Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria

If you are coming over to Gran Canaria, you will most probably visit the second largest beach in Europe. Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria beach, with 5 kilometers of warm sand, lovely sunshine, an assortment of hotels, striking night clubs, eye-catching shopping centers & fun-places acts like a large magnet for attracting tourists from all over the world. Approximately 2 million people visit Gran Canaria annually, and most of these individuals pour into, you already guessed – Playa del Ingles!

General information

Playa del Ingles is the hearth of tourism in Gran Canaria. Together with Maspalomas and its surrounding areas, in the season, when the stampeding contingent of tourists arrive, on could think that the island will flip over from the weight. Luckily, with the extraordinary amount of hotels and all types of accommodations, everyone gets a nice place under the sun, and after a long lazy day of absorbing the rays of our star, a nice place in the bar, restaurant, night club, or any other fun-place one desires. It is basically most attractive for the “younger” ones. If you are for action & party – there is no mistake – this is a place for your holidays.

If you have children, that is not a problem. The resort is built for accommodation and pleasure for everyone, with like little villages designed for fun, uncomplicated, friendly – and very functional, I might add. Lots of young couples come to this resort accompanied with their siblings.

And, for the party-lovers, well, Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria is a paradise. You can hear parties going on all night, the clubs work till 6am, and generally the show starts at 10pm. The bar and night club programs reach from the ones that you can bring your children to, to the other side of “no entry under 18”.

Getting from the airport to the resort by taxi will cost you around 30 euros, or alternatively you can catch a bus line that is outside the airport. Note that you need to go by the sidewalk to the opposite side of the highway to get to the bus station, so I recommend the taxi option. If you already came to Gran Canaria, 30€ is not much of a price to pay to be nicely driven to your hotel and helped with your luggage.

The translation of Playa del Ingles is “the Englishman’s beach” – yes, the place is very popular with the folks from England. But the name has nothing to do with its popularity; it has been there for quite some time, before the island became a touristic spot.

So, while we are at the beach, let’s do some talk about it.

Playa del Ingles – The Beach

Gran Canaria - Playa del Ingles

A long golden sand beach spreads from Playa del Ingles all the way to Maspalomas. This natural occurrence was also mentioned on the page about Maspalomas, but for the sake of continuing this page in a linear fashion, let’s mention it once more. Gran Canaria is volcanic by origin. So, by all standards there should be no sand here. Luckily, there is a phenomenon that is occurring only here on the entire world called Siroco. The wind from Sahara is now and then so strong that it picks up the sand and carries it all the way to Gran Canaria. Because of the topography of the island, the sand carried by the wind lands in the southern parts of Gran Canaria – in the area between Playa del Ingles and Maspalomas, creating a beautiful golden colored beach. When the Siroco is active, it can push up the temperatures to 35-40°C – in the shade. Also luckily, this phenomenon is not an everyday occurrence.

You can also take a camel ride through the sand-dunes in an Lawrence of Arabia Sahara-style fashion to Maspalomas. Or, take a foot-trip to Maspalomas but be warned (or advised, depending of how you look at it) that the beach is divided unofficially to sectors: everyday beach for families and children, gay area, and a nudist area.

At the beginning of the beach, you’ll also find the water sports centers (called Annexo 2) offering many water-sports like jet-skiing, paragliding, sailing, scuba diving, windsurfing and banana and normal boat rides. Here are some prices: Jet Ski for 1 person = €25 for 20 minutes, Jet Ski for two persons = 30€ or 40€ (depending on the power of the machine) for 20 mins. Pedal boat (for 4 people) = 15€ for half an hour, banana-boat ride is 8€ per person. There’s also paragliding and even skydiving available from there too.

Shopping, Bars, Cuisine and Night Life

The exquisite choice of shops, boutiques, commercial centers (about a dozen) come at duty free price. Yes, it is a touristic city, but the managers seem to have realized that if they sell stuff cheaper – they will probably sell more. And the other thing that this caused is that Gran Canaria and Playa del Ingles became popular as a holiday resort. The shops are included in the popular commercial centers, so you do not need to run around to do shopping – you have everything concentrated in a relatively small area. The shops sell starting from imitations, local craft, some African wear up to designer items and electronics.

There are quite some number of commercial centers in and around Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria, each hosting a marvelous selection of restaurants, bars, shops and other necessities such as banks and supermarkets.

For the best choice of clubs and hectic night life you need to visit the Kasbah center and the neighboring Metro center (both close to the Yumbo center), and for quality designer wear it is recommended that you visit the Plaza Maspalomas.

Yumbo is biggest and probably the most popular of the shopping centers located in the middle of Playa del Ingles. It is 4 levels of height built around a large open square with a nice choice of restaurants and bars, though these open only in the afternoon. The Visanta electronics shop is recommended to visit if you are into buying some electrical equipment – they offer refunds and warranty, so it’s a place you might buy your electrical gifts – at duty free prices. There are plenty of designer shops and you can also leave you kids at the handy kid’s play are included in the center.

