Claire and I went to Gran Canaria in 2001, so we thought it was time to go back. We booked 11 days at the Gloria Palace San Agustin hotel with Jet2, packed plenty of sun cream, and headed off.
The hotel is a big curved building part way up a hill in San Agustin. It's pretty modern looking and facilities were good. We were up on the 8th floor, so had a great view down to the pool area and out over San Agustin to the ocean. We had a big double bed and a fold-down sofa bed, a wee fridge, and restocked bottles of water.
The first few days were pretty quiet at the hotel, but more people arrived until it was full by the end of the first week. We still didn't have any problems getting a lounger or seats at dinner, so other than a fairly busy pool it was pretty good.
The loungers were especially good. As well as the standard type, they had a number of big round beds, and a few gazebo-frame things with a moveable curtain to keep the sun away. We managed to get a gazebo most days, and take advantage of a pretty empty pool from about 10 to 11 each morning to get some lengths in.
The food was decent, with a reasonable variety, a touch of the themed nights with some oriental and Mexican dishes, but mostly similar stuff each night. The labels were unreliable at times, and sometimes cryptic. There was one area that had a different breadcrumbed delicacy each night, but a label that just said "fried". And my favourite was the macaroni, just labelled as "elbows".
Entertainment was OK. There were various games during the day, and singers at night, though it seemed to be the same couple of acts most of the time. The hotel also had a rooftop area with an adults-only pool and even fancier beds, but having taken a look, the pool wasn't very big and we decided to keep our pennies.
We spent most of our days at the hotel, swimming, eating and reading, so the time was pretty relaxing.
After a couple of days at the hotel, we took an evening wander down to the town to see what the beaches were like, and to search for Irn Bru in the supermarkets. The next day Cate and I walked the half mile down to San Agustin beach for a swim in the sea.
We took the red flag on the beach as a warning that it was a wee bit wavy, only discovering later that it meant bathing prohibited. But we had a great time jumping about in the breakers. The dark volcanic sand was roasting hot, so we had to run to and from our towels to the water.
Claire always loves a good market, so we took a taxi one afternoon down to the Playa del Ingles market, costing us 6 euros each way. It was a pretty big market but mainly clothes and jewelery. None of the big tubs of cherries we found last year in Majorca. Cate got a few things and we walked down to the promenade for a look at the beach before finding a taxi back. A kindly bird made a new pattern on the front of my t-shirt, but we got back otherwise unscathed.
My dodgy Spanish tells me mas palomas means more pigeons, so maybe we need to look out for other birds on this day. We had hired a car for 3 days in the middle of the holiday, so we could do a bit of exploring without having to book an excursion or rely on the buses. First on the itinerary was a visit to the sand dunes at Maspalomas. We didn't do the camel rides this time round, but enjoyed the views of the dunes, thankfully without any views of the nudist beach, and met quite a few cats on the way back from the dunes. Maybe they're there to keep the pigeons at bay.
A bit about the roads. The main highway around half of the island is the GC-1, with a smaller main road along the San Agustin - Playa del Ingles - Maspalomas resorts. The rest of the island is very rocky and the roads are small and very windy. We'll find out more on that soon. Anyway, at the western end of the GC-1 is Puerto de Mogan, a lovely fishing village with colourful houses and lots of wee bridges, claiming to be the "little Venice" of the Canaries. We got parked right at the end of the harbour, and had a walk about the town, followed by a lovely lunch at the Carpe Diem restaurant. It was nice sitting in the shade, looking out at the boats in the harbour.
Next stop was a viewpoint a little way into the hills, called Mirador de Veneguera. The road up to the inland town of Mogan wasn't too bad, but it quickly turned very twisty afterwards, and Claire quickly turned a shade of green. I knew it wasn't far along this windy road so assured her we would get there quickly, however you weren't allowed to enter the parking area from the east. I had to drive another five minutes up and down ravines and round tight bends to find a turning place to retrace our steps and get into the parking area from the right direction. Cate and I got out to look at the hills. Claire stayed in the car.
All windy roads were out for the rest of the trip. But for the evening we drove down to the lighthouse at Maspalomas to catch the sunset. When we got there it turned out that bit of the road was only for taxis, so I dropped the other two off and turned back to find some parking. 10 minutes later I managed to get a space and ten minutes walk got me to the lighthouse. Where the sun had already set. Oh well, that bit of the town, known as Meloneras, looked pretty nice.
Day 2 with the car we drove around to the north of the island to the capital, Las Palmas. We parked in the old part of town and took a walk around this area, pausing for a surprising rain storm to pass. We had lunch at a fancy burger place, Goiko, where the signature burger was the Kevin Bacon, and an even bigger one was the Kevin Costner. Across a main road we came to the area with the cathedral, town hall and various other important buildings.
23 years ago Claire and I stayed in Puerto Rico, and found a restaurant at the top of the hill called Picasso's, which we really liked. While we had the car I went to their web site and requested a reservation for this evening. I didn't get a reply, but ever hopeful, we rocked up to the place at 7pm sharp.
It was shut.
The owners had gone on holiday for three months. Oh well, back to the hotel to see what "fried" was tonight. We stopped off at Amadores beach to see what it was like, as that was a likely candidate for tomorrow.
Playa de Amadores is a half kilometre long beach in a protected bay, which meant gentle waves. It had a big car park, plenty of loungers available when we got there at 11, and shops and restaurants at the back of the beach. We stayed here for the day, with a couple of big swims along the bay and back.
There was a line of buoys marking the edge of the swimming area, and Cate found that there was often some sea life stuck to the bottom of the buoys. She turned one over to see a shell squirt water at her and a wee prawn swimming about. The prawn then proceeded to chase us half of the way back to shore. It was the worst remake of Jaws ever.
Last night with the car, so we went down to the dunes again to see what they were like at sunset. Not much different it turned out, but at least I got there before the sun actually set this time.
We had to check out of our hotel by 12, and unfortunately they were fully booked, so no chance of holding on to our room for a few hours more. To use up the time we got the free bus into Maspalomas for lunch at the Cactus and Lighthouse, spent some time reading before dinner and then found a fun Thai place nearby, the Sa-Wa-Dee. They have quirky decorations, with little huts and igloos outside, and some really good Thai food to eat while we watched Switzerland beat the Italians in the Euros.
Nothing more to do than get the bus back to the airport for the 4.5 hour flight home, to a cold Glasgow summer dawn. Overall we had a great time, enjoyed the time relaxing, reading, swimming, eating and exploring.
And I lost 7 lbs during this one.