Ultimate Guide to Living your Best life in Gran Canaria

Back in 2022 I visited the beautiful Gran Canaria. This was an amazing birthday treat that we very thankfully got to celebrate after Covid.

Our Stay was for 7 nights and booked with JET2HOLIDAYS from Stansted Airport

We stayed at the Servatur Waikiki in Playa Del Ingles, 3+ Star Hotel with 4 Star Trip Adviser reviews.

Our ratings:

Hotel? 7/10

Would we go back to Gran Canaria? YES

Would we stay at that hotel again? Yes, if it was a cheap get away.

Things we did? 7/10

Travel:

We flew into Las Palmas and had a coach transfer to the hotel which took around 45 minutes (This was included in the holiday price).

Hotel:

The hotel itself was clean and tidy. We had a standard double room for 2 of us which had plenty enough space. The room had 2 single beds pushed together (which doesn't bother us) and white bed sheets (I know this is a MUST for some people).

Plenty of sunbeds around the pool and the pool itself was quite large, but in the middle of the hotel so parts do get shaded as the day goes on as the sun goes behind the different buildings.

The hotel has a small arcade with games which is good fun in the evening, they have a fuse ball table, pool table and a basket ball game. They also had a table tennis table you could use.

During the day there was entertainment, one day we had a fashion show (you could then buy the clothes that were displayed) we really enjoyed this. Shooting games where you have to hit the board. But that is all i can remember as i'm not big into moving off my sunbed!

The thing that really made our trip from the hotel was the bottles of prosecco they gave me for my birthday. In our room they had left a birthday card and 2 glasses with a bottle of prosecco with it for us and one of the bar ladies gave me a bottle too down by the pool. My other half had just told them it was my birthday and could they do anything, but didn't expect a lot at all, this was a lovely gesture.

Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

Food/ Drink at the hotel:

The food was actually pretty good, there was lots of variety and I would say something for everyone (even my fussy partner managed to eat LOTS). Breakfast had both hot and cold foods some of the items included were - salads and fruits, pastries, fry up style breakfasts, pancakes. Pretty much everything you could think of.

Lunch was more picky food i would say, pizzas, burgers just normal all inclusive food. The salad bar was great, lots of options.

Dinner was a different theme every night, with a main inside the door as you walked in. this could have been meats, paella, fish. Just something you could choice as your main part of your meal. Then you had again salads, fruits and lots of different options of potatoes or other sides with your dinner. All in all I would give the food a good 7/10 for all inclusive. I've definitely been to places i have preferred but as far as variety goes i didn't struggle the whole 7 days i was there.

Drinks were okay, nothing to write home about. But for the price we paid there wasn't anything to complain about. Some of the cocktails were included on the AI package but you could pay a little extra for the ones that weren't. Local Spirits were included too and you could pay for branded names. Juices, soft drinks and water were all included too.

Near By:

The beach was around a 15 minute walk (there is a free shuttle bus you can use) and there are so many bars and restaurants surrounding it which is lovely. The beach itself is huge and you can go into the sand dunes which is stunning first thing in the morning to watch the sunrise.

There are a couple of mini golf courses near by which we had an absolute blast at. I think it was around 7 euros each but was so so good! You could buy drinks at a small bar and take those round with you too. We did 2 different ones and they both took us around an hour to complete.

About a 5 minute walk away is a small sports bar which was showing football, we had dinner here which was lovely and so reasonably priced.

The hard rock cafe is around 20 min walk. If i'm honest i thought it was overpriced and not that impressive. Purely my opinion but i much preferred the smaller restaurants, they felt a lot more

Beach

Mini golf

Drinks

Food

Food

Food

Food

Food

Drinks

Food

Things to do:

We did a dolphin and whale watching glass bottom boat trip called spirit of the sea in Puerto Rico De Gran Canaria. This was 30 euros each including pick up from our hotel. We did actually find the dolphins and were lucky enough to see a turtle too, but no whales (wrong time of year). The journey was around 30 minutes by coach.

Also in Puerto Rico De Gran Canaria they did day trips where you could go shopping and have a look around which would be a lovely way of spending a day out.

There are also camel rides in the sand dunes. We wanted to do this but as our first holiday were a little worried about taxis and travel, especially because of covid restrictions. But would definitely do it when we go back.

Aqua land maspalomas is around a 10 minute taxi ride, we didn't go here but its something you could do.

Jet2Holidays had so many options for other excursions, above are just the ones we did or ones that we were interested in and would probably do when we go back. The hotel had a Jet2 Rep that visited, where you could book direct for excursions.

Boat

Boat