Welcome to Gran Canaria

This assumes you are already in Gran Canaria.

Welcome to our place in the sun. We hope you enjoy your stay here and have a brilliant holiday.

One of the things you have missed by being an independent traveller is the holiday essentials that tour operators cover on the bus from the airport and the welcome meeting. Some of it is worth covering to help you enjoy your holiday. OK, what do you get when you fly due south for between 3.5 and 4 hours at over 500 mph apart from almost 2000 miles from home?

The first thing and the reason a lot of people select the Canary Islands is the heat and a stronger sun. Your tour guide on the bus, had you had one, would have told you “We are not used to sun in Britain and go daft on holiday and end up bright red. Exercise a bit of caution. Apply plenty of a good quality, high factor sun cream and stay out of the sun when it is at its hottest. Reapply frequently and drink plenty of water. Use a higher factor for the first few days until you have a base colour.” I can’t really argue with that. I still go bright red.

On the subject of water, go for bottled water. The tap water is fine for washing the dishes and brushing your teeth. It rains very little in the Canary Islands and most of the water from the tap is recycled mixed with desalinated water and has a high mineral content which ruins kettles, water heaters and steam Irons so it can’t do your insides much good. Added to this, the locals drink bottled water so we should probably follow their example. It is fairly cheap if you buy it in large bottles and there is a guy that does deliveries around the complex a couple of times a week.

Electricity is 220 Volt 50 Hz. Very close to what we have at home so any electrical devices you have brought with you should work provided you have the appropriate adaptor. If you haven’t don’t worry. Many of the supermarkets, Chinese stores and gift shops sell them for prices about the same as you’d get them at home.

Ants and cockroaches are hard to avoid but a couple of precautions can reduce your interactions with them. Please ensure food stuffs are stored in sealed containers and crumbs are cleared away promptly. Ants are very quick at discovering food and will return repeatedly looking for more. Cockroaches like dark and damp places. They generally only come out at night so don’t leave towels or clothes on the floor or you may get a surprise in the morning.

For security sake, leave your valuables out of sight preferably upstairs and preferably in the safe. While we have not heard of any guests having anything stolen, it is always a possibility. You may find your travel insurance insists on the safe being used. Tour operators frequently advise their customers to put their return tickets and passports in the safe as soon as they arrive and leave them there until it is time to go home. However if you intend to buy something in a shop on your credit or debit cards then you’ll be asked to show your passport to prove you are the card holder.

The usual rules apply about being careful when out and about. Places where there are frequently large crowds can attract bag snatchers and pick pockets the world over. Any financial transaction that requires you to follow someone down a dark alley should probably also be avoided.

It is worth mentioning the African ladies at this point. These are a group of ladies that frequently stand across the pedestrian walk way above the beach looking for people to engage in conversation. They will then tie a bracelet around your wrist and insist on money for it, tell you it is cursed and only they can remove it for a fee and various other attempts to extort money. Once they have your hand or your wrist it can be difficult to get away so don’t engage them and just walk past. Their male counter parts are great chaps with friendly smiles and borrowed catch phrases, they will try to sell you “genuine fake” designer watches and sunglasses as well as this year’s special which could be almost anything. They walk up and down Annexo II in front of the restaurants there but won’t enter unless you express an interest. They enjoy a bit of banter from people that go by and from the waiters.

Gran Canaria is a duty free island so certain things are much cheaper in the shops here than back home. Things like cigarettes, perfume and alcohol. Being a duty free island means from a customs and excise point of view, it is considered outside the EU and you have a limit as to how much you can take back without having to pay the duty on your return home. Just be aware of this before you fill your suitcase with duty free items. Also be aware that the duty free shops at the airport charge considerably more for these items than you’ll find them for about town.

February is the wettest month. Although it rarely rains in Gran Canaria, if it is going to do so, February is the most likely month for it to happen. We get about 20 days with rain each year and several of those are likely to be in February. The rain usually doesn’t last long but can be very heavy.

