confirmed they will keep LanzaroteTourist.com informed of any changes so check back for the latest news.

We have finally got around to picking a winner of the September competition, the winner was John Hayton with his article on Cesar Manrique, John will be picking up his vouchers on his next visit. This article was picked by Duncan and Susan who live on the island and run a Motor Yatch training and charter business on the Island so be sure to look at there site.

We have another competition now running and is much easier to enter, simply answer two questions (answers can be found on the web site).  If you would like to enter please visit the October Competition and answer the question(s).

We have also got some offical LanzaroteTourist.com T-shirts to be given away to a random entry for this competition.

A while ago I reported that Easy Jet would not fly to Lanzarote, the offical responce I got was reported here. 

There is now a rumour that Easy Jet might start flying from the South of England in the near future.

The reason they do not fly to the Canary Islands is because they only carry enough fuel to fly 4 hours.  Although it normally takes 4 hours to fly to Lanzarote it can take under this when coming from airports in the South.

IF Easy Jet do start flying to Lanzarote this will hopefully be the third cheap airline to come to the Island and hopefully the start of cheap flights.