Great time in Gran Canaria

Debbie Dent on 27 February 2022
Keen to escape the cold, we decided on Gran Canaria for some winter sunshine this year.

It was a very smooth process at East Midlands. We had completed the mandatory online Spanish Health forms and had our Covid Passes at the ready, but we didn’t need to show them this time. We were asked if we had them though.

The flight took around 4 hours and on arrival we had to show our Spanish Health forms.

We stayed in the south of the island, between the resorts of Puerto Mogan and Puerto Rico, so had the best of both worlds and were never short of a restaurant to try. Puerto Mogan is a pretty resort with a lovely marina and sandy beach, with colourful bougainvillea growing over balconies and plenty of restaurants to choose from. Puerto Rico is larger and more spread out with accommodation going all the way up the hillside. It is livelier and has a great choice of restaurants, whether in one of the outdoor commercial (shopping) centres, or by the sandy beach. It is a good family resort and has various mini golf places as well as the Angry Birds amusement park and the beach to keep them occupied.

We had great weather with lovely warm sunshine every day although there was a cool breeze and at night we needed to wear a jumper, but I’ll take that over our UK weather! After a week of relaxing and reading, I was ready to venture out. Our first stop was the lovely sheltered sandy beach of Amadores, next to and in walking distance to Puerto Rico. There are restaurants and shops along the beach, and accommodation built into the cliffside.

We then drove to the Botanical gardens, in the north of the island, close to Las Palmas. They were free to enter, and although there wasn’t lots of colour at that time of year, they were still worth visiting in my opinion. They covered a large area with different sections, including a large cacti area, a waterfall plus a variety of other local plants and trees. We climbed to the upper level and were rewarded with a good view of the gardens below.

From the gardens we drove inland to the attractive town of Teror. The centre is fairly compact, and with its Basilica and interesting buildings, I loved wandering round and having lunch here. If you like markets, they have one every Sunday, so that would be the day to visit.

Another trip included the sand dunes at Maspalomas. There is a path so that you can walk alongside them, or you can go onto the dunes themselves, which plenty of people were doing. As an aside, I can recommend the ice cream at the shop next to them!

Also, if you like golf, there are currently eight golf courses on the island.

Restaurants were reasonably priced with a fillet steak costing around £16 and a glass of house wine, about £4, depending on where you ate and drank. There was a good variety as well, including tapas, International, Indian, Greek and Chinese.

It was another relaxing holiday, and Gran Canaria was a great place to stay, with something for everyone.