August is the month the Spanish take their holidays. This can mean that the complex is quite busy as the Spanish owners visit. The Spanish eat late so don’t be surprised if you are heading to bed and they are just sitting down to dinner. This means that they can be chatting into the small hours of the morning. Closing the vents in the shutters and the double glazed windows should keep out any noise if you need to.

Enough of the warnings, what can you do while you are here.

Well Gran Canaria is the location of one of the legs of the Pro Surfing championships so if you fancy giving surfing, wind surfing or kite surfing a go, you are in the right place. Gran Canaria has its own coral reef which it is believed is the source of the white sand at Maspalonas. You can try snorkelling or scuba diving and if that is a bit wet why not try sky diving. There is also horse riding or camel riding. There are various “Jeep” safaris you can go on and only some of them use jeeps. There is also hiking and mountain biking available but go with a professional guide and plenty of water.

You can hire a boat to go fishing or to see the dolphins. Golf is also very popular on the island with a choice of several courses locally.

There are only two main bus tours of the island. There is one around the island and one through the mountains. They are both very similar as the towns on the west coast are not linked directly together so the bus takes an inland mountain route and both go down the east coast.

You can take a bus to Guayageque to see the cave houses and eat in a cave restaurant.

Puerto Morgan is also quite picturesque. While you can get a tour, the local bus is convenient and costs less. Market day in Puerto Morgan is Friday. You can include this or avoid as you wish. There are also a couple of companies offering glass bottom ferries between Puerto Morgan and Puerto Rico. This can add a bit of variety to the journey as you get to see the rugged coast line from the sea and interesting little coves frequented by the locals. They also stop the ferry about half way to feed the fish.

Las Palmas is the capital city and there are a few things to see around there. The hop on hop off bus tour is probably the best way of ensuring you see it the interesting bits including the folk village and the house where Christopher Columbus stayed. Interestingly the sugar cane used to make rum in the Caribbean was brought there by Christopher Columbus from Gran Canaria (or so the story goes).

There are also various parks to visit while you are here. Palmitos Park is a nice zoo specialising in birds. It is well landscaped and is nice to walk around. It also stages various shows throughout the day. The dolphin show is a fairly new introduction and there are also shows with birds of prey and Parrots. There is the Aqualand water park. Holiday world specialises in old style carnival type rides. Souix City is a Wild West theme park with several stunt shows and a Barbecue evening once a week.

The Moonlight Cinema in Melonaries is an open air cinema that runs two shows per night. These are shown in their original language which is normally English with headsets available to listen in other languages and they serve pizza and cocktails while the film plays. Show times vary depending on the time of the year.

Also in Melonaries is the Hotel Costa Melonaries which has a very nice spa. They do a 4 hour Spa Experience which allows you to try 18 different Spa stations for around 40 Euro and use the private spa pool and sun bed area at the end.

We can’t forget about the famous Dunes of Maspalomas. These sit between Playa Del Ingles and Melonares. You can walk along the sea shore between the two as thousands of people do each day, but that is missing out on the actual dunes. If you go to the Rui Palace hotel at the end of Avenida Tirajana and walk to the beach through the hotel you will find a map with walks mapped out. Just follow the appropriately coloured poles for your chosen walk.

A lot of the people that work in the hotels and restaurants in Playa del Ingles live in San Fernando and that is just the other side of the motorway. There are several bridges across to it. The nearest is between the Greenfield and Green Garden hotels. As it caters to the locals you may find it an interesting change.

Tours can be booked at any on the tour kiosks, some can even be booked from the tourist train ticket office just outside the complex. There are two official tourist information offices in the area, one at Anexxo II, the other at C.C. Yumbo. While there are taxi ranks close by, one opposite the tour kiosk in front of Agaete Parque, the other at C.C. Tropical, you can just flag down any taxi that passes showing a green light. The main bus station is also at C.C. Tropical and you can get buses to most parts of the island from there. I have not covered restaurants because there are so many in the area and they are all pretty good, at least the ones we’ve tried.

Thanks for reading, we hope you found this information useful and don’t turn bright red.