The catch at Corralejo Surfing Colors Hotel & Apartments

Calle Pejín is a residential street in the north-west of Corralejo, between the town and the reefs of the Bristol coast. The nearest beach, a small one by the harbour, is 8 minutes on foot; the Lobos ferry quay is 16 minutes and the beach bars of the town front about 17. The long white beaches of the Grandes Playas dunes are a 14-minute drive. Bristol itself, 20 minutes' walk along the coast, is a reef break over volcanic rock for surfers who already surf, not a swimming beach, and there are no services there.

The entry Surfing Room is about 26 m², with twin beds, a single sofa bed, a mini fridge with a freezer and a balcony over the street. It has a ceiling fan, not air conditioning. Air conditioning starts with the Sky Pool rooms, which look over the pool, and the Sky Sea View adds a side view of the sea for about €12 a night more than the Surfing Room on a June night. The Sweet Home apartments are cooled by a ceiling fan too, and the Sweet Home City version faces the street.

On most rates the room is cleaned every other day, not daily. The Sweet Home apartments and the rates sold without cleaning are cleaned on arrival and on departure only, with towels changed twice a week and bed linen once a week on request. Daily cleaning comes with one category, the Sky Suite. The rooms themselves are kept spotless by the housekeeping team; it is the rhythm that surprises people who expect a hotel to make up the room every morning.

The hotel sells three- and five-day surf packages on its own site, but the lessons are given by Protest Surf Center, an independent Corralejo school with its shop elsewhere in town. Once you book, your details go to the school, and the exact days are agreed with the school, not the hotel; the date chosen on the hotel's site does not hold a place. The school collects pupils from the hotel, supplies the board, wetsuit and insurance and picks the beach each day to suit your level. The kite packages are booked with Fuerte Active, a Corralejo kite school. The hotel lists no board store, board hire or rinse area of its own.

The hotel serves a breakfast buffet and runs a bar and a pool snack bar for smoothies, homemade pizzas, sandwiches and hot dogs, with a weekly paella or barbecue and live music. It has no restaurant for dinner, and no rate includes more than breakfast. That suits a surf week well, since the old town and the harbour are 7 to 10 minutes away on foot, with rice, fish and tapas within that walk, but anyone expecting half board or an evening buffet will not find one.