Luxurious lazing, loafing and lolling around in Lanzarote

Through the elevated spa window I fix my gaze on the northernmost tip of Fuerteventura as the cascading water relentlessly pounds my shoulders.

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I'm in the Barceló Playa Blanca Hotel spa and the swan faucet, looming over me like a mini War of The Worlds spacecraft, is easing out any remaining stress I may have built up at work prior to my arrival at this vast resort in the south of Lanzarote. The spa's water circuit has proved incredibly relaxing and metaphorically sums up my week in this amazing four-star hotel.

I make no excuses as this was always intended to be a relaxing break for us, with lazing, lolling and loafing about aplenty - and what an amazing place to be so languid in.

This sumptuous resort - less than two years old - ought, in my opinion, to be given the extra star nod, given its cinquo estrellas feel. Elegant buildings utilise clean white stucco atop laser-cut volcanic brickwork, with saw-toothed island rocks forming the perimeters of the wide, wheelchair-accessible pathways and cacti of all shapes and sizes puncturing the otherwise clinical linear design.

We were staying in the Royal Level part of the hotel, a designated adults-only annexe with its own awe-inspiring and heated 50m infinity pool, bar and aptly-named Magical restaurant all overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean strait between the two islands.