The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Grand Gran Canaria
Robin’s latest trip offers great hiking, spa treatments, fine food and brilliant beaches on the ‘continent in miniature’
The ‘continent in miniature’ offers great hiking, fine food and brilliant beaches. And there’s more.
I’m writing this on the plane home and I’m next to a couple who have just been on a beach holiday confined to the resort of Playa del Ingles. I haven’t the heart to tell them they have just missed out on an isle that the Canarios themselves refer to as the ‘continent in miniature’. I’m sharing this year-round warm oasis of world-class hiking, delicious seafood and charming resorts and villages with you so you never make the same mistake.
Over the years I’ve been out to Gran Canaria half a dozen times and it really does offer an epic range of scenery. There are the parched deserts fringed by beaches in the south where the big resorts have sprung up, through to verdant forests, towering mountains, hulking volcanoes and the rugged coastline of the wild west.
I kicked off this visit in my favourite resort. Puerto Mogan boasts real character, a picturesque resort with its waterfront lined with a glitzy marina and a network of canals that are crisscrossed by wee bridges. Whitewashed houses and brilliant bougainvillea complete a scene that is as pleasant to stroll around as it is to look at.
My base was the Cordial Mogan Playa (www.becordial.com). This efficientlyrun four star sits just back from the resort’s wee beach and is awash with subtropical greenery. As well as a buffet restaurant, I appreciated that they had a more fine dining restaurant too, Los Guayres, which is handy for those staying a week or two. They also have plenty for kids to do here and the ace Inagua spa, where I enjoyed a massage. Afterwards, it was blissful to float under big skies in their outdoor hot tub and their floatarium.
After a couple of days of blue skies and 22C heat – unlike Spain’s Mediterranean resorts, Gran Canaria offers proper, dependable winter sunshine – I eased back along the coast to Meloneras, which sits on the edge of the remarkable Maspalomas Dunes. These sweeping sand dunes are like something out of the Arabian Nights. Beware, though, that if you keep walking east you eventually come to a stretch of beach where clothing is very much optional!
I was lucky enough to be staying at the Seaside Palm Hotel (www. hotel-palm-beach.co.uk). I thoroughly recommend booking a room on one of the upper floors with a view out over the gigantic palm trees to the ever-shifting sand dunes. I love the restaurant set up here, with an outdoor buffet area with a choice of cooking stations and plenty of surrounding greenery. Their Esencia a la carte restaurant is worth the extra for more sophisticated fare, as are the local wines, which are really starting to get noticed outside Macaronesia these days.
On my last morning at the Seaside Palm I treated myself to a massage at their spa. The therapist was spot on, diagnosing my ‘laptop shoulders’ and then working on my tense muscles. Spa treatments may be relaxing, but even more relaxing and refreshing for me is a good hike. Gran Canaria is a truly world-class island for hiking. I was invited to the first-ever Gran Canaria Walking Festival a few years back, an event that finally brought the island to the attention of walkers worldwide.
The hiking on Gran Canaria is incredibly diverse. The perfect example was my drive north to stay at the island capital of Las Palmas. Rather than take the motorway, I eked up through the emerald green, forested mountains in search of adventure. I found it with a yomp to the island’s most distinctive peak, Roque Nublo. At 1,813m it’s a good bit higher than Ben Nevis and definitely
as dramatic with its otherworldly rock formations. I was off the top and back in my car in half an hour. Many of the mountains here are very easy to access.
Next up was a stiffer test at Bandama. This volcano offers an unusual opportunity to hike right around a crater rim, before delving down a steep path right to the bottom of the volcano. I was surprised to find an old farmer living in the wee house right down here. He seems to be tending a small subsistence farm, quite an anachronism in modern Europe.
After a day of hiking I was ready for the capital charms of Las Palmas, the largest city in the Canary Isles. It is a sultry, steamy hub, home to a vibrant port that ensures a variety of characters are always passing through town. It’s got a tangible buzz about it, which you can feel everywhere from the Rio-like sands of city beach Las Canteras, through to the lively tapas bars of the chocolate box-pretty old quarter of La Vegueta.
Las Palmas’ newest attraction is Poema del Mar, which only opened in January. A massive effort has gone into designing this huge state-of-the-art aquarium on the city’s waterfront. You enter a world of exotic fauna that you snake through, taking in all manner of aquatic life as you go. Then you delve deep into the aquarium’s depths where turtles and sharks await in a large pool that stretches for the multiple storeys you can walk up and down. I loved that their bar/café and restaurant both offer ringside seats for this impressive main tank. It’s a must-visit for kids and big kids alike.
My last destination on this visit was an old favourite, Puerto de las Nieves. Few British visitors ever make it here and those that do are usually just zipping by on the fast ferry to or from Tenerife. This wee charmer really retains the relaxed fishing village vibe that has been lost in the southern resorts. It’s a great place just to potter along the waterfront, taking in the harbour, the cute whitewashed buildings and gazing up at the towering 1,000m mountains that soar from the ocean in front of you.
My base was the Cordial Roca Negra (www.becordial.com). This small hotel is a relaxed affair that will suit those not keen on being surrounded by masses of fellow guests. My private balcony offered great views of the ocean, the rugged rocks and of a lingering Atlantic sunset every night. The pool here is decent, too, with a wee hot tub attached.
The pool proved ideal after I followed the advice of the reception staff and took a wee hike out to Playa de Juncal. This was a great walk. I didn’t see another soul as I rambled over the rough ground past shoulder high cacti. I made it to the beach and also a wee promontory that looked like a dun mound on a Hebridean island, as well as an old cave that dates back to the island’s pre-Spanish inhabitants, the guanches.
In the afternoon I bubbled away in the hotel’s thermal circuit before another superb and great-value massage. Gran Canaria is famous for its spas and you could spend a whole week here trying out a superb spa every day and still have plenty more options. A week in the sun peppered with great food, massages, hikes and dependable sunshine proved just the tonic to wipe away any suggestion of post-Christmas blues.
I ended my last night down on the waterfront in Puerto de las Nieves, which lies down the cliffs from the hotel. Here I sat among the local fishermen at the Cofradia restaurant, which is run by the local fishermen’s cooperative. As I savoured a glass of local aromatic volcanic wine and fish plucked from the sea by the men around me, I toasted an island that is so much more than just a beach destination.