The south of the island is mainly associated with the mighty Maspalomas resort and beautiful white sand dunes. However, it is enough to drive just a few kilometers north of the coast, to find a completely different one among the stone ravines covered with palm trees, at times a slightly forgotten world.
Maspalomas and Playa de Ingles
Even at the beginning of the 20th century. Maspalomas was just a little settlement on the edge of the dunes, with a source of drinking water and a lighthouse visible from a distance. The dunes and the lighthouse still exist, however, the third most powerful tourist complex in Spain has been built around them. It actually explains everything – nothing to add, nothing less. A tangle of hotels, apartments, restaurants and shops visited by millions of tourists from all over the world, especially from Northern Europe and Great Britain, It has become a permanent element of the southern landscape of the island, however, it still raises a lot of controversy and questions about the real benefits of building such a large center.
Known collectively as Costa Canaria or Maspalomas, the tourist area consists of several resorts. White Pasito, The Meloneras, San Augustin and Bahia Feliz at the eastern and western ends are definitely smaller and quieter than the mighty Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles, where it's noisy around the clock.
For many people, a bustling resort is a dream come true, place, where you can never get bored. Others are deterred by the crowd of tourists and the lack of any signs of "Canarian" - walking along wide avenues with familiar-sounding names, such as Avenida de Neckermann or Avenida de TUI, which fill Chinese buffets and English pubs, really hard to know, in which part of the world this tourist paradise is located. Probably the only advantage of the resort is the fact, that thanks to such a large offer of accommodation, travel agencies can offer cheaper trips to Gran Canaria. Fortunately, no one forbids treating the hotel in the southern resorts only as a base for exploring the rest of Gran Canaria.
Right in the center of the tourist jungle, as if the beautiful Maspalomas dunes were settled - the only place worth visiting in the area.
To the west, there are two smaller and quieter holiday resorts, Pasito Blanco with a nice marina and Las Meloneras. The area northeast of the dunes is occupied by the Maspalomas resort, practically without direct access to the sea, and to the west of it is Playa del Ingles. The sequence of resorts ends with the westernmost San Augustm and Balria Feliz.
W English Beach, right next to the largest shopping mall of the resort, Yumbo Center, the Island Information and Promotion Office operates.
There is no bus station in any of the resorts, on the other hand, there are numerous stops along the most important streets of both holiday homes. You can easily get to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria by bus, Puerto dc Mogan and of course the airport.
In the southern part of Gran Canaria there is as much as possible 29 amphibian, of which the most famous and the largest are the 3 km long Playa del Ingles and the Playa de Maspalomas. Choosing the latter, Good to remember, that a piece of the beach is approx. 2 km east of the lighthouse it is customary to occupy naturists and homosexuals.
The main activity of most tourists in Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles is walking from the towel to the sea and back, if, however, someone wanted to spend time a little more actively, There are many attractions to choose from.