The center is also containing a Tourist Information Center. The bars are gay friendly and the last floor is exclusively reserved for the gay community.

By night, Yumbo buzzes with hundreds of people, flocking to the various restaurants offering Canarian, Spanish, and international cuisine.

If you are into a cabaret drag show then visit the La Belle bar on the ground level. It is a family place with the show starting around 10pm. At midnight, the clubs open, and stay so until 6am.

The center is famous for its annual carnival starting early each year, following the Las Palmas Carnival. The colors and looks of the costumes are fantastic, so look to get a good vantage point to watch the whole event, or if that’s a better option for you – just mix in the masses for a party!

Anexo II is at the north end of Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria, right on the beach front. It’s a shopping center with restaurants, all kinds of water sports devices hiring, a gym and health center, that is quite busy by day or night.

The Gran Chaparral Centre is what you need if you are into a quieter type of restaurants and bars. Stop for a beer at the Highlander Bar and you can also have a flutter on the horses there as it is the only betting office on Gran Canaria. For the best English breakfast, be sure to visit the Britannia – I recommend this place for the excellent service and the splendid food. The Windmill bar has admirable family entertainment lined up every evening, with music and general knowledge quizzes, a picture quiz, a game of bingo and Play Your Cards Right and this bar shows all the popular sports on TV. The center is very popular with the Dutch and there are even a couple of Dutch restaurants and bars here. There is also a couple of bike and motorbikes renting places at the Gran Chaparral Centre.

The Cita Centre is not so far from the entrance to the Playa del Ingles beach. After a long day on the beach, and in need of a snack, drink or a bit of a socializing with your friends and making plans for the evening, this I place I recommend to visit. There are a couple of bars in the area, a gay area at the end of the back prove. By night, I would recommend the restaurants and entertainment areas here. Generally speaking, this is a most relaxed area than the other centers, with a separate park for children.

The Agua Roja Centre is an Irish Centre, with several Irish theme bars. The Irish people are experts to enjoy themselves, and if you are to be holidaying in Playa del Ingles for St Patrick’s Day then a visit to this center is highly recommended. From 6pm each evening there are a number of stalls selling local souvenirs and jewelry.

Restaurants

One of the finest places I can recommend in Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria is the Mundo, located in the street called Avda. de Tirajana. It includes various meals cooked from local quality ingredients.

Another outstanding place is the Espetada, with very good meat and fish, try the steak – won’t be disappointed!

Merlin is also located in the Avda Tirajana, and offers jolly good meals for the price of 20-40€. I recommend trying their paella, if you are into Spanish food, or otherwise curious.

The El Duke is one more of the fine restaurants in Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria, and I must warn you that it gets quite crowded in the evening. But, it’s worth to find a place and be served by the friendly staff offering excellent dishes.

The El Churrasco Argentino Steak House Grill is located in the seemengly popular street of Avda. Tirajana. The name of the restaurant speaks for itself providing the best and the biggest steak you can eat – or you can’t? There is only one way to find out: try it! It’s juicy.

The Best Nightlife – Playa del Ingles

The place is heavily concentrated with bars, pubs and clubs, especially in the Kasbah Center, home to the Cream and Pascha nightclub – and both pump the best dance/house music during all night until 6am. Chinawhites is an also very popular fun place. Other places in the Kasbah are the Havana, Hippodrome and Sugar (small cocktail bar) – all recommended to start the night with. The center is also popular for families that are looking for a less intense evening – the area around the promenade is in that case a recommended area to settle during the evening.

Moving around the island

The resort is well connected to the rest of the island. There are plenty of bus lines that are all passing through the place, taxi stations, and rent-a-cars if you would like to reach places other than just the beach, shops and the on-foot available local places. I warmly recommend renting a car. First, it’s incredibly cheap – for 100+ Euros you can get a decent car for a week. And for 200+ you can get a “beast” on four wheels that can climb any mountain, or a sexy cabriolet to enjoy the sun while driving. Second, there are many intriguing, romantic and interesting places all over the island you can visit – and it is much more practical to have a car. For renting you will need a valid credit card and your passport – that’s all. I guess that you also need a driver’s license, but they did not ask for mine – they probably forgot to do that, or it’s just maybe bad for business, and they are being polite too.

Other than land-type transport, I’ll mention that you can also hire a plane or chopper to take a tour around the island. The plane hiring can also be packaged with sky-jumps (with an instructor) so you can round-up your flight over the island with an adrenaline pushing drop from several kilometers and later gently landing to the welcoming sand of Playa del Ingles or Maspalomas.

So, enjoy your stay in Playa del Ingles Gran Canaria!