Resorts & Places

Resorts & Places

The ultimate guide to Gran Canaria's resorts, towns and local villages. 

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Playa del Inglés

Playa del Inglés

Playa del Inglés is a huge resort dedicated to keeping tourists from all over Europe happy in the sun. If you come to Playa for unrestrained fun, you picked the right place.

If you came looking for authentic culture and Spanish food, sack your travel agent and learn the local bus timetable. But don't worry as Playa del Inglés is a big place and has something for everyone.

PDI is a big resort so when you first arrive, get your bearings with our newbie's tour of Playa del Inglés. Then, spend a day relaxing on the resort's vast, golden beach, or walk around the corner to Maspalomas beach.  

There's plenty to do and see within the resort itself including the shopping centres and hundreds of restaurants. For shopping, see out Playa del Inglés shopping guide

Playa del Inglés is a safe and friendly resort but like most places, there are a few local annoyances that it's good to know about in advance. 

Once your holiday is over, here's how to get back to the airport.  

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Las Palmas

Las Palmas

Gran Canaria's capital city offers great food, a gorgeous old town and the world's best city beach. 

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Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is the closest Gran Canaria gets to the Spanish Costas. There's British breakfast by the beach, karaoke bars in the shopping centres and lots of foreign residents who never learn the local lingo.

However, there's more to Puerto Rico than the stereotypes suggest: great places to eat, quality bars and of course two of the island's warmest and sunniest beaches.

The resort fills a valley with a sand beach and two marinas on the coast. Its bungalows and apartments are mostly quiet as the nightlife is focused in the giant Puerto Rico shopping centre.

Puerto Rico attracts British tourists during the summer and Scandinavians during winter. They all come for the almost-constant sunshine and lively bars and restaurants.

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San Agustín

San Agustín

Sleepy San Agustín stays under the mass tourism radar despite its golden sand beaches and sunny weather. Lots of Germans and Scandinavians own property here and do their best to keep it neat and peaceful. 

San Agustín beach is like a mini version of Playa del Inglés just to the west although it is often much quieter. The beach gets some fun-sized waves but is safe for swimmers and sunny almost every day.

The resort is easy to reach as it's the first major resort as you head south from Gran Canaria airport along the GC1 motorway. San Agustín is well connected to the airport and the island's other resorts by local bus. A taxi from San Agustín to the airport costs around 35-40 euros, but you can also book a private transfer service

San Agustín has two shopping centres; the vast San Agustín Shopping Centre and the smaller El Portón which is also home to the tourist information centre. Shopping in San Agustín is fine for basics, but you'll have to go elsewhere for fashion and serious souvenir shopping. 

If you are visiting San Agustín for the first time, here's how to find your way around

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Maspalomas

Maspalomas

Maspalomas resort is basically a huge sprawl of bungalows, hotels and palm trees that sits on a flat plain just behind the dunes. It's a quiet place to stay with a nine-hole golf course and a huge public park complete with climbing wall and lake.

Much quieter than Playa del Ingles next door, Maspalomas doesn’t have any nightlife to speak of. Most of the best bars and restaurants are down on the seafront at Meloneras, especially now that the Faro II shopping centre is almost empty. For music and fun you head to Playa del Inglés.

The main resort is best suited to those who want a quiet holiday in the sunshine. The newer Meloneras section of the resort is more upmarket with 5-Star hotels on the seafront. 

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Puerto de Mogán

Puerto de Mogán

There was a mix-up in the planning department when Puerto Mogan got built. Rather than another generic, modern resort, they built an original and rather beautiful marina with charming buildings and bougainvillea arches.

While it's now spread back a long way up the valley from the original marina, "the Venice of Gran Canaria" is still the island's most attractive resort.

With its little sandy beach, dozens of fish restaurants, and more bougainvillea and coconut palm trees than you can shake a selfie stick at, Puerto de Mogán is on every Gran Canaria bucket list.

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Arguineguín

Arguineguín

South Gran Canaria's most authentic local town with a pretty beach and plenty of restaurants by the sea. Popular with Scandinavians.

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The Villa de Firgas is one of the most popular towns in north Gran Canaria for people who really want to get away fro it all and visit authentic local spots. Gran Canaria Info fans love its peaceful atmosphere and famous street waterfall and mosaics. 
Sleepy Guía in north Gran Canaria is a spot that most people simply drive past. However, we've scoured its sleepy old quarter and found a few quality spots that make it worth parking up in town and wandering about. Oh, and you have to try the cheese.
Home to the annual Wind & Waves festival and a stage of the World Windsurfing Tour, Pozo Izquierdo (known as Pozo) is Gran Canaria's windiest town and the centre of its world-class windsurfing and kitesurfing scene.
Villa Canary Islands is the place to book Gran Canaria villas and holiday homes in a safe and reliable way. The local company has over 200 properties for rent in Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands and has been in business since 1998. 
Tunte is south Gran Canaria's biggest hill town and an obligatory stop on a tour across the island.
Gran Canaria's big resorts have a largely undeserved reputation for being rowdy party spots, but there are a couple of places to avoid if you want a peaceful holiday. 
Fataga has one prettiest village in Spain awards and when you first see its white houses clustered together on a bluff in the middle of the deep barranco, you'll understand why.
Gran Canaria's liveliest resorts draw in the party people, but are they just nightlife spots, and which one is best for you?
How do you choose between Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés resort when they are right next to each other and share the same sand? Here's everything you need to know to make up your mind...
There's a resort for everyone in Gran Canaria so, whether you're a sun-worshipper or a party-animal, here's a guide to all the top spots. Take your pick and enjoy the sunshine.
The Agaete Valley is Gran Canaria's barranco of secrets and it doesn't give them up easily. Here are five things that you never knew about the Agaete Valley. 
You can't visit the white village of San Pedro, about half way up the Agaete Valley, without looking up: it's right under the highest cliffs in the Barranco and looks more like an alpine village than a Canarian one.  
Santa Lucia has quietly become south Gran Canaria rural tourism centre. With its palm-filled valleys, traditional houses and mellow way of life it deserves to be better known. Perhaps it's best if it stays out of the brochures.  
Arinaga's attractive promenade, a great natural swimming pool and decent seafront restaurants make it an excellent east coast lunch and swim stop. Just up the road is the world-famous El Cabron dive site and the unassuming but ecologically important Arinaga dunes reserve. 
The cobbled old town, with its vast church and squat, heat-proof Canarian houses is the prettiest example of a Gran Canaria hill town in east Gran Canaria. It's well worth a wander.
The Guayadeque gorge is easily the most interesting day trip in East Gran Canaria, especially combined with Aguimes old town and an afternoon swim at Arinaga. It's also a pain in the neck for visitors. You'll get one from looking up at the high cliff walls and cave houses, then from ducking…
You don't see many wellies in Gran Canaria but San Mateo, as the island's main farming town, is where they are concentrated. With rich soils and plenty of rain, it's main focus has always been agriculture rather than tourism. Despite a madcap plan for a cable car that doesn't look…
Santa Brigida town was used by the British as their summer Hill Station when they controlled the coal trade in Las Palmas port in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Nowadays it a quiet residential town with a great weekend market (and a great wine stall) and a couple…
Moya has two claims for fame: Biscuits and a cliff-edge church square with a view of the deep Barranco behind the town. The view is spectacular, the biscuits not so much. Moya church is a whitewashed Canarian church with stone edging in Neoclassical style. It's pretty but nothing more. However,…
It says a lot about Guía that it's cheese is more famous than the actual town. It's pretty enough but a sleepy kind of place, especially compared with Galder next door. Santa Maria de Guía's church square and the cobbled streets running off it have their charm. The problem with…
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Tip of the day

  • How To Choose A Legal Gran Canaria Airport Transfer
    How To Choose A Legal Gran Canaria Airport Transfer

    Gran Canaria's hotels have to be licensed and offer a quality level of service as well as having insurance and complying with fire regulations. The same goes for the boats that take people out to watch dolphins, the companies offering jeep safaris, and even the holiday let apartments. 

    However, not everybody in Gran Canaria follows the rules. For example, there is a significant industry running illegal and uninsured transfers between Gran Canaria airport and the island's resorts. These cars, driven by locals and foreign-residents, are just private vehicles and the drivers are unregulated and uninsured. They don't pay tax and there is no way to hold them responsible if something goes wrong. 

     At Gran Canaria Info we believe that all people and all companies offering services to tourists should legal and above board.

    So, how do you know that your airport transfer service is legal and registered with the Gran Canaria authorities?

     Using legal Gran Canaria airport transfers

    It is quite easy to know if your airport transfer service is operating in a legal way because all registered transfers have the following...

     A blue license plate: Taxis and other public service vehicles in Gran Canaria all have blue plates.

    A VTC sticker in the window: This stands for Vehículo de Transporte con Conductor, the official designation for licensed transfer drivers ans chauffeurs.

    An SP sticker on the car: This indicates that the car offer a Servicio Publico or public service and is therefore allowed to pick up and transfer members of the public. 

    Parked in the transport zone: Official airport transfer vehicles don't park in the public car park of the airport. Instead they have their own parking zone right by the arrivals gates at the airport (next to the taxis and package tour buses). Your transfer driver therefore should not have to pay a parking fee before leaving the aiport. 

    How to spot an unlicensed transfer service

    Unlicensed drivers get away with offerring their service because they claim that they are just members of the public picking up a friend. They are allowed to stand at arrivals with a sign (just like any member of the public can).

    However, they also have to park their car in the public car park and will walk you there with your luggage, stopping to pay the parking fee at the meter. A licensed transfer driver does not need to do this because they have their own parking zone right by arrivals.

    Some unlicensed drivers don't even wait at the arrival gate because the official drivers recognise them and get annoyed. Instead they have to stand further away (often by the Spar supermarket or the car rental desks). 

    When an unlicensed driver drops you at the airport they will not want to be paid in a public area because this proves that they are charging rather than "transporting a friend" for free. 

    An unlicensed car will not have a blue license plate, or a SP or VTC sticker, and will often look like a private car (because it is a private car). 

    What's the problem with unlicensed airport transfers?

    Some people use unlicensed cars because they are the cheapest option and don't realise that they are unlicensed. 

    There are several problems with unlicensed services. The most obvious is that they are uninsured so if something goes wrong or there is an accident, you are not protected. The price that unlicensed drivers offer is only low because they cut corners (hopefully not literally). You have no way of even knowing if your unlicensed driver has a Spanish driving license, insurance and a good driving record. Licensed drivers are vetted regularly and must be fully insured and licensed to work.

    Another problem is that unlicensed transfers undermine the legitimate transfer drivers and businesses in Gran Canaria. Local drivers make a living from transfers and offer a legal, regulated service with minimum standards. Every time an unlicensed service undercuts them, it is effectively stealing from local people and the island economy.

    We believe that everybody in Gran Canaria deserves better!

    Gran Canaria Airport Transfer Services

    To find out more about the Gran Canaria airport transfer, see our Gran Canaria airport transfer article which explains the three different models; man/woman from pub with car, online transfer websites, and local transfer services.

    Or you can book a legitimate Gran Canaria airport transfer at a great price right here. Our service uses local drivers and supprts the island economy because all the money you spend stays in Gran Canaria.

    Alex Says: Using our service also helps the Gran Canaria Info team to keep providing quality local information here and in our Facebook Group

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