Club La Santa — All Sports Inclusive Training Resort, Lanzarote

Club La Santa is the reason a certain kind of athlete keeps going back to Lanzarote. It is not a hotel with a gym attached: it is a 75,000 m2 sports resort on the island's north-west coast, built around a saltwater lagoon, where more than 80 sports facilities and over 500 weekly activities are included in what you have already paid.

The headline numbers are unusual enough to be worth stating plainly. Three 50-metre heated outdoor pools, 24 lanes between them. A CONIPUR Vmax running track. Eight tennis courts open from 07:00 to 22:00. Eleven badminton courts across two indoor halls. Four squash courts. Padel, basketball indoors and out, an 18-hole putting green with a driving and chipping range, two TrackMan indoor golf simulators, and a 15-hole mini golf course. A fitness centre with cardio equipment, weight-lifting machines and free weights.

What makes it work is the "All Sports Inclusive" model. Access to the facilities and the full weekly activity programme comes with the accommodation, along with instruction from the resort's Green Team. You are not buying a package with a fixed timetable everyone follows — you are buying the run of the place and deciding each morning what you feel like doing.

That suits three groups particularly well. Triathletes and runners come for the pools, the track and the traffic-light cycling out into the volcanic interior. Team and club groups come because the facilities absorb thirty people without anyone queuing. And families come because the same booking that gets one parent a structured training week gets the other a lagoon, a Kids Club and a spa.

Lanzarote itself is the quiet argument for the place. The trade winds keep it training-temperate year round, the roads are open and well surfaced, and the volcanic landscape means the cycling is genuinely hard when you want it to be. It is a four-hour flight from most of northern Europe to a place where January is warm enough to swim outdoors.

What's included

Self-catering apartment or suite accommodation; All Sports Inclusive access to 80+ sports facilities; the full weekly activity programme of 500+ activities; instruction from the resort Green Team; three 50 m heated pools (24 lanes) and a leisure pool; the CONIPUR Vmax running track; tennis, badminton, squash, padel and basketball courts; golf practice facilities and TrackMan simulators; the fitness centre; and evening entertainment.

What's not included

Flights and airport transfers; meals and drinks (apartments are self-catering, with restaurants on site); spa and wellness treatments; Kids Club; bike hire and specialist equipment rental; travel insurance; and excursions off the resort.