Meet Our Newest Team Member

We first met Debbie 7 years ago as a guest at Finca de Arrieta, along with her partner Jules (right) and children, Maddie (left) who was then just 7 months old and Jai (who is taking this photo) then 5 years old. They fell in love with the way of life here and came back for holidays on the Finca many times after, becoming friends with everyone here.

Finally in 2010 they waved goodbye to the UK and relocated to Lanzarote. Debbie gave up a high pressure government post and Jules a senior role in a London advertising agency, both choosing a more relaxed life for their family.

Now Debbie has returned to Lanzarote Retreats as our newest team member to help ensure your stay at the Finca is so good that you never want to leave!

For this blog post we asked Debbie what motivated her making the big decision to leave the UK:

“We loved living in the UK but our lives were hectic, we had moved from London to Glasgow back in 2003 when a promotion enabled me to return to my home city, however my partner Jules remained working for a London ad agency and basically commuting back and forth, it was fine, we didn’t have kids then! When our first son Jai was born we adapted to juggling hectic careers, commuting and parenting, then I had my second child Maddie and it became more difficult, I felt we just weren’t giving them the time they deserved.

We had always travelled far and wide but with Maddie as a baby we had to look to a short haul destination for a holiday. I remember saying to Jules that I had found what seemed to be a great place, in Lanzarote, his face dropped at the thought of somewhere that seemed far from exotic lol. However when I showed him the Finca online he came around to the idea. When we both came here we fell in love with this region, the natural beauty, stunning volcanic landscape and of course the amazing beaches, there is really something for everyone, from child friendly Arrieta beach to Europe’s best surfing in Famara and La Santa. Also a total lack of large scale commercial tourism here in the north of the island, so we became hooked. It is funny when you are young and carefree you frown on the idea of going on holiday to the same place more than once, then you have children, experience the perfect holiday and become a bit wiser!!

So we came back many times and made great friendships on the island. After one of many visits we sat in our UK house chatting and realised that the time it took to travel from Glasgow to London by train was the same as the time it took to travel to Lanzarote from the UK! The rest as they say is history, we took the plunge with Jules in the fortunate position that he could work from home needing to be in the UK less. When I first arrived at the Finca I never imagined that one day I might be living here, let alone that I might be working in the place that gave me some of my most wonderful memories of relaxed holidays and precious times laughing and playing with the kids, I guess life is funny like that